Pushkin.

It's my firm belief that our culture doesn't put enough stock in family bands.

I mean, just think about the groups that include siblings, Sliing the Family Stone, the Beach Boys, the Beeg's, hiam Oasis, ac DC, the Jacksons.

It makes sense that Ken would develop uniquely powerful musical chemistry.

After all, a love of music usually does start in the home, and the same is true of our guests today, Momo, Abraham Angel and Israel Boyd of the group Infinity Saw.

The four siblings were raised in musical households between Detroit and New York, honing their sound wherever they could, in churches and parks, subway stations, even around the kitchen table.

That devotion to performing carried them to bigger stages, guided by their father and manager, John Boyd, and eventually jay Z's rock Nation and their fervent love of me music fuels their unmistakable blend of R and B and folk, a mix they proudly described as modern day soft rock.

I spoke to the Boyd's siblings at the Tribeca Festival in New York for a live Broken Record event.

We discussed the role of music and their family, how their Dad came through in the clutch during a make or Break meeting with jay Z and graciously they performed a couple of songs from their album Metamorphosis Complete.

This is broken record, real musicians, real conversations.

Infinity Song opened our conversation with the performance of their song Lotus.

It's so great to be here with you guys, and to be here with Infinity Song at Tribeca Festival of all places.

It's a storied festival, and I think we're here tonight with talent that will be held in that regard.

This is a new group and they are already have such incredible music as you'll see tonight their live show and this is stripped down is phenomenal.

So without further Ado Israel, Angel Abraham and Momo Infinity Song.

Everything short off th yards say the world.

Listen to you, cans me.

You're a love honest flower.

You may be.

Everything nassy and last long.

Again and ye now I know the wonderful love.

And please don't make me want to again.

The appliance is less.

Just send me for for because now it's take the love to say.

Since you don't get for love, settle for.

We could let you because I still go.

Your alone, Flory.

May weed.

Everything last see and last still long.

And now how know ware the food.

Maybe please don't make me laugh again, MANSI.

Place, just let me fall for because I would take a lot to sais.

Toever I lose myself to love.

Then last year, I's fine.

And if you're love, it's just a lie.

If it's telling me lies.

But not let live to me just a crag me dona not tell him as now I know, beautiful baby, Please.

Don't make me wise.

Man spends some awful because you would say the love seems since my aness, I would say the scious less.

Just let me all, because I would say.

Thank you so much, thank you, thank youes and gentlemen.

Once again we are infinity song.

My name is Abraham, my name is Momo.

Hey, I'm angel and I'm in Drew and we've got one more song for you before we get into the evening.

Yeah, let's go.

Now here you go again.

You say you want your freeedom, Well, well, my gi me, it's trying to ride.

You should play away your feeling.

But listen carefully to that sounds a long meess, like.

A harpy jassy man.

Still song never not all want to tell you now as you all know, pray enough place they say A little man, welcome man when watches you thing you know?

No, I'll go again see the crystal leave.

I came up vi first want.

It's only me who wants you Apparon your dream.

Have you an your dreams?

You like to sell loneliness like.

The Holy Giving in the stool and star remembering, watch and watch Lounlogynagy.

Wonders mistress when last.

And say, well, man go mad in.

Clean you.

Watch, Let you know, let you know.

Lest too much.

Names mus be racy, let's to much you.

Want?

You don't want?

You listen at mess too.

Small Spot sweet team to Scott Spot.

I gotta say, through this job, I've been privileged to be around a lot of performers.

Baby Face comes to mind seeing him perform up close and personal.

Neil Young, Right, but this is my first time getting a chance to see you guys, and just getting to see the love of music that you guys have and the passion you guys have for performing.

It warms my heart because it's something that I see a lot in an older generation.

But I don't always see the love of performance, and I don't see I don't always see that passion flowing through people.

When you guys perform, it's evident that there was probably nothing else you guys could have done, but be musicians.

Do you feel like there's anything else you guys can I mean, this seems like what you were born to do.

Well, I guess that's a loaded question in the sense.

Well, first of all, thank you for having us.

We've had many conversations since being here, but this is for you guys, So thank you justin for having us.

We are so appreciative have the privilege of this conversation.

So our parents raised us, I think, to be able to do anything.

That was a mindset in our family.

But so they raised us to pursue excellence and to pursue being well rounded people with integrity and character.

But music was the.

Tool that was used to develop that in us.

