Grammy-nominated artist Aloe Blacc’s voice has powered global hits — from the Avicii anthem “Wake Me Up” to the soul-stirring “I Need a Dollar.”
But his career goes beyond a chart-topping singer-songwriter. In addition to his musical contributions, he’s the founder of biotech company Major Inc., which focuses on infectious diseases and preventing the next pandemic.
GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath last spoke with Blacc back in 2014. Since then, his sound has evolved — and so has his sense of purpose. These days, he’s helping nonprofit organizations raise awareness through music, including in his latest release, Stand Together.
Blacc called in to GBH’s All Things Considered live to share more. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: Remember when we talked — that was 11 years ago now?
Aloe Blacc: Of course, I remember.
Rath: Quite a time, and it was great talking then. I’m excited about talking about Stand Together, because it’s a special album. It stands for something. Could you start us off by telling us about what the Stand Together initiative is and how it’s reflected in the music?
Blacc: You know, semantically, we take the meaning of standing together, people coming together and being in solidarity. That is an important message that I want to portray and magnify at this point in time in our country, definitely as well in the world.
There are so many ways that we’re divided, so many conflicts. If we could just get to realize that we are all one. We’re all one — and that’s what Stand Together is about.
Rath: We’re so divided, it’s almost like hearing that is cognitive dissonance — the message of Stand Together and to do something like this.
Blacc: I think music is one of the places where we can all enjoy and celebrate life. It doesn’t matter what religion or what country you come from; we all have a relationship with music. As I perform on stages and see thousands of people, shoulder-to-shoulder, just enjoying, it’s people from all walks of life. I want to continue on this path of bringing people together under the banner of celebrating life through music.
Rath: You’ve always been very self-aware. It struck me the first time that we talked — self-aware as a songwriter, and a sense of what you’re doing in terms of listener response. I’m curious, with the concept of this album, how did you approach the songwriting for this record?
Blacc: Every song on the album is inspired by a nonprofit organization or a positive social mission. There’s a song called “Don’t Go Alone,” which was inspired by a nonprofit organization called The Phoenix. They focus on addiction recovery and substance misuse.
What they do is create a system of accountability — through exercise, hiking, running, biking — in order to have a group of friends that you know for sure are going to have your back and keep you from falling off the wagon. The name of the song is “Don’t Go Alone” because they’re literally working together in order to go as far as they can go.
Every song has a relationship with something like that.
Rath: There is one song on this album you didn’t write — one cover. It’s an amazing cover, I gotta say, of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” Tell me about why you went for that song.
Blacc: Yeah, you know, it’s a bit daunting. I’m one of the firm believers that there are certain songs that should never be covered. “What’s Going On” would be one. I broke my own rule.
But it’s because I wanted to have this dialogue between two of my heroes: Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley. So, I did a kind of roots reggae, classic reggae sound that Bob Marley would have done and performed, in his style, these lyrics, because they both use their artistry to speak truth to power and stand up for the most vulnerable.
With Marvin Gaye’s seminal album, What’s Going On, and this particular track, and then with Bob Marley’s lyrics and concepts, and always being a representative of the people, I felt like there was a throughline from that history to this album.
I don’t see, in the major music industry, many activist artists — I call them “artivists” — that are engaged now. Most of them are in the underground or niche audiences, the obscure industry areas. I’m just trying to promote to my peers that you can keep this legacy going. We can keep the tradition of artists who actually use their voice for positive social change, not just breakup songs. To talk about things that matter.
Rath: Hearing you talk like that is reminding me of the conversations we were all having recently whenSly Stone passed away — that kind of approach to music.
Blacc: It’s an important approach. Unfortunately, the record industry does not support the messages of the artists who are doing the most critical thinking and offering the most critical lyrics, mainly because they’re beholden to stock shareholders, and they’ve got to maximize profits.
And maximizing profits means saturating the market with anxiety, depression, violence, misogyny, and I don’t believe in it. I don’t think anybody believes in it, but unfortunately, we’re wired to watch a trainwreck more than we are wired to watch, you know, two people getting along.
Rath: You know, it’s something that — again, I keep flashing back to the conversation we had 11 years ago. You were aware of that then, because we were talking about how your big success was coming out in the age of Spotify and in a way that was different from previous artists, and you were really aware of the certain ways in which artists can cut through.
How have you been able to manage that success, the industry being the way it is, to and cut through with a message so powerfully and connect with people?
Blacc: Oh, wow. There’s no crystal ball. I have no real answer for you that’s systematized, routinized. It really is:, if I’m happy with the message that I’m writing, I’ll record it. If I am happy with a song that I’ve recorded, I will release it. And iIf the world is happy with it, they will adopt it.
I don’t have any power over whether that happens or not. There are a lot of other systems at play, some that are controlled by industry entities and some that’re just the luck of the draw of whatever’s happening in society at the moment. The best that I can hope for, at this point, is for a 13-year-old to create a TikTok dance, and the song goes viral.
But the messages that I’m singing about probably won’t make it into the algorithm, up against a heartbreak song.
Rath: I love talking about your music, but I want to take a right turn, because I’ve got to ask you about Major Inc. We’re a biotech hub here in Boston. How did you get into the world of biotech? Tell us about the mission with Major Inc.
Blacc: Biotech was definitely a crazy pivot for me. It was in the middle of the [COVID-19] pandemic. I’d been vaccinated and boosted with the mRNA technology, but I still succumbed to COVID. As I was sitting in bed in quarantine, I was thinking about the mechanism of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and I was reading all the papers I could about what the new solutions and other technologies were.
I had this idea about blocking viral entry into the cell. I found the scientist who was actually building the molecules to do this, and I sponsored some next-stage research, and it was successful. So, I thought, “OK, well, I’ll just help this scientist try and get this to the public.”
I had no idea — I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t realize it was hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars, plus, at minimum, 10 years of research that needs to happen just to get a drug out. But I’m here now.
COVID has waned, and the market for investment in COVID has waned as well. We are using his technology for his expertise, which is oncology. We’ve got four really strong patents. One in particular is what they call a K-Ras killer. K-Ras [Kirsten rat sarcoma virus] is the mutating protein that is implicated in pancreatic cancer and some other cancers. We think we have the right solution, so I’m going to continue to help and find people who can help us build it even more.
