Tag: memoir

‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’ Bestselling Author Jennette McCurdy Talks Inspiration and Audiobooks

December 11, 2023

As a teen actor, Jennette McCurdy found success when she landed a breakout role on a hit series. She went on to star in several other shows and films, and while she has since retired from acting, she’s found another creative outlet: writing.

In 2022 Jennette released her memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died. The book details her time as a child actor and the difficult relationship she had with her mother. It was met with critical acclaim, instantly hitting #1 on The New York Times bestseller list where it remained for over 60 weeks.

Audiobook lovers can now pull up Spotify and hear the tales straight from the star in her self-narrated memoir. To celebrate the recent launch of our audiobooks offering for Spotify Premium users in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, For the Record caught up with Jennette to learn more about what she loves about audiobooks and where she finds inspiration.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Spotify News (@spotifynews)

First, let’s talk about your work. What inspires your writing?

So much of my inspiration comes from personal experience, regardless of whether I’m writing fiction or nonfiction. Nonfiction is obviously going to be personal, but fiction really comes from the same place. It has to matter to me deeply, on a visceral level, in order for me to be as passionate and connected to it. I need it to be in order for me to see a project through for however many months or years it winds up taking. A lot of inspiration also comes from relationships. I’ll be exploring family relationships for the rest of my life.

You narrate the audiobook of I’m Glad My Mom Died. What do you love about audiobooks?

I love that audiobooks add an extra dimension to books. Sometimes, if I really like a book, I’ll then listen to the audiobook to see what, maybe, I didn’t get just through reading. Or understand “How did this person interpret it differently?” I think the delivery of a book says a lot about how somebody interpreted the book.

Is there an audiobook you’ve particularly enjoyed recently?

I listened to Fireworks Every Night recently.

Is there a fictional book character you resonate with?

Honestly, the protagonist, C.C., from Fireworks Every Night. I really resonate with her in a lot of different ways. She came from a lot of dysfunction and she really works to overcome that dysfunction and trauma in the best way that she could, and kind of breaks through it. And the book was written really beautifully.

 

Spotify Premium users in the U.S., U.K., and Australia can now enjoy over 200,000 audiobooks available as part of Spotify Premium subscriptions. Check out Jennette’s memoir and more on Spotify.

 

NPR Host Ari Shapiro Goes Beyond the Airwaves With His Memoir, ‘The Best Strangers in the World: Stories From a Life Spent Listening’

March 20, 2023

photo credit: Victor Jeffreys

As one of the hosts of NPR’s flagship program, All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro has a voice that’s instantly recognizable to many radio listeners in the United States. Since 2015, Ari has shared heartwarming and heart-wrenching stories on the show, which is one of the most listened-to news programs in the country. In 2020, the format expanded with Consider This, a 15-minute, six-times-weekly podcast—also hosted by Ari.

But journalism is just his day job.

Ari is also a singer, performer, and speaker. He moonlights as a vocalist with the band Pink Martini, and joined forces with actor Alan Cumming for a stage show called Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret. Now, the award-winning reporter and former White House correspondent is adding author to his resume.

The North Dakota native’s memoir, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories From a Life Spent Listening, hits shelves this week. In the book, Ari not only details his experiences reporting stories around the world, but also reflects on his upbringing in Portland, Oregon.

Ari created a playlist exclusively for Spotify that’s the perfect accompaniment to his memoir. From The B-52’s to the New York Philharmonic, the curation is as varied as the tales that come to life on his pages. We caught up with the host-performer-author to learn more about the inspiration for his book, and the ideas behind the playlist.

What made you decide to write a memoir? 

Covering the news every day sometimes feels like sprinting on a treadmill, where if you pause to look at the hot guy walking by, you will fall on the floor. And so, I’ve never been a person who nostalgically looks back at my favorite conversations and stories I’ve told. But I realized that after more than 20 years as a journalist, some of those stories, and some of those people, have sort of snagged on me as they flew by in the current, and changed the person I am—not just as a journalist, not just a storyteller, but as a human. 