So I probably couldn't be anything but a singer only by choice.

I could be more, but it's it just wouldn't work for me.

But that everybody has their own answer.

Yeah, I would say performance is definitely like one of the loves of our lives.

We've been performing for so long.

It's really funny.

Some people who have seen us perform more than once know that usually on dreams we actually come back in.

Did I ruin it?

Did I come up too soon?

We should have warned you.

I should have come earlier in.

The week and got to the blue note.

I messed up.

So we do like we fake end it, you know, built the tension, and then we come back.

Guys, let me go walk off this day.

I failed already.

I have failed everyone here.

I have failed you, guys, myself.

I mean, she just wanted to say that, Yeah, that's what.

Okay, you know, if you still want us to come back and we can.

Bring it back, bring it back, bring it back.

So serious, I want it to come back in.

Don't go no, no, no, you gotta no.

This is a part of the conversation.

Let's you know, you know, cities, the.

Watching, the watch, the watching, the.

Us cher, the house, the lot, hot y log house, the fine fine.

Fine, spe.

Berg, spurge, urgie, scrge.

Thunder bad, when it's raining, play.

Well, let's say weapon they will come and then well go.

Sh shoes clean.

Okay, okay, so now we have been anything else.

Let's back to the qu not all the hold though that was worth the public shaming.

All right, that was wonderful, just public informant.

It was a wonderful PSA.

I am so glad you brought that to my attention.

Yes, but back to the court.

I mean, come on, there's no way you guys were born to do this.

Did you hear that?

Unbelievable but loaded question, leading question?

You guys probably have your own thoughts, you know.

I mean obviously there's like you can get into a lot of philosophy and all that, but I would say, yeah, we were you know, we were born to do this.

This cover of Dreams is beautiful, you know, and it's not something that would have been not even that long ago.

It would have been shocking to see, you know, four black siblings just killing Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.

You know, like because that's in the territory of classic rock, and.

You know, there's so much that could be said.

I mean, it really isn't novelty to us on that On that side, it's it's real and it's organic to us.

It's music that we enjoy and most importantly, it's music that we can all come together around.

A song is a song, and a song sure, different cultures contribute songs to the world, and your different cultures contribute perspectives to the world, but once it leaves and it's released to the world, it belongs to the world, quite frankly, and so you know, unless you're gonna block the dissemination of the.

Creative, Like I like that song, I want to sing it.

That's that's what it is super cool about music, and we're starting to see it, you know, boundaries and different cultural and ethnic backgrounds, the way hip hop really got like the biggest consumers of say hip hop suddenly or not or not who created hip hop or not.

It's just changed the way that.

It's ship Like blue happened to blues music and everything, and it's just like.

Okay, suddenly it's for the world, yes, and it's kind of nice.

Yeah, it's a really beautiful way of putting it that music and music is for the world.

And that was the for so many years, the issue with putting music in a in a genre and essentially in a box and done by a marketing team to market to certain audit you know, and it's like it.

Does it don't even matter, It doesn't matter what Everyone likes the same stuff.

Everyone likes the same stuff, who doesn't like Dolly part who doesn't like Beyonce, who doesn't like Whitney.

You know, it's like, come on, yeah, okay, yes I will.

Music is for the world.

Music is great, but.

There's still very much an ongoing conversation about genre and about who's allowed to sing this genre or that genre.

I think specifically, I think Cowboy Carter is a great example of you know, a woman who grew up in Texas who really identifies with country roots and has so much, so much, so much, so much to say in this sphere, but then wasn't necessarily embraced, you know, because she hasn't been doing that like full out for years.

And you know, that's.

To be clear.

I think genre is valuable, and I think building a culture is valuable.

So I don't really have too crazy of a problem with gatekeeping a culture, because if you build a culture and it becomes potent and important to the world, I think you can be protective of it.

I think the challenge is, and my thinking is, let's not be controversial this conversation.

I think the challenge is that it's not equal, meaning the guardianship of genres is not equal, of course, and the beneficiaries of genres are not I don't want to go to right, you're right.

But one thing I will say is that specifically, you know, America is a very.

Particular place.

You are so politic, let's wrap it up, okay, But.

But a lot of the genres, the roots of them, you know, these genres did not just pop up out of nowhere in the last fifty years, you know.

And then I think where the problem lies is when people forget or they're not educated, and they and and by the way, it's not only like if we're talking strictly white and black.

