|
|||||||||
If you have come
to this page through a frame, |
|||||||||
|
"I was asked by
him,
Curtis Mayfield, to come and produce two songs for his album and I did a song called
'We
The People Who Are Darker Than Blue' and 'It Was Love That We Needed'. I did those two
songs under a very unique set of circumstances. I was touring all over the country and
parts of Canada, and as you know, Curtis is paralyzed from the neck down, and recording
was very difficult for him. His body has to be in a certain position and he gets tired
very quickly. But because I had downsized my studios and because I had become very
good,
very quick and very handy with some of the new digital recorders, I was able to bring a
small recording apparatus, the size of my briefcase, into his bedroom in Atlanta and do
all of his vocals right there, in his house. That made things very easy for him and his
wife and everybody. They were really impressed with it, so I was very happy that I had
downsized like I did. Nothing compares to it (working with Curtis). Nothing. I'm
speechless."
"Sure I remember! It was called 'A
Little Bit Of Something". The B side was 'My Heart Took A Lickin' But It Kept on
Tickin'. I think I still have it somewhere in this house. I know I owned it until I moved,
it might be still in a box somewhere, but I'm not sure where. I had played it one day for
my band and I told them 'here's somebody that sent me their demo and they want to know if
I would do anything with them. Give me your penny and tell me if you think they have any
talent'. So I played it for the band and they went 'Naaah, she's somebody trying to sound
like you!' I had this very highly, squeaky voice back then (laughs)."
"I started getting really
comfortable with being in the background, supporting other vocalists and stuff. I wasn't
particularly ready to be in the front, to have all that attention, so as I was developing
my writing, I was actually trying to gain strength to be able to deal with all of this
stuff. I guess now is the right time. I've had enough time to gather up the confidence
that I needed to do do it."
"Anybody can be nasty, but you
gotta be funny with it."
|
||||||||
|
|||||||||
© Maria Granditsky
August 1997. |
|||||||||
Home - Artists - What's New - Links - FAQ - Theme - About Me |
"I have to say my father,
because I
grew up listening to all kinds of music. I think he's definitely shaped my musical
taste.
I come from a very musical family. My father's mother and his sisters used to have a
Gospel group called the Gloryland Singers in New York City, I believe in the late '50's.
My father, he used sing in church and he had a band. He used to sing James Brown tunes and
that kinda thing. My mum sang in church, her sisters sang and all my cousins used to be in
the church choir. We all come from music and singing in choirs."
"It
was hard living up to that. Allen's (the Bar-Kays producer, manager and mentor) vision of
me was to be the black Mick Jagger. That's what he wanted for me. To be just as
popular,
to be every girl's dream, to stay weighing a hundred and twenty pounds.
Always. He kept me
on a diet, year in and year out. I could never gain a pound. He didn't not allow
that. He
said 'if you're gonna be a rock star and an idol, you gonna have to be this and
this' and
you know, his thing was 'when you're daring and think you've gone too far, you're only
half way there'. That was his rule, that he lived by. We had to stay slim, all of
us. We
were not allowed to gain weight. The tailors would always tell on us. They'd say
'Larry's
gained two pounds, I can't fit him in his regular stuff anymore'. Basically, all of us
were thin anyway, but.."
"I
was very concerned about that and I explained to Dr.Dre that he could do whatever he
wanted to and I was there to help, but I wished that he'd respect my legacy and my
integrity and he said 'don't worry about it'. So when the song came out,
obviously, there
was nothing negative, nothing about fighting or shooting or violence, it was basically a
song about having a good time and partying and shaking it in California.
Again, I thank
God that I was connected with such a huge record and such a controversial group of artists
and that they, being controversial, decided to take the main stream, universal, world-wide
subject-matter, as opposed to something negative. And then we were successful with it!
Dr.Dre's and 2Pac's fans could very easily have said 'this is too clean, this is too
nice,
we don't like it'. But I was lucky, through the grace of God, that everybody liked the
song, even though it was cleaned-up, vintage, I mean, nothing negative, no
gang-banging."
"As
a Dance artist, it was really, really hard to prove to people that it was really me
singing, because there was a reputation of Dance artists just being 'a sound'. You know,
mechanically done. And it was really hard, it took me almost two years to really prove to
people that 'everything that you heard on the CD is what I'm going to do'. Dance artists
were not taken seriously because they could not perform live, and/or they were
lip-synching. I have a problem with that. See, I really believe that if people have paid
their money to see you sing, then singing is what you're supposed to be doing. But the
times are changing, my friends in the R&B world are really starting to take notice
that Dance music has always held its own spot, it just needed the right people. I'm happy
to say that I think I'm one of those people. At least I would hope that someone would
consider me as one of the individuals that held that spot."
"America's really big on labels, but I don't mind
because I really like Maxwell and D'Angelo and I'm really thankful for what they've done.
I think that had they not come out first, I wouldn't be getting this kind if attention. I
think that someone has to come out doing something different first, in order for other
people to accept difference. Generally, that's how it happens in the States. After my
record was done, that was almost three years ago and it was on Capitol before we had moved
to RCA, the concern was, this is pre-D'Angelo, pre-Maxwell, the concern was 'who's going
to get this? There's nothing like that out. How are people going to digest it, what are
they going to gage it by'. And then we had the whole period of the Capitol collision, when
Capitol got rid of its black music department, and so the record got pushed back and we
got moved to another label. At that time, D'Angelo came out and by the time my record
actually came out, people would compare me to D'Angelo and this quote-un-quote
'neo-classic-soul movement', but before that, it was just kinda like 'what are you doing?'
(laughs). It's easier now, because now they actually have a title for what I'm
doing."