A new short documentary titled A Seat at the Table, Beginning Stages, captures Solange’s creative process leading up to her third studio album.
Solange calls the film “a look at the early days of jam sessions, experimentation, and the exploring of sounds and ideas for the album.”
In a statement, she said that certain sessions in the doc didn’t make the album, but their inclusion “helped to create and identify the sonic tone, and the early lyrics and concepts”.
Broken up into three parts, the first two sections take place in Long Island and New Orleans, where jams, collaborations with different artists and creative ideas first came to fruition.
“A lot of these days would just start with me singing a melody or someone playing a synth part or bass line, and would transition into an hour-long jam,” Solange added.
The third part shows the “Don’t Touch My Hair” singer taking her tracks to New Iberia, LA with her engineers, working on song structures, nailing down lyrics and melodies.
“I later took these songs to Los Angeles to work with Raphael Saadiq to help amplify the production, as well as record the vocals alongside Troy Johnson,” she said. “When I look back at the beginning stages, I remember the powerful energy that set the tone, and that I'm so grateful followed us everywhere during the creation of this record.”
An early version of “Don’t Touch My Hair”, “Don’t You Wait” and “Mad” are shown, among others. Artists such as Sampha, Kindness, Sean Nicholas Savage and Chairlift’s Patrick Wimberly are also shown, alongside Solange’s son Julez.
The singer recently released two videos for “Cranes in the Sky” and “Don’t Touch My Hair”.