It's not only white people who will look at us or you know, someone black and say like, oh, you shouldn't.

Be doing country, you shouldn't been doing rock.

A lot of times we'll say that to ourselves, not us, but you know, black people will say that to ourselves because there just is like a lack of education on just how the foundation of these genres came to be, you know.

And so I think overall, we just don't know the history of things, which is why Cowboy Carter is so cool because now we're getting into the nitty gritty.

Now we're saying, now we're seeing like with the backlash.

It forces all of us to study, to read, to learn to look past the past like twenty five fifty years and look really look into like the origins of these things, right, and then so it then opens up the conversation for all of us to feel at home here instead of it being like one person, one group of people, it's like, no, the evolution of this genre.

Was actually very integrated.

It's a lot of people coming together and just trying to make something good, you know.

And so when you kind of are forced to look back into the history of things, I think that's when change is made and you know, we can move forward because because if we're if we're listening to like, okay, granted I'm twenty six, but if we're listening to twenty year olds, they're only gonna know what's you know, what's been put in front of their face over the past like ten fifteen years, if they haven't actively gone and looked and studied.

So we've got to really and the people who are leading the conversations a lot of times on the internet are twenty year olds.

So yes, you know, so it's just very very very you know, it's very layered.

Naturally, that's why a group like you guys is so important.

It's so beautiful, you know.

And I grew up playing guitar, and it was like it was like, you know, it wasn't a rock band.

You know, people be like, yo, what the I'm like, well, yeah, I like I like, you know what I saw Hendrix.

I was like, I want to be I groom my hair out.

I was like, I want to be Hendrix.

You know, I didn't turn out to be Hendrix.

You're closer to him than me.

It's real.

But you know, it's like there's there really shouldn't be limitations put on us again not to get we can move out of the controversial as.

It shouldn't be that controversial.

But I think it's a it's a it's like a minefield because one of these sidebars you could really say something crazy.

That's what I asked.

Have you guys met Beyonce?

Yeah, we have.

We didn't sign an NDA, so yeah, we can talk about it a few times, just casually, casually.

There's no such things.

No, there's no such thing as meeting Beyonce casually.

I just mean it wasn't under the like you know, under like a work environment.

So we didn't have to sign anything.

Okay, Okay, well, I mean yeah, for context, you guys are signed to rock Nation, which is jay Z's label, which is why I asked if you guys have met Beyonce is the affiliation?

Did you guys play her any music?

Had she heard it?

Or we didn't play her music?

But I believe that we have heard that she has heard our music.

But yeah, it was just an honor always to meet such an icon and a legend.

Always been very gracious to us as well, and so yeah, we love her, big fans of her on and off the stage.

Yeah, she's really nice.

And she always points at our eyebrows because we like Israel has a very strong example of this, but in our I don't know, in our fan our geens, we have like an eyebrow flick or something, and I think she has the same thing.

And like in her childhood pictures you can see she has one eyebrow that goes really up, so she'll like.

The eyebrows rounds them now always it might be a stretch, but well, the few times we've met her, she has been very excited to see that we have that in common.

She's like my cousins.

Please thank you.

Yeah, I would die to have some cons family life.

This message is brought to you by Starbucks.

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The return of the PSL marks the unf official start of the fall season, and thinking back to when I used to work at a Starbucks cafe, I can remember the excitement that came with the return of the beloved classic.

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The Starbucks PSL is my signal that fall is here.

There's something about the bright notes of real pumpkin, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

The flavors are so rich and vibrant, like they bottled the best parts of the season.

From the very first sip, it feels like fall has arrived no matter the weather outside, and the return of fall also reminds me of fall playlists, songs, layered with rich vocals, acoustic textures, and a hint of nostalgia.

And just like how we all have favorite tracks for the summer, there are some songs that just feel like fall.

So to help me celebrate the return of the starbar psl and the start of the fall season, I'm joined to buy a broken record co host Leah Rhodse to build a fall playlist with some of our favorites.

Leah, thanks for joining me.

Thank you, justin I'm so excited to build this playlist.

First song I thought to add to this was Villain by Anastasia, an artist who just had on broken record.

Her new album Tether is incredible and for me, when I think about a fall song, I don't think there's much daylight between what a fall song is and the song that you might play if you wake up before everyone else in your house five forty five am, six am, and put on a pot of coffee Starbucks roast of course, and then you sit at your kitchen table and just watch that misclear, watch that sun come up fully, and you're sitting there in your house in the morning in peace, like whatever that feeling is that happens when you do that, like that's what this song feels like to me, so that that would be my first pick to start us off here.