In a way, this book is a memoir told through the stories of others. It covers a really wide range, from going on Air Force One with the president to being in warzones to singing with a band at the Hollywood Bowl. But, ultimately, I think of the book as kind of an answer to a question that I get from friends a lot, which is “How do you stay optimistic in the face of everything?” And the answer is the stories that are in these chapters.

How did your experience as a journalist impact your story?

Being a journalist has certainly attuned me to the finer details, so I feel like I can take someone along and tell a story that hopefully transports them and sticks with them. But the thing that made it really challenging is—as a journalist—stories are not supposed to be about me. I’m never supposed to be the focus.

So switching gears and telling stories that are fundamentally about me was unfamiliar and scary and foreign and definitely a learning curve. And as I look back at the drafts of these chapters and the way they evolved, that’s the biggest change that I see: learning how to write about myself in a way that doesn’t feel like a betrayal to who I am as a journalist.

Can you share a story from your book?

I have to tell you about the first time I ever sang with a band. For my debut performance, I was a singer with a band called Pink Martini, a little orchestra from Portland, Oregon, with more than a dozen members. In 2009, they asked if I would record a song for an album they were working on. After, the band leader, Thomas Lauderdale, said, “Well we need to find a time for you to perform this live with us. So why don’t you come to the Hollywood Bowl?” 

Now, the Hollywood Bowl seats 18,000 people. But what made it the most terrifying was not the size of the audience. It’s that backstage, before you walk out in front of those thousands of cheering people, you see all these huge, framed, black-and-white photos of the legends who have performed there over the decades. There’s Aretha Franklin; there’s The Beatles; there’s Judy Garland—all pictured on the stage you are about to stand on. And then the time comes, and you walk out in the footsteps of those giants and the spotlight follows your path. 

It is so exhilarating because as a radio reporter, it doesn’t matter how many millions of people might be listening to any given story I do. It’s a very intimate conversation between me and the one person who happens to be hearing it. But with a live performance, everybody is sharing that experience collectively, at the same time. There is something so electric about live music because it only ever happens once in that particular way. And so, to be a part of that is a thrill unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in journalism.

What was the experience like reading your story aloud for your audiobook?

First of all, I loved recording my audiobook because my comfort zone is telling stories. That’s what I do every day, and so, in some ways, recording the audiobook felt much more easy, comfortable, and familiar than writing the book. But it’s exhausting to speak aloud for hours on end. Even though I host a two-hour daily news program, I’m not talking for most of it. I read an introduction to a reporter’s piece and then I sit quietly for four minutes. Or if I’m doing an interview, I ask someone a question and then sit quietly while they answer. By the end of the day of audiobook recording, I could barely talk to my husband. I have so much admiration for people who do this professionally.

You created a musical playlist for your memoir. How did you pick the songs?

Above all, I wanted the playlist to feel optimistic and joyful because that’s what I want people to walk away from the book feeling. Even though the book takes you to warzones and refugee crises, the book is full of people who give me hope. It’s also global because the book is global. So there’s a track from the South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela, and a track from the Japanese singer Saori Yuki.

The playlist begins with a song that I hope sets the tone for everything else, which is “Roam” by The B-52’s. I think that’s the best road trip song ever written. And I want to give people the feeling that we’re going somewhere exciting. It’s gonna be fun, and it’s gonna be an adventure.

There is also a healthy dose of Queer camp because that is part of who I am, and there are songs that take me back to specific moments. It includes an obscure ’90s cover of “Total Eclipse Of The Heart” by Nicki French. The summer I came out of the closet, that was the track that was playing in the gay club every single weekend. I also included the overture to Candide, which was the song that my husband and I walked down the aisle to at our wedding.

What do you think continues to attract listeners to talk formats like a radio show or podcast?

One of NPR’s founding mothers, Susan Stamberg, has a quote I love, which is “The pictures are better on the radio.” There is something about the human voice that is so personal and intimate. It engages the brain and bypasses the preconceived notions we might have about the person who’s talking, and allows us to have an experience that feels more personal than printed words on the page or talking heads on a TV broadcast. 

