Kate Hudson Is Only an Activist for Love
The actress hopes her debut album is received with the same amount of amore she put into it. “But it’s going to be what it’s going to be.”
One of Kate Hudson’s favorite songs is “Romeo and Juliet” by Dire Straits, a cinematic ode to the longing and devastation that often accompanies romance. She, however, prefers a sunnier interpretation of the lyrics. “It’s what it’s like when you love a song and then that song becomes the soundtrack to your relationship — that newness,” Hudson tells me. “It’s just like, Ugh, I love it. I could hear it over and over and over again.”
Bottle up that amore and you’ve got Hudson’s debut album, the genre-hopping Glorious, which has arrived after several years of collaboration with Linda Perry and fiancé Danny Fujikawa. A music fanatic even before her breakout Almost Famous role, Hudson had been wanting to write and record an album throughout her acting career; a fear of ridicule, though, kept her from pursuing the dream, and she only got the confidence when the pandemic rearranged her personal priorities. “When it happened, I was like, I’m not waiting any longer,” she now says. “I have to do this.”
The result is the 12-song Glorious, which blends rock, pop, and folk into Hudson’s sonic Erewhon smoothie. As the lead single “Talk About Love” teases, she sings a lot about it — but her writing transcends the simple themes of desire. (A sampling: “Live Forever” is about her eldest son growing up, while “Love Ain’t Easy” is destined to inspire a news cycle determining the subject’s identity.) Because, as Hudson knows, love gets complicated. That’s just what life brings. “It’s hard, but it’s the most glorious thing in the world,” she says. “So that’s what the album is to me.”
I dove into this thinking you would be doing a more conventional-leaning pop album, given your choice of lead single, but this is a lot more ambitious than I think a lot of people will give you credit for. Who are your Mount Rushmore of influences for the record?
I’m such a music lover, so my influences are varied and all over the place. I grew up in the ’90s, so hip-hop was huge in California and that’s a love of mine. I’m a big jazz head. But my influences for the album are largely rock. The decision to make an album was keeping an open slate. I didn’t want to have any preconceived concept of what I wanted it to sound like. I figured, I’m just going to come in and see what happens.
Meeting the music where I’m at right now is important for me, as well as not repeating any old things I’ve done. I dreamed of being in music. So out of that came a lot of different influences in my life, especially women who I’ve loved: Patty Griffin, Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, and Cyndi Lauper. I look at some of these songs I wrote for the album and they remind me of different people and different genres. It had to have a through-line once I picked the songs that were going to be included.
What was that unifying factor?
It’s vocal forward. The sound of the vocals, how we mix the vocals, and the storytelling brought it together and didn’t make it feel like it lacked consistency. That was such an interesting thing to go through, because we had so much music. It was hard to pick what made the final cut. There are some songs I had to drop where I was like, This is heartbreaking, but it doesn’t fit the story. I’m a vinyl person and I love sitting down and listening to a whole album. I finally listened to all of Cowboy Carter the other night. I really want to see what the artist is evoking in its entirety. That was really important to me, too.
A fear of rejection kept you from releasing music until now. Why do you think you faced that obstacle in this domain as opposed to acting?
I’ve got really tough skin. I can handle sassy headlines and I can take the noise out of things when it comes to acting, fashion, or whatever else. But when it comes to your own words, your love of art, and putting yourself out there, it’s scary and it hurts. I wasn’t ready for that yet. I’ve always said this: If I’m going to do music, I love it too much to not honor it properly. I don’t want to just come in, have a ton of writers, and not treat it with the respect that I see for this modality of art. I have to live in it and do it properly. It just wasn’t the time. Frankly, I didn’t choose to have the time. I also was involved with men in the music industry, and I think two touring families would be too hard. I don’t even know how that would work.
I know you didn’t come into the album with any particular intention, but there seems to be a unifying lyrical theme of love — both the bliss of falling into it and the agony of falling out of it. Is there a story that listeners should be following?
One of the reasons I liked the album title, Glorious, is because it’s very reflective. It’s all of these love stories in my life, including with my children. One song is actually a third-person reflection. I won’t say which song, because then it’ll change the song for everybody, but it’s about how one of my partners saw me. I was speaking from his point of view. I wanted to be more of an open channel. It’s sort of like a life well loved in the good, the bad, and the ugly. Even a one-night stand with somebody is glorious, too.