Yes, I feel that so deeply, and I feel like Anastasia especially you mentioned fall songs having rich vocals, and she has just like such deeply rich vocals.

Absolutely, Leo, what would what would you add?

My first pick would be Simon and Garfunkel's America.

Oh my gosh, there's something about this song.

It's just like so grand and sweeping and you know, thinking about possibility and potential, and I feel like for some reason it suits fall.

It fits that it fits that in line.

Yeah, you know of a question I found myself asking when when fall hits, like where does the time go?

You know?

And so I felt like a really natural pick for a playlist like this was Fairport Convention, Who Knows Where the Time goes, which is also just beautiful, beautiful song.

It's a fall morning for me.

Yeah, sometimes, especially fall mornings, especially if you have a PSL in hand, you get a little hop to your step, you might leave the house go on a nice brisk, crisp walk.

A song that I would put on for that moment would be Tom Petty's Time to Move.

On that's a walking in rhythm right there, that's pick me up walk in rhythm.

Yeah.

There's something about the tone of Tom Petty's voice too, that somehow plays into the Fall theme.

It's hard to explain, but I hear it.

Yeah.

Well, it feels very familiar, and it feels very warm, you know, if Tom has such a warm voice and the songwriting is just you know, unbelievable.

Of course, I'm gonna add Junior Varsity Cross the Street to this list because even though this song is much more a beat than the other songs I've picked so far, it has I don't know, it's like maybe it's that that almost cheerleader chant one of the singers does on this song, but it reminds me of like a back to school moment.

Yeah.

I think it's good to include some of the upbeat songs too, because for Fall, it's really easy to get stuck in like a like the cozy, nostalgic, almost kind of down tempo songs, but there is a feeling of like, all right, we gotta get going, we're back.

Yeah, yeah, it's the back to school There is an upbeat.

Fall isn't all slow and languid.

Like it can be it can be fast, it can also be very moody and kind of vibe.

So my next pick is Ermano Scutierre's Low Sun.

Mom My Boys.

I love these guys so beautiful.

Yeah, the way these guys play, they play with such feeling and that just gets transmitted right through the record, Like I love it.

And this is a more contemplative song.

So if you're in the fall mood where you just sort of want to sit and you want to just sort of think about where you're going, what you want to do, this is an incredible song.

For that too.

And it's an instrumental, So you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna pick.

I'm gonna pick an instrumental.

This is from the album We three from the drummer Roy Haynes, pianist Phineas Newborn Junior, and bass player Paul Chambers.

Three classic classic incredible jazz musicians.

I'll pick the song Reflection from the Week three album.

There's just like a crispness to this song and there's like a Christnas to Roy Haynes playing.

I mean, he used to call him snap Crackle because it's just that the way he would just hit that snare and hit the ride and the high hat.

So that song feels like Chris fall Day to me.

Plus you know, gotta have some jazz representation on the playlist.

Yeah, okay, So my next pick it's a little bit.

It's a little bit different.

Crosby still's a Nash Sweet Judy blue Eyes, whoa one.

Of the great songs of all.

I love that song.

Come on, oh this song again.

I don't know what it is.

It's hard to describe, but something about like the reflection talking about I am lonely.

It's so beautiful and it has those acoustic tones.

It has all the things that you were talking about, has the beautiful harmonies, has the vintage feel.

It's a perfect song.

Okay, okay, so you know what, I'm gonna round out my portion of the list.

I'll less you have last pick LEO, but I'll round out my portion of this list with this great young Newish Australian artist, Grace Cummins, with the song you gave unbelievable the vocals, incredible, songwriting is amazing.

You know, it doesn't have the patina on it that like a Sweet Jerty blue Eyes does, But in my view, it's it's equally undeniable.

Yeah.

Her voice is just so magnetic, it just pulls you in.

All right, Lea, I'll let you round this out.

I'll let you take us home.

Okay.

My final pick, I'm going to stick with the Laurel Canyon scene.

I'm gonna go with Joni Mitchell from Blue A Case of You.

Oh yeah, Man, Blue this song, but Blue in general.

Come on, that's the consummate Fall album.

Oh.

Just the songwriting is just unmatched, so gorgeous.

Well, we've book ended this playlist with two great singer songwriters, Anastasia Joni Mitchell.