How have the people you’ve met over the years and the experiences you’ve had influenced you?

Musically, I have been so lucky to collaborate with people who are curious and omnivorous. Pink Martini records in dozens of languages, with collaborators ranging from the great Mexican ranchera singer Chavela Vargas to the great grandchildren of Maria and Captain von Trapp. So being able to travel with Pink Martini to Morocco and Hungary and Lebanon and France and sing in all these different languages helps me appreciate something that my parents taught me from a very young age: The more you know about the world, the more interesting life becomes. And there’s something very subtle and powerful about music. 

With everything that I do—whether it’s journalism, singing with Pink Martini, writing this book, or performing with Alan Cumming—my goal is to help people see the world through the eyes of someone else. My goal is to help people break out of their bubbles and build empathy and increase understanding. Music is one of the most powerful tools I know that can do that.

The chapters in this book that are not about music still contain a piece of that. I hope they increase curiosity and empathy, and allow readers to experience all these different people and places, and see the similarities and connections we all share.

 

If you’re interested in hearing Ari tell his stories in person, check out the details of his book tour here. In the meantime, listen to the playlist Ari made to complement his memoir, below.

 

New Book by Nashville Broadcast Personality Cody Alan Uses Country Songs To Tell the Story of His Life

November 4, 2021

CMT producer and host Cody Alan is used to being behind the mic, interviewing the country genre’s top artists about their shared passion—country music. But next week, the South Carolina native will be turning the focus on himself, using his words in a new way and telling his own story in his music-infused memoir, Hear’s The Thing.

“I can’t help but think how much better the world would be if we were to listen to each other, listen to ourselves, and listen to our hearts and our intuition,” he explained. “That has guided my life. One of the main points of the book is that this can guide yours too.”

Ahead of Hear’s The Thing’s release on November 9, For the Record heard from the soon-to-be author about the book, his life’s journey, and the passion for country music that threads the two together. 

How did you get inspired to write your memoir, Hear’s The Thing?

I’ve been able to interview, I think, almost every country music artist simply because of the work I have done for CMT for so long on television and radio. I get to do the kind of interviews that still blow my mind with people like Dolly Parton and some of the greats like Loretta Lynn and George Strait, Garth Brooks—and then with the new crop of country artists, from Luke Bryan to Carrie Underwood, to Keith Urban, Luke Combs, and beyond. So having these stories over the years with so many of these people made me think, oh, maybe I could share these stories. They might be fun for people to read about. 

And then I came out [as gay] in 2017 and I realized that I had sort of an interesting spot in country music, being different than most everybody else. And that perspective could also be helpful for people to hear or read about or learn from.

You’ve hosted so many interviews and conversations with people from across country music. How did that experience translate into writing?

Writing is a lot more difficult for me. I’m much better on air. If I have bullet points rather than sentences, I don’t have to read word for word. On the radio, you learn to think on your feet and everything happens spontaneously. So that has helped me as a conversationalist. But when it comes to writing a book, of course, we all know it’s words and punctuation marks and paragraphs and getting all of that right. 

And so that was challenging because it just wasn’t my usual way of doing things. But over time I got a little better at it. And like I said, it took years and years and years to turn the book into what it is now. And with all those challenges came a lot of learning and growth to create a book that I’m so thrilled with. It has not only been a labor of love for me, but it’s made up of words that I’m really proud of that I think are gonna help a lot of people.

How did music come into your creative process? Was there anything in particular you played while planning or writing the book? 

Country music is a soundtrack to so much of my life. I can relate back to my earliest memories of hearing country music played at my house in South Carolina growing up. My mom made breakfast every single morning—every single morning!—while country music was coming out of the speakers on the radio in the kitchen. And so I completely relate the smells of breakfast being made to the sounds of country music. And then throughout my life, it’s always been one of those things I fell back on.

