SAN DIEGO — Grammy Award-winning singer and Golden Globe-winning actress Andra Day, who performs Friday, Sept. 19, with Jon Batiste at The Rady Shell, talked at length with the San Diego Union-Tribune in advance of the show.

Here are some additional portions of that interview. They have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: How badly did you damage your voice by smoking on screen when you were making the Oscar-nominated film, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday?” And did you literally have to relearn how to sing, in a manner?

Day: Yeah, I had to retrain my vocal cords to do certain things. I’ll put it like this: Basically, I was a soprano, and now I’m alto, a comfortable, happy alto. So, it’s funny when people hear me sing now and they’re like: “Sing higher!” And I’m like: “Listen, babe, this is how I sing now, OK?” But I would do it again (smoke to accurately portray Holiday). I really would do it again, because I think that she’s worth it.

But, um, yeah, when you do stuff like that, when you introduce things into your body that your body’s not used to and that are harmful, our bodies are really amazing machines. And I do think that they recover. I just think, sometimes, certain things require a lot more recovery than others. And so, my upper register is a little harder to manage. I do feel like it’s recovered in a lot of ways, but it’s also just a different voice, which is nice. Because I think I’ve discovered other things that it can do, and I’ve sort of refined my ear a little better. I do feel like my voice has recovered in a lot of ways, for sure.

Q: The video you and Jon Batiste made for the song “Lean On My Love” is a very moving tribute to the victims of the horrific fires in Los Angeles last year, and it was filmed partly in a church in Altadena whose congregation you belong to. Were you directly impacted by the fires?

Day: No, other than living in Los Angeles. But I still have my home, so I wasn’t really directly impacted. But the church that I go to, absolutely was. And so I feel like I was, in the sense that I really care about these people, and I love these people, and they’re my family. A lot of people lost their homes, and loved ones, unfortunately.

And the rebuilding process has been not an easy one. Because oftentimes — and I don’t say this as a negative, because we need all all iterations of it and all tears of it — but I think there’s also, like, a fashionable moment to (donate to) charities and wanting to be involved. Everyone wants to do benefit concerts and different things, which is all great and it’s all necessary. So it’s definitely not a negative take.

But what I will say is that the process of getting a neighborhood, particularly a historically black neighborhood, rebuilt, is a very long process. And when the fire kind of dies out, the excitement dies down, and people are still left pretty destitute and trying to figure out how to rebuild their homes. Then you have people coming in, trying to buy their land for pennies on the dollar. And and when you’re in a desperate situation, that deal seems incentivizing. Because, you know, you’re just trying to get anything to get your family back at home, get back to any semblance of normalcy. So I am very grateful to Jon (Batiste) being willing to almost, essentially, I guess, donate this video to make a statement about that cause. Because we forget that this is a marathon and not a sprint.

Q: Can you talk for a moment not only about faith, but growing up singing in church? Because it seems like that’s pretty foundational for you.

Day: Yeah, the truth of the matter is that my faith is hugely foundational for me. It’s interesting. Because I think that while I definitely started singing in the church when I was young, when I was even younger than that I was singing songs by Whitney (Houston) and Luther (Vandross) with my dad when I was a child.

You know, he was always singing around the house and my mom was always singing. So, they just always loved music. And I grew up around that. Then, going to church, I started singing in a praise band. But it’s funny, because everybody always thinks I grew up singing gospel. And that actually wasn’t until later. although I was still young. I’ve had a few different different iterations of singing in church, and I gleaned a bunch of different sounds.

I don’t think that I could do this (music career) and pursue it with all of the ups and downs if I didn’t have that (faith). That’s hugely foundational for me. And I think that’s what really made me really the singer I am today. It’s just like: “OK, if I’m doing something, why am I doing it? How did this impact me? How will it impact other people?” Those questions really matter to me… The more you look inwardly, the more you will actually figure out how you stand out.

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