Incredible voices on the two of them.

Yeah, for sure, I'm going to be listening to this all throughout Fall.

I'll be listening to them too.

If you haven't heard some of these songs, to add them to your cue.

We'll drop the full play list in this episode show notes so you can sip on your PSL and enjoy a soundtrack for the season.

Hotter Iced.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is available now at Starbucks for a limited time.

Grab one, throw on your headphones, and let the season begin.

It doesn't fall without the PSL.

The Starbucks Pumpkin spice Latte, get it while it's hot or iced your Rock Nation is such a cool group.

There's so many great and cool artists on it.

I just interviewed Bootsy Collins like last week and they just picked up like Bootsy Collins and you're like, what, like, what in the world, Like, it's such a wonderful collection of artists.

What's it like being heralded by someone like jay Z?

You know, because it's like it's an honor, but it also could be like heavy, I'd imagine, right, Like one thing.

That it has not been is heavy.

I do have to say that because when we signed, we signed roughly almost we signed nine years ago as a family.

It was a joint venture between our famili's company and rock Nation and there was really a connection between him and our dad that set the relationship off to a really, really good start, and there was an understanding there.

I can't really speak to it crazy, but because I think it was like a relationship man to man, and sure we were there, but there was a trust there that so it's been very free for us as a group.

So we switched genres.

We were doing more R and B leaning and then we walked into the label one day and said, we're doing soft rock.

Now.

Can you imagine the freedom that you have to have to be able to do that.

And early on in the relationship, one of the meetings, jay Z he gave us permission and empowered us to run our own race.

He said the words, don't try to catch up to us, wait for us to catch up to you, and so that that was very empowering and to set the tone for the relationship.

I'm not going to say that we've never, you know, disagreed on anything within the label, because that just wouldn't be honest.

Controversially, Brahm, No, no, No.

What I'm saying is it's been a great relationship.

It's worked out really really well.

So you have to put I mean, that's cool.

It's a record label, meaning you have to kind of set the tone in some way, and you were given permission by you know, this is incredible, and that's what I That's why I said, of course we've disagreed, and he said that in the meeting.

He's like, we will disagree on some things, but he said, do not try to catch up.

I want to frame it in a way that just because you're given permission does not mean that you don't have challenges.

That's more my thinking in the framing.

Yeah, the change from R and B soft rock, How does that happen?

That transpire within the group?

Liked what made you guys gravitate towards that kind of music.

It's something that kind of happened organically.

It's really hard to when you're trying to figure out how to position yourself or market yourself.

I think you can get really in your head about what's the right move for me.

It just so happened that I was in a space where I wanted to keep doing things in life that felt good.

We were posting covers online of songs and dreams by Fleetwood.

Mac was one of these covers that we posted went viral.

Was just a huge you know, our arrangement of it was so singular, and so when we put it online, like everybody loved it and we moved on.

We did other covers a few months goes by, and there was something about the way that we performed that song and arranged that song.

I just remember us before ever posting it, like coming up with that like end tag in the back room of our house where we rehearse, Like I just remember us wanting to sing it over and over and over again, and being completely honest, when you're working with your siblings, that doesn't happen every day.

It's more so like you want to stop singing as soon as possible and move on so fast forward, like okay, thinking about the future of the band, Like if I wanted this to feel like something every day, it would be that moment.

So that's how I.

Kind of framed it in my mind, and I was thinking about it, I was like, maybe we need to sing more of that kind of style of music, and I just presented the idea to everyone else after thinking about it for a long time.

I was like, actually, as a collective, I think soft rock really does represent us because it's a genre where we can each collectively like play to our strengths all at the same time.

It's not one person's you know, in their sweet spot and the other people are like struggling or whatever.

It's like equally across the board, able to highlight us as both a group and individuals at the same time.

So everyone kind of was like, oh, yeah, that makes sense.

I would also say when we did sign to rock Nation, we didn't really we didn't necessarily sign with a genre picked out.

You know, we like kind of I don't want to say we auditioned for jay Z, but we did perform on the top floor for him in the office, and it looked something like this with a guitar and us just singing like we did with the guitar.

No, no, Victory was playing the guitar, and then we were all singing.

So it wasn't like we came in with five songs ready to be played that are in the studio and they're leaning towards a genre.

Like there was no genre picked out for us, but he more so saw the vision of us, and he saw similarities.

Between our story and his story.