When I divided up the chapters for the book, I wanted each to have the lyric of a song that related to that chapter. So for one chapter you have Carrie Underwood’s “Love Wins,” and it says that “through anything that love can conquer.” And another chapter where I talk about coming out a little more poignantly, I quote from a Luke Bryan song, which says that we should all “love who we love.” And throughout the book there are moments like that where I’ve got songs leading the way as you’re diving into the chapter.

I’m a pure music person; I love music. It drives everything that I do and certainly was a driving factor in the book.

In our recent Spotify: Discover This episode on Country music, BRELAND and Lily Rose spoke about being minorities within the genre. How have you noticed the country scene change in recent years to open to more types of individuals?

I love Lily Rose. What a great musician and artist. I’ve had a couple conversations with her myself and I dig her stuff so much. There has been, over the past couple of years, just a new openness and inclusivity that didn’t exist before. I came out in 2017. There’s been tremendous change since then. When I came out there just weren’t a lot of people who were gay and making country music. And so it was a bit scary to speak up, to be completely honest. But since then, there’s been this flurry of people, including chart-topping artist TJ Osborne of Brothers Osborne finding his way and speaking his truth. And how powerful is it when you have someone with his success represent? 

And I’ve seen more of that happening—and not just among the LGBTQ individuals but also with African Americans. There’s BRELAND, there’s Mickey Guyton, Jimmie Allen. You see this flurry of activity where diversity is being celebrated in country music, and I think it’s an awesome thing. There’s a real outcry now among many people to show that country music is not what you think it is. It is open. It is free. And it’s more diverse than it ever has been. And it’s I think opening doors for a lot of people who are different; I think that’s a beautiful thing and I invite it and I love it.

Tell us about the playlist you made to support your book launch. There’s country music—but also Madonna, Panic! At The Disco, Lizzo, and other surprises. 

Every song means something to my life. For example, Keith Urban wrote the forward for my book, which was a big freaking deal for me because, like, it’s Keith Urban! I could make you a playlist complete of Keith Urban songs and each one would have meaning to me—that’s the type of impact he’s had on my life. So I knew I needed to include a few songs from him, including “Somebody Like You.”

“High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco—no one can not smile when they hear that song. It’s a jam. It’s probably one of my most-played songs on Spotify. Anytime I need a lift up, I play that song and feel better. And it reminds me where I came from and that if you believe in something, it can come to pass. I talk about that in the book. I believed a kernel of truth that I could be on TV, and that somehow blossomed into reality. That song reminds me of that.

I grew up in the ’80s so Madonna was the ’80s to me. I can’t not have Madonna on a playlist of my life. The video for “Express Yourself” . . . there were men hammering, like in a factory or something. As a questioning gay boy trying to understand myself, that helped me understand that I wasn’t like the other boys. There’s something groundbreaking about that video. 

I wanted to include The Chicks and “The Long Way Around” because they had so much to do with my Texas time. I feel like so much of my life has been taking the long way around and making the choice that other people would not. When I left South Carolina, I was the first in my family to leave the zip code. I decided to go my way differently and take the long way around, and it certainly led to lots of great things. But at first it was a little scary. 

But making those different choices led me to lots of happiness and led my family to eventually see that taking a long way around is not a bad thing. It’s actually often the way you have to go in order to find yourself and your dreams.

Dive into the songs that have meant the most to Cody’s life in his “Hear’s The Thing” playlist.

Internet Sensation Quinta Brunson Discusses Her New Memoir and the Music That Inspires Her

June 15, 2021

Quinta Brunson, actor, writer, comedian, and viral meme creator, is adding another job title to the list: author.

She’s known to many for her starring role on Buzzfeed videos and as the “he got money” girl, a meme inspired by the viral video that’s garnered more than 1 million views. She’s also gained accolades from her role on the TV show A Black Lady Sketch Show and is in the midst of creating, producing, and starring in upcoming show Harrity Elementary. Now, the multihyphenate star is celebrating the publication of her new memoir, She Memes Well. The book gives fans an intimate look at her life through a collection of funny personal essays reflecting on her experience rising to viral fame.

