Big Freedia poses for a portrait on July 15 at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans. The studio was converted from a church.
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Claire Harbage/NPR
Big Freedia may be best known as the queen of bounce music, a New Orleans icon, and the standout feature on Beyonce’s “Break My Soul.”
For now, anyway.
With her new album, Pressing Onward, she just might be best known for taking everyone to church.
We sat down with her at Esplanade Studios in New Orleans, where she recorded much of the new album. It used to be a church, and the stained glass and old wood still infuse the space with reverence. It was the perfect place to record her first gospel album — music Big Freedia traces even farther back in her personal history than the bounce she’s made famous.
The interior of Esplanade Studios.
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“I started as a young boy here in New Orleans,” she tells All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro, saying she attended Pressing Onward Baptist Church at a neighbor’s invitation. “I got in the choir immediately because the choir was rolling,” and her godmother, Georgia, was the choir director. “And I’m so grateful for Georgia because I would not have been in music if it was not for Georgia.”
Big Freedia is quick to say she keeps God first in everything she does, but Pressing Onward, with its mix of gospel choirs and booty shaking, is for everyone.
“It’s for Black, white, straight, gay. It’s for people who may have not been accepted into church, you know, who may have been rejected because of their sexuality, because of who they are… Anybody and everybody can have a connection with God,” she says. “This is an album that you can listen to at home, at work, in your car. Everywhere you want to be, you can listen to this album and it will bring you joy.”
Big Freedia inside Esplanade Studios.
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This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
Ari Shapiro: Did you always know that you would someday make a gospel album?
Big Freedia: No, I did not. Actually, I thought, you know, growing up as a young kid and becoming a young adult, I thought I would be like a famous choir director because I was really heavy into choir directing. You know, I also was the choir director at my high school at Walter Alcorn, and I also sang with the New Orleans Gospel Soul Children and the Gospel Music Workshop of America, where we went to different cities and states each year to have this big gospel convention.
Shapiro: Why did it take 25 years for you to return to gospel?
Big Freedia: I’ve never left gospel. My faith has always been strong. I always turn to gospel. We have gospel Sundays in the van with me and my team when we are on the road … We pray before anything that we do. We keep God first in everything that we do. That’s the only way that I can survive 25 years in this game.
Big Freedia recorded much of her new album at Esplanade Studios.
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Shapiro: I know you had a personal tragedy recently … You lost your partner of 20 years to complications from diabetes. Devon Hurst. Has this music taken on a different meaning for you since he died?
Big Freedia: Oh yes indeed. Even just the title of the album. I have to press onwards now. He wants me to continue to live, continue to spread the goodness of the word. He was here to be able to listen to the album, why I made the album. He heard the whole album and I’m grateful that he was here to be able to push me and to really see me complete the album. You know, it means more than anything right now, this music is my healing more than anything … I know the world needs it, but I needed more than them.
Shapiro: There’s a song on this album called, “Church,” and the lyric says [We don’t need a preacher, to go to church. We don’t need a deacon, to hear the word.]
Big Freedia: I mean, when I think about church, we was always taught that the building is just the building … The people that comes to the church, the people that put into the church, the people that give their sweat, heart, tears in the church. We are the church. So you don’t need the deacon. You don’t need the pastor. You don’t need the building, you need the people and God.
Big Freedia clasps her hands on the steps of the converted church in New Orleans.
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Shapiro: Your live shows are very physical, very sweaty – I hope it’s OK for me to say this – kinda horny. You’re now singing about the Lord. How’s that going to change your live shows?
Big Freedia: The live shows have actually been amazing to see the transformation. Because at first I take them to the second line here in New Orleans … rejoicing … And then I take them to the Big Freedia Revival where they can get baptized and saved.
Shapiro: Is there a connection that you see between bounce music and gospel music?
Big Freedia: Most definitely. The call and response. The community coming together. Me directing onstage. At one point I’m directing asses. Now, I’m directing voices.
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