And you know, he sold his CDs out the back of his truck and we would sell CDs when we were growing up, Like our dad would have us in the studio just working on old songs like hymns and gospel songs, but also songs that he had written or we'd written together, and we would sell those like we would sell them to people on the street, like, hey want to buy our music, and so like that kind of foundational drive, I think more is what he signed us for.

So when we did start getting in the studio and making music commercially.

I think it was more of a maybe a self imposed pressure to do what felt like it could be commercially viable.

Like he never told us like you gotta do R and B, but you know, trying to find your legs and trying to find out.

Like, Okay, it's just a part of the process.

You go through different genres, you go through different things until you kind of return home, or you kind of return back to what you've always done, which is melding our voices together in sweet harmonic ways and writing very honest and truthful lyrics and finding a place, like Angel said, finding a place for us all to shine.

So we were never told to be R and B or pop.

It was just kind of part of the process until we landed to something that felt so natural.

It's amazing.

Wait very quickly, there's one aspect of this story that I feel like I need to tell because people don't know it.

So this might be the first time I'm telling this story.

So key fact, our dad he somehow got I don't remember how it happened, but he got in contact with jay Z and he sent him an email.

I don't know how it happened, but we ended up in the office.

Then our dad had a pitch a pit.

He was going to pitch the family to Jay Z.

He brought a deck, a whole deck.

Spent I don't know how many days building this deck, and so we get in the room.

It's just it's it's our family.

It's Jay and it's Tai Chai.

And now someone else was there, and it's our family.

And he starts going through the deck line by line by line by line by line, and it probably the presentation probably took twenty minutes or something.

And he was nervous for sure.

I don't know.

I would have to ask him how he felt, but he I anticipate he was nervous by the time he got done through the deck.

The next thing we were being offered was a record deal.

Like it was instant.

It's hard to put into as we're talking about this relationship and the nine years and the work and all of that stuff and our story and our history.

It's pretty crazy and pretty admirable, and it's just a byproduct of what we keep in mind as we continue forward, Like I'll never forget that deck.

Yeah, I feel like you should teach a masterclass all the way.

We don't bring that deck out.

That's oh, I just made the connection.

Okay, Yeah, Father's Day is on Sunday.

Heavy Father's Day, great occasion on our fall.

Mister boy After one last break, we're back with the rest of my conversation with Infinity Song from the Tribeca Festival.

You said, Abraham that you're when you guys were raised And by the way, hometown band was an asking top New York.

Yes, New York by way of Detroit.

Yes, I just want to make that clear because Detroit is one of the great American cities produce some of the great American votevocalists, and you guys in some way are in that tradition and some others as well.

But it's just but you were raised in Detroit and you partially and you said that your dad used music as an instrument to teach you guys all kinds of things.

And yeah, he's here, by the way, it's right there, mister Boyd, And he used it growing up.

But it's also something that he still uses to kind of mentor us and teach us.

He's our manager as well, so we it's been a tool since childhood and it's something that is still a tool of learning for us as a family.

So Detroit gave us our talent.

New York gave us our dreams, and that's often the story.

Usually it's hard to break through in the Midwest.

The South has figured it out that the Midwest is not.

So that's our story as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just want to make clear.

So four siblings are here, but how many total were in the house growing up?

There are nine of us and in total.

Yeah, yeah, that's a job alled don dad.

As a dad myself, I'm not can only hope to.

Wait, how many do you have?

Two?

And one on the way?

So when when is the new one?

September?

Ooh yeah yeah, yeah, I'm a bar full summer.

This is so many ways, but yeah, I could only I mean, without pushing music on my kids, I hope I try to keep the house musical.

And similarly, I hope I'm trying to use music as a way to teach my kids, not mean that that there'll be musicians, but just to teach them that you mentioned integrity.

You can learn so much about integrity and character through music and through having a love of music, because it really connects you to humanity and the people around you.

Were you guys in a musical house?

What was the how or how was it musical?

It was clearly musical, But how was it musical?

It was musical in the small ways and the big ways.

So like waking my dad waking us up by blasting music through the speaker, you know, singing, we're.

Just singing really loudly.

Or every day gathering around the table and he's beating on the table, using the table as a drum, and he has us improvising on the spot.

I remember being so young when my older siblings would jump in and be able to make up words and make.

Up melodies, and I was like, will I ever be able to improvise like that?

You know?

So it was just the household of adapting, learning on the spot, being able to be creative and think outside of the box a little bit.