So I don’t think there’s any narrative that feels like it’s from the beginning, middle, and end. I find, as a public figure, people have this expectation that you’re either political or you need to be an activist. Throughout my life, if there’s anything I want to talk about, or give, or share, it’s about connection and love, because I think it’s the hardest and most important thing. We get caught up in so much pain. We all feel it, we all have it, and then we forget how to open our hearts. I believe that’s the only way we can heal or change anything. That’s why I, quite literally, talk about love on “Talk About Love.” It’s a simple narrative, but it was really like, That’s what we should be talking about. Why is it so hard to let people, in the purest form, know what it is to love and feel loved? If we did, the world would be a completely different place. That’s what I like to talk about. That’s my activism.
How vulnerable were you willing to go with your writing and deviating from what people may perceive about you? There’s a warmth that connects these songs, but then your lyrics sometimes sneak up with a good punch, like on “Not Easy to Know”: “I’m not easy to know, I circle alone” and “Stop trying to save me, I’m trying to change me.”
I love that you’re telling me that. “Not Easy to Know” is the most intimate on the album, because it’s me sharing that part of myself. If I’m sharing my life through music, “Not Easy To Know” is really like, I’m doing my best. Relationships are hard and everyone says they’re supposed to be easy. And I’m like, Well, they’re not for me. They never have been. I don’t know if it’s the world I’m in. I don’t know if it’s my familial makeup. Yes, there are moments where it feels great, but, God, it gets to those places in intimacy where it gets hard. And I fight for it. I love that song because that’s me fighting for the relationship. Stay with me. I’m in it for us.
I’m an open book. I’ve always been pretty open. I don’t feel like there’s anything off limits except having a public therapy session. I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s important to share these things and connect on relatable things. You can have very different lives from other people, but there are so many relatable themes everyone has, especially motherhood. You could come from completely different walks of life, but be able to relate to that feeling of when your children leave home. That’s what compelled me to write “Live Forever.” But unless it’s very obvious, I don’t think it’s good to give everybody what all of the songs are about, because then it takes it away from their own experience.
The last line on the album is sort of a rallying cry: “Carry on, touch the light.” What does that light look like for you at this point in your life?
It’s what this process was like for me. It’s reaching for the things that move you and bring light into your life. It’s an upward motion. It’s like the light is up there and in your dream. It’s what heals us. It could be considered a sort of religious thing, but I think of it more as an energy. When you can touch the light, you become one in it. That imagery for me is when we heal through things and move through things — you’ve got to just keep walking toward the light. I remember when I wrote that final song, there was no structure to it. But I realized it was an important song and I was like, I can’t mess this up. For me, that translates to building the live experience musically and incorporating some of my heroes into these things.
What other ambitions do you have for your music career besides touring?
My intention isn’t just to be a recording artist and a performer. I love writing. My hope is that people invite me into their circles and I can work with them. I would love to write for other artists and then bring it into film, television, and musicals. It’s been a dream of mine to write a musical. I have an idea and it’s not a typical one. I would love to perform on Broadway. I definitely want to make more albums. I have so much to give. I’ve been sitting on this album and writing it for so long, and now that it’s here I’m like, I can’t wait to get back in the studio and write some more.
How are you anticipating the response to the album? Do you think you’ll be graded on a different scale as an actor turned singer-songwriter?
Yes, but I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to read about it. It’s different because I’m so known for what I’ve done in my life as an actor. I know the critical side of it is different. I really hope it’s received with the same warmth that I put into it, but it’s going to be what it’s going to be. I also have to say there’s been so much encouragement. I’ve only felt positive energy around this album. People have been so kind to me. Even my friends who are in the music industry have been wonderful. I don’t take that lightly. So when it comes to what’s going to happen, I don’t know. But I feel very cozy right now with how people have been responding.
Your verified artist pages still have “Cinema Italiano” listed among your newer work. Would you consider doing the public service of luring Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement with a remix?
DDL! That’s his insider nickname. God, wouldn’t that be great? He’s the best and so lovely. What an amazing thing to be able to say I have worked with Daniel Day-Lewis. But I don’t think there’s any chance of luring him out, even for music. He’s a man of his word.
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