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Neo-soul duo Lion Babe on riding the pop-culture wave to success

Jillian Hervey and Lucas Goodman, a.k.a. Lion Babe, have been building their audience, first with singles like the Nina Simone-sampling “Jungle Lady,” then an album, “Begin,” and a new mixtape.

IT WAS A CHANCE meeting at a college party that led to the birth of Brooklyn neo-soul duo Lion Babe.

Since releasing their first collaboration, 2012's "Treat Me Like Fire," singer Jillian Hervey and producer Lucas Goodman have been creating genre-fusing music and growing an eclectic fan base.

Lion Babe (the name stems from Hervey's voluminous mane and Goodman's zodiac sign, Leo) has kept the momentum going with tracks like "Jump Hi," featuring Childish Gambino, which masterfully samples Nina Simone, as well as "Wonder Woman" and "Jungle Lady." Their first album, Begin, came out in February on Interscope Records and Polydor Records.

Hervey (daughter of Vanessa Williams) sings with an Erykah Badu inflection, and producer Goodman blends soul, funk, jazz, and sometimes reggae. Recently, they gifted fans with the mixtape Sun Joint, a compilation of smooth, sultry, summery tracks.

I sat down with Lion Babe on July 10 before their show at the Foundry,  as part of the FreeThinkers interview series, a collaboration between Philly.com and RECphilly.

This interview has been edited for space. Watch full interview here:

How do you keep your dynamic strong as a duo?

Jillian Hervey: Just moving through, like navigating, the whole world together has been the thing that's unified us more - as soon as "Treat Me Like Fire" took off, and we had the opportunity, whether it was sitting in a label meeting, or going to meet some people we don't even know or people that were trying to dangle fancy things in our face.

It connected us more because we would be able to laugh at those people or talk about, "Oh, this is cool," or push each other. And it just makes the whole experience more fun, because it can be a lot. There's a lot of people that are always trying to pull something out of you. It's always been nice to have someone to talk to about everything. And then, obviously, we have fun together, so that's always good.

When "Treat Me Like Fire" exploded in 2012, did you expect that? You had just started making music together.

Lucas Goodman: When we put it out, it was really just so that, like, you know: This is official - we've started, we have a song out. But we were just like, that's a starting point. We didn't realize how much it was going to get picked up, or people embracing it and sharing it on the internet. So yeah, that was amazing.

Do people often assume you guys are together?

Hervey: I think people always ask that about any type of entertainers. It just comes with the territory. So we just say we're partners. [Laughs.] I just think it's nice to keep that part of your life separate. In my songs, I definitely talk about things all the time, but, you know, I want to have my own life, and then Lion Babe's my other life.

You just dropped that mixtape, "Sun Joint." Tell me about that. What inspired it?

Hervey: Sun Joint is really our first mixtape. We've had our EP, we've had our album. And we are summer babies - we've always loved summer. We always wanted to have a project out during the summer.

Also, after finishing the album, we'd been working on that for a year, so we needed to do something for ourselves. I think people were like, "Oh this is a new thing," but for us [Begin] felt so old. So to get right into something else was like really good for us. And then to share it in a much quicker amount of time than we did with Begin was also very nice.

Goodman: Yeah, definitely. It was just fun to make - all of our music was like really for ourselves, and we were just like, "It would just be fun to have this out for summertime."

I know you have probably seen everything that's been going on in the news recently, with Alton Sterling, Philando Castille, and the shootings in Dallas. A few days ago, you dedicated one of your shows to peace. Can you tell me about that?

Hervey: Well, this whole tour is really dedicated to peace. I think the only way that we can attempt to make sense or release some of the frustration that we just feel as people are the shows.

We've always, I think, we both connect to and love music because it gives you that escape, living in whatever the good feelings you're feeling from the music. All you can do is do what everyone else is doing, and speak out, connect, and share love. Hopefully, we'll just make people feel better, at least for a couple hours.

You just dropped "Sun Joint," and it feels like a warm-up for something else. You guys have worked with Childish Gambino and Pharrell. What's next?

Goodman: Just probably more Lion Babe. We're really excited to do the rest of this tour. That's got us throughout the rest of the summer. And then, yeah, in September, we'll probably just be back at it, doing whatever it is.

Back at it again.

Hervey: We're always making music. We want to do more visuals and travel more. See whoever we want to collaborate with, just kind of riding the wave, as usual. We like to plan some things, but it's nice to kind of, I mean, with the album being out, and now with Sun Joint being out, we were like, "I think we can go on vacation for like two weeks or something."

sballin@philly.com

215-854-5054 @sofiyaballin