I think that's when you're young, you don't really understand all the lessons that you're being taught, you know.

And a lot of people use so many mediums to teach their kids.

Their sports families, they are like film family.

There are so many different ways to teach your kids these fundamental life lessons.

But I think music being our dads, our parents' way was so powerful because that's what you need.

You need a spirit of creativity.

You need to be able to think on your feet.

You need to be able to deliver a riveting performance in other ways in other areas of life, and you know, win people over and speak people's language from.

Heart to heart and unite people.

You know, there's so many lessons that music teaches us that you only start to realize when you get a little bit older.

I imagine the church as well had to do that for you guys.

Right.

So for us growing up, we were exposed to a lot of music, but we were not exposed.

To all music growing up.

So what that means is we grew up really steeped in gospel music, classical music, and jazz, and then fourth it was soul, but it wasn't like all soul.

It was like Marvin Gay and the Earth Wind and Fire and like ron Isley.

It was a limited list.

It wasn't it wasn't it wasn't everybody, and so I think it was by design.

Those were really foundational genres that taught us.

Music are to being a choir director, having multiple choirs.

Back in Detroit, choral music was was key to our foundation.

So we really didn't get into pop music until teenage years.

Which it's funny because now we do prop me.

I don't know, well, how.

Does that happen?

How how do you guys go from you know, if the order of operations musically in the home was gospel, classical, jazz, and a smattering of top shelf soul, then how do you guys go from that's your diet to when you guys are performing becoming more of a pop group?

I would say Also a big part of it is that we all grew up obviously informed by the same you know route, but we all took different things.

We're all different branches of the same tree.

So you know, Momo or Abram or Angel or whoever might gravitate more towards one thing, and then I might gravitate gravitate more towards another thing, and I think over time that just that shaped us.

You're hearing kind of an amalgamation, you know, Like I remember growing up on gospel and classical in jazz, but I didn't actually like I didn't understand music for myself or even really listen to music.

Until I was sixteen or seventeen.

So there was like when I was a child and I would hear gospel or classical and jazz in the house and I loved especially like an artist my dad would play, Pat Metheeni was a really big fan of him.

I was around thirteen, maybe fourteen.

We were doing an interview and somebody asked, what's who are your favorite artists?

And I had no idea because I didn't I understood music.

I just didn't.

I had not discovered it for myself.

So I was like Michael Jackson and I don't know, I liked these genres.

And then as I got older personally, it was it wasn't so much discovering what I like more so it was like putting faces to the things I already knew I liked since I was a child.

So I remember, I don't know if we're supposed to say his name anymore, but Kanye.

I remember the first time, first time I listened to him, I was like, oh, this puts this puts a I think the first song I heard was Blood on the Leaves, and I was like, this sounds like you know, it was almost rock, you know, the way he the spirit with which he, you know, wrote that music.

And but that's just one example.

Then you have just you know, over time, just musicians that I personally gravitated towards that just uncovered what I like and all that.

I think that's kind of the thing for all of us.

The way, the way we developed as a unit was that we all obviously have the same foundation, but we all are very unique and Infinity Song does not sound like any one of us.

It sounds like the collection of us truly.

So that's how we get to this.

It's like, well, what do you like and what do you like?

What do you like?

And then it comes to this kind of home.

Is that part of the writing process too, Like someone brings an idea and then each person teases out what their part is, or do you does someone come with a fully formed idea like I believe you wrote pink Sky right.

So yeah, usually it's someone.

Sometimes we write together, but actually we usually write separately.

But I think that even in our separate writings, I think we all take into account the ear and the temperament of the other performers, because you know, we're not performing ourselves.

So when I write, or when Angel writes or whoever writes.

I we just write for the group, not for ourselves, because that's a whole whole different thing, different temperament, different everything.

Yeah, and you guys had it at one point another sister in the group, Victory, and she did some of the writing too, So I imagine, and do you guys still work with her or are you guys writing with her on any level?

We look forward to I think that.

I mean, that's our sister, So there's always an opportunity to collaborate, always an opportunity to work together right together.

When she went solo, I think there was a real desire for her to build her own sound, and also we had to do a lot of work because Victory is a founding member of Infinity Song and our sound was very much rooted in her musical paradigm when she was in the band, and so we actually had to relearn how we do music when she went solo.

And that was a blessing, but it was also extremely challenging in terms of just the anatomy of what do we sound like now?

