Rich Robinson Reflects on New Music From the Black Crowes

On Friday (Jan. 9), Rich Robinson joined Loudwire Nights to celebrate two new songs from the Black Crowes as well as the announcement of their next album, A Pound of Feathers.

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“Everything is kind of a continuation, you know what I mean,” Robinson said to Loudwire Nights host Chuck Armstrong about the follow-up to the Black Crowes’ 2024 album, Happiness Bastards.

“This record was done differently because it was really just me and Chris [Robinson] and Cully [Symington] … I had a bunch of pieces and some songs ready to go, but a lot of times the way Chris and I work is I’ll send him the foundation of a song and then he’ll get it and then he’ll hear something that he likes or he’ll hear something different.”

During that process, Robinson said he and his brother work together on the arrangement. They followed that idea as they created the songs that would become A Pound of Feathers.

“We kind of went in with these basic things, but used the studio more as a writing tool instead of having everything more pre-planned,” he explained.

“The recording process was a lot different. Because of that, everything seems a little more kind of exciting and new. It’s like we get in and nothing has kind of been floating around. It’s all like, ‘Let’s try this, let’s try this, let’s try this.'”

No matter how different the experience might have been, though, fans can hear the legacy of the Black Crowes saturating their two new songs, “Profane Prophecy” and “Pharmacy Chronicles.”

“What’s cool about the sort of musical journey that we’ve been on our whole lives, it’s always kind of sounded like us, but every record has kind of been different,” Robinson shared.

“We do bring in a lot of different influences and a lot of things that have always affected us in our lives — but it always still kind of sounds like us.”

What Else Did the Black Crowes’ Rich Robinson Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

Why he enjoys working with producers on albums: “We need a referee. We need someone. Chris and I have our own ideas. I mean, I’ve produced a bunch of records, including my own. He’s produced a bunch of records. So we both have opinions, you know what I mean? It’s kind of cool to get in there and be like, this is what I think, this is what he thinks and then have someone kind of come in and be like, ‘Well, this works, this doesn’t, let’s try this, let’s try this.'”
Why he loved Ozzy Osbourne, even though he was always a bigger Led Zeppelin fan: “Ozzy was great. His voice, I love his phrasing. I loved Ozzy’s phrasing and lyrics.”
What’s on the horizon for his solo music: “I write all the time. I have a studio at my house and I write a tone. I just made another record with Peter Buck from R.E.M. and Barrett Martin and Erika Wennerstrom from the Heartless Bastards. It’s going to be really cool … I wrote some songs with Izzy Stradlin. He came up a couple of times and we wrote some songs. I’m just doing a bunch of stuff.”