To celebrate the publication of her memoir, Quinta channeled her passion for music into curating an exclusive Spotify playlist. For the Record caught up with the author to talk about going viral, the challenges of writing, and her musical inspirations.

Photo credit: The Riker Brothers

As someone who in many ways originated “going viral” and continues to do so, how do you create content that resonates with so many people?

I don’t think that there’s any one specific path. A relatable tweet can go viral, but also a bear attack can go viral. It’s about shock and awe, and there are many ways to achieve that. But I don’t think virality is the most important thing anymore, which I know might be ironic coming from me. Creating content, whether it be something on the internet, TV, music, or something that feels like art, that’s most important. If it goes viral, great. If not, that’s fine, too. It’s really about creating meaningful work.

You’ve said that writing She Memes Well was the hardest thing you’ve ever done. What made it more difficult than other projects you’ve worked on? 

For one, when writing a memoir, you’re making yourself more vulnerable. With the show, I’m creating fictional characters. But here, it’s me I’m putting on the page, so naturally I felt more protective of myself. Plus, the book is going to be out there forever. You can’t go in and change the book after it’s done, so you become super aware of what you’re saying. But I wanted to get over that fear and take risks. If some people don’t like what’s in the book, that’s fine, but these are my truths. I can’t do anything but tell the truth in my book.

Another hard part was that I was writing the book during a very formative time in my life. I was writing from age 27 to 31 and so much of me was changing. Writing a book, you’re supposed to start with ideology and themes. But that’s complicated when your sense of self is still changing. It was a lot of checking in with myself and asking what do I believe? Who am I actually, and what am I putting on the page? And the answer is that I’m different from who I was a month ago. And I want to be able to tell this truth right now. It felt like therapy, but I was my own therapist.

Do you listen to music when you’re writing?

I actually really enjoy listening to classical music when I’m writing because it doesn’t have lyrics. It feels like I have more freedom to write instead of listening to the lyrics. I really enjoy old-school Beethoven; I throw some on and just get with it.

Any favorite artists you listen to when you’re off the clock?

I love music so much. It’s just so formative to my spirit. I’m a big fan of the group The Internet—always will be, always have been. Other favorites are Solange, Frank Ocean, Hiatus Kaiyote, Little Dragon, and Noname. There’s an artist named Amindi whose music I hope gets more plays. Thundercat, I can throw him on any time. Stevie Wonder, I think he absolutely is the best artist of all time. And Aretha Franklin, she’s on play a lot, as is Ms. Lauryn Hill.

 And definitely Anderson .Paak. I was so happy about Anderson .Paak and Bruno Mars forming Silk Sonic. You know when you feel like something was done personally for you? I feel like they did that collaboration for me. Separately, they’re two of my favorite artists, and when they formed a band—I just couldn’t even. That was one of the few things that happened in 2020 that brought me joy.

You curated a playlist to pair alongside your new book. How did you choose the songs for it?

The playlist is really fun! I wanted to create a list of songs I mentioned in my book in the order that they’re mentioned so it would feel like people are taking the same journey I took. The first song I danced to at dance school was the Space Jam theme song by Quad City DJ’s, “Space Jam,” so I wanted that to be the playlist’s musical introduction to the book because it’s fun and represents my childhood. Then it grows into more mature songs, some ballads, some heartbreakers, and some songs from Stevie Wonder that fit in that world in all types of different ways. Really, I wanted people to be able to experience the journey of the book in playlist form the same way you have a soundtrack for a movie. 

If you had to pick one song to represent the book, what would it be?

You know what song I think about a lot? The theme song to the TV show Big Mouth, “Changes” by Charles Bradley. It’s very simple, the lyrics are just “I’m going through changes,” but I think that song is a good representation of this book. I talk a lot in She Memes Well about evolution and allowing myself to change throughout my life. I think part of growing up is letting yourself go through those changes and not resist them. I also talk about it through memes and how memes evolve on social media. I love hearing that song when the show comes on because it just touches your heart.

Explore Quinta’s curated playlist, inspired by her new memoir She Memes Well, below.