Lenny Kravitz: Still Strutting At 50 With Tenth Album

Lenny Kravitz turned 50 years old this year, and he might be busier than ever with a multitude of projects. You've recently seen him acting, most notably in the Hunger Games series, and he's also been hard at work with his design firm, Kravitz Design. Plus he says he's in the best shape of his life. Still, that hasn't stopped him from playing music. Kravitz's just-released album, his tenth, Strut, was written in Atlanta, Georgia, recorded in the Bahamas and mixed in Los Angeles. 

Strut plays like a love letter to New York City, includes a "Happy Birthday" song, and an Old Smokey Robinson cover -- one of three covers in his entire career. In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Kravitz walks through his design and acting work, and finding time to write his record while on the set of Catching Fire.

Interview Highlights:

Lenny Kravitz on the origins of the title of his tenth album, Strut:

We know what strutting is, I remember that word from growing up. My grandmother, if I had on like a cool outfit she'd say, “Strut your stuff baby.” But for me, I was using it in a less superficial way. The message is to be who you are, whatever you are. We're all individuals, we're all freaks of some sort. Be authentic, and walk tall.

On his recent acting career:

The acting thing, that sort of came out of nowhere. I did act when I was a kid. I think my mother thought I was going to be an actor. But music had me, so I gave that up. I met Lee Daniels at a restaurant one night who said he'd been trying to reach me and he thought I should be acting. And that’s how that started -- by casting me as Nurse John in Precious. And then Gary Ross, the director of the first Hunger Games saw that and then hired me. 

On recording his the album on set for Catching Fire:

I can't say that it was inspired by Catching Fire, but it was time for the music to come out. Here I am in Atlanta, living these ridiculous actor hours waking up at five in the morning. Which is completely backwards to my normal schedule when I go to sleep at five in the morning.

All of this music came into my head. You have to make a choice. You let it go and sleep or capture it. My choice was to capture it because I have to. I stayed up for about two weeks. I didn't sleep for two weeks. Maybe an hour every couple nights I got. Which is crazy, if I look tired in Catching Fire you'll know why. 

I always work very spontaneously. I don’t sit down to write, I write when I hear it. In this case, I wasn't in my environment. I wasn't in the studio, I had no idea I was going to be doing it. And it happened really quickly. I really enjoyed that process of just having it slip out.

On getting Bob Clearmountain to mix his new album:

I ended up not mixing this album, which is a first for me. I was beginning to mix it and I was beginning to realize what I was doing was very reminiscent to Bob Clearmountain. I was doing things very reminiscent of that era, sound. Why am I trying to emulate someone who exists who can do this? I got his number and started telling him what a big fan I am of his work. I asked if he would be alright with mixing my record, and he said "I've been waiting for you to call," which was his first sentence.

On his design firm, Kravitz Design:

It’s an interior firm and we do all kinds of things. We did a 47 story condo in Miami, hotel projects around the world. We just got back from the opening of the SLS hotels in Las Vegas. We did the top floors of all of those buildings. We did Queen Latifah’s set, private residences in different places in the world, nightclubs, restaurants. I’m extremely involved in the design process. That’s the joy to me. I do it because I love it, not because I”m trying to create another business. It’s a passion. I have to say I love it just as much as I love music. I really do.

Design - you're creating something out of nothing, whether it be a space, a song, a painting, whatever, it doesn't matter. It’s just creating.