Going from twenty losing twenty percent of the band and then also like fifty percent of the creative DNA that was that was that was very challenging.

But until you can learn to, of course, reconfigure the creative process and supplement the fifty and become your own and find you right like I imagine you guys now as a four some are finding your path creatively, like Metamorphous is complete.

It's such a wonderful project.

And American Love Song is a new song that came out.

It's incredible, really well written, beautiful song.

So yeah, it seems like you guys are are without victory finding it'd be like earth Wind and Fire finding the way without you know, Maurice or something.

You guys are figuring it out.

Oh absolutely, I think so.

Metamorphosis complete was like completely written by US four, completely written and produced by US four, and at this point it is exactly like, Yeah, it was.

A hard year, to be clear.

It was one year where we were trying to figure it out and then thank god, we came out with better music than we've ever created together.

So it's it's quite remarkable.

Yeah, I would agree for.

You, momo.

How what was your sort of trajectory through discovering guitar and finding your voice?

So obviously the foundation that we've already you know, disclosed like growing up in the household that I did, learning so much from my dad.

But then, as Israel pointed out, like once you, once each of us reached a certain age in like adolescence, you kind of have an awakening like Okay, what do I really want to do?

How do I really want to sound?

And I remember being about eleven or twelve or something, and the biggest woman singer influence that I had was Victory actually, funnily enough, and I remember thinking, she has the best voice I've ever heard.

I want to sound just like her.

And you know, I would just watch her warming up, watch her performing, and I would be like, Okay, if I can sound like her, I will be very happy.

And that was my only goal.

How do I sound like her?

Like when people cite their influences and like they say like, oh, I learned this from Lauren Hill, And I learned that from She's one of my initial influences.

You know, No, Victory, Okay.

Also Lauren, you said Lauren and that sort of thing about unplugged.

In the guitar and no, absolutely I was gonna get to her next because absolutely huge.

The Unplugged album actually changed my life.

Also, Donnie Hathaway, just excellent in every way.

Nina Simone as well, just excellent at what she does, but so unique.

Same for Ella Fitzgerald.

Like I love vocalists that.

They aren't necessarily doing every riff and run under the sun, but they have a very distinct voice.

Donnie Hathaway, his voice can come on and you know just who that is, there's no question, and he can stop time, he can stop the room.

Same for Nina Simone, lingud comes on, everybody silent, you know, So like that type of grounded vocal ability is rare but so powerful.

Really inspired me when I was like sixteen seventeen and just finding my legs and then from there discovering more like current artists and being like.

Wait, okay, I kind of like pop, okay, kind of like rock that's cool.

Too, and then just taking what I like from each of these, each of these artists, each of these genres, and doing my best to, like you know, as any artist does, doing your best to use it all to make one one thing for yourself, one lane for yourself.

I'm gonna let you guys do your song metamorphosis.

I've never had a decent answer to a single question I don't say my oveniance to I'm already sacond guessing.

I can't take a man.

The chance is I just stick to ward the person I guess answer the first impressions.

I gat.

Give me a God, but I do to something ever to be so much not now, I'm stuck.

On out of mis Sometimes I don't like myself and I be someone else, someone people makes that dreams not true and drinks from the way she us, someone that thy going and never seen to fall list.

Sometimes I an't like myself and I be so much use to get it out of God.

Perhaps it's a bit of hell to be so no short, no suck.

A lot ca it the cord you can't see way to look out on it?

Things you do lo at rad.

Offices five and loud to get allow around.

A rock ship.

He's in there on.

A say job because you have the faith.

You're basking in light alas ride come out grave a thousing, the breeziest, the brud.

You don't confidence in joint.

Look God, oh thank you did look at the mais.

I found against the ship you say.

Ala stage because she phone me a great flouson prazu shay.

I was real scared.

I was real scared to come out this stuff.

That was great, y'all.

I want to thank Infinity song Abraham Momo Angel Israel shredding the guitar I was beautiful.

I want to think Trybecca for having broken the record here.

It's wonderful live tape.

And and thank you guys for coming out and watching us up here.

It was great to have you guys, and hope to do this again.

Let us do it.

Thank you.

In episode description, you'll find a link to a playlist of some of our favorite Infinity song tracks and also some of our favorite soft rock songs.

Be sure to check out YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast to see all of our video interviews, and be sure to follow us on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod.

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Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan.

Our engineer is Ben Tollinay.

Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries.

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I'm justin Richmond.