James Blake made a recent appearance on comedian Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast, where he interestingly opened up about his thoughts regarding musicians not being the greatest people to talk to.
“When it comes to musicians, we’re not… we don’t tend to be the most articulate people, for some reason,” Blake said at 6:39 into the episode. “I think we’re not the best people to have conversations with. So, I had to branch out. Not because I’m such a great conversationalist, but because I noticed a lot of my conversations with musicians tended to be more one-dimensional.”
Blake goes on to compare musicians’ way of speaking to Pavlov’s conditioning psychology, as he notes that while singers and songwriters are capable of communicating their emotions through music, they tend to be more anxious and struggle with other forms of conversation. He also admitted to having the same problem.
“I’m just saying as a general rule, musicians… I had to find my words, really,” he continued later in the video (at 12:36). “If you’d met me maybe seven or eight years ago, I probably wouldn’t have sustained a friendship, for starters. I think I would have been intimidated or not socially comfortable enough.”
While the conversation between Blake and Von lasts for over two hours, fans of both performers were entertained in the comments section by the crossover and their friendship.
Find the full This Past Weekend episode above.