Kali Uchis

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over the past few years, Kali Uchis has released three standout albums: Red Moon in Venus, Orquídeas, and now her latest, Sincerely. Each has made a powerful contribution to the evolving legacy of R&B and Latin music—but Sincerely marks a striking leap forward in her artistic journey.

So it’s no surprise that in her conversation with Justin Richmond, Kali reveals she took a different approach this time—writing most of the album on her own before stepping into the studio. It also, heartbreakingly, makes sense that Sincerely was shaped in the shadow of a traumatic, life-altering experience involving her mother.

In today’s episode, Kali opens up about that experience, along with her reflections on parenthood, her family’s immigration story, and the challenges of her first tour.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Kali Uchis songs HERE.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:08.8	You're listening to an I-Heart podcast.
0:14.0	Hey, it's Justin.
0:15.5	Did you know you can listen to Broken Record on Amazon Music?
0:18.2	And you can listen to your favorite podcasts in the app,
0:21.6	so you can do all your listening in one place. Plus, Amazon Prime members get access to the largest catalog of
0:26.9	ad-free top podcasts. Start listening. Download the Amazon music app, search for Broken Record,
0:33.0	and click Follow to keep up with the new episodes. You can also ask Alexa to play Broken Record on Amazon
0:39.0	Music. Caliuchis has been busy. Over the last few years, she settled down with her partner,
0:46.1	Don Tolliver, had a baby, and released three great albums, Red Moon and Venus, Orchidius, and
0:53.0	now sincerely. And while they all contribute a lot to the amazing
0:57.7	lineage of R&B and Latin music, it's her latest, sincerely, that feels like a great leap forward for
1:04.2	Calliuchi's as an artist. There's something coherent in the messaging and the feel of the album
1:09.3	that make it stand out as not just a great collection of songs, but also a great album.
1:14.3	So it wasn't surprising during the course of our conversation to find that Callie, unlike
1:18.6	her other records, wrote most of this one on her own before bringing it into the studio.
1:24.0	It also unfortunately made a lot of sense that Callie had recently been through a traumatic, life-altering experience with her mother.
1:31.1	Over the course of our conversation, we talk about those experiences along with parenthood, growing up in Virginia, her family's immigration story, and her daunting first experience on tour.
1:43.8	This is Broken Record.
1:46.0	Real musicians, real conversations.
1:49.1	This episode is brought to you by Defender.
1:52.3	A vehicle engineered to meet challenges head on so you can explore with confidence.
	...

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