Accomplished singer Andre Espeut is one of the most in demand voices in soul, house music and latin fusion heading up bands such as Los Charly’s Orchestra, Afriquoi and Masterman. He’s sung Live for A listers including Princess Diana, Stella McCartney and Karl Lagerfeld as well as singing with Duran Duran and Terry Callier.
Hugely prolific Andre has a new Remix album coming out with Inkswel on Compost Records as well as tracks with Sean McCabe and Birdee. His songs have graced leading labels such as Defected, Tokyo Dawn, Groove Culture, Large and Imagenes and he has built an impressive catalogue working with a slew of top producers such as Faze Action, Eric Kupper, Ron Trent, Hot Toddy and Sinbad. We catch up with him ahead of his latest release “Universal Love” with established partners, Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel on Imagenes Recordings. With remixes from Birdee and Oyobi, “Universal Love” continues to unite the dancefloor…
Hey Andre, great to catch up with you and for our readers who haven’t come across your releases before how would you describe the musical style of Andre Espeut?
My style is a fusion of soul, funk, jazz, and house and I often blend classic and contemporary influences. My sound is rooted in organic, groove-driven music and soulful vocals. I’ve collaborated on deep house to modern funk, nu disco, broken beat and jazz-infused productions and beyond where I strive for a timeless quality, I love the golden era of soul but also fully embrace modern electronic elements. I am definitely not afraid to experiment, and if you look at my Spotify you will see exactly that.
Working again with Imagenes Recordings Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel, what do you like about working with the guys and how did this track come about? Do you record Live together?
This track came together in the studio where Jorge Montiel had an idea that he played on the Moog and it developed from there, adding extra elements as it went along including Live bass keys etc and it grew organically.
Super busy, you’ve just released an album with Inkswel on Compost on a more downtempo tip, and how did you guys hook up and is this something you always wanted to?
Yes “Synchronicities” was a lot of fun to make and Inkswel is a bit of a g and really easy to work with. He knew about my work and contacted me to do a collaboration and we worked on two or three tracks and then found that it was working so well that we just kept going and then the album happened. There was a lot of joy creating it and it’s the first one from me so that makes it quite special. It’s very different from my usual style and is worth listening to and remixes are forthcoming in the next few months.
As well as working in many other genres you have built a huge reputation working in House Music. What are your first memories of discovering the genre and how did you get involved specifically in recording house music vocals?
I guess one of my biggest first steps in house music was with a group called Copyright, who make banging house tracks. They asked me to collaborate with them and those tracks were signed straight to Defected. I ended up doing three tracks with them which was really enjoyable. From there people listened to the music and offered me new collabs and features.
You’re a huge fan of Frankie Knuckles right, as you’ve covered the classic Robert Owens opus “Tears” which Frankie remixed and you’ve also sung Live at his Birthday Tribute in London? How would you describe Frankie’s influence on music and what does he mean to you?
Frankie is known as the Godfather of house for good reason. He was a pioneering DJ and Producer and innovator in music with a magic touch. Frankie managed to get to the heart of the people, instantly moving you. His iconic track “Your Love” with Jamie Principal helped establish the blueprint for the house music genre, and join the dots between classic disco and electronic music which created a fresh sound for the underground club movement, which ultimately later on became more mainstream. Frankie’s creations opened new possibilities for vocalists and I love the way he expressed his soulfulness and self-expression. He opened the door for many artists and cleared a path for people like Kaytranada, Disclosure and more and his influence still resonates today with a recent 70th Birthday celebration for him in London.
Originally from…what were and who are some of your biggest musical inspirations and why?
Always a challenging question to answer as there isn’t really a main influence as each artist affects me in different ways. I love the music of Donny Hathaway, the O’Jay, Anderson Paak, Stevie Wonder, D’Angelo as well as artists like Glen Campbell, Shuggie Otis, Larry Heard and Masters At Work. My influences are very diverse and I like to take in a lot of the music from the world around me and this has an effect on the songs that I create. I love the elegant songwriting that’s half way between soul and funk that Stevie Wonder and D’Angelo do so well to the the driving house of Masters At Work. And of course the endless drive-in grooves of the O’ Jays. All of these are like good medicine. If you only eat one type of fruit and one type of vegetable you’re not going to get all of vitamins you need so I like to listen to all kinds of music in its widest ranges to get my daily dose!
You’ve worked with Japanese-New Zealand electronic producer / DJ / musician Mark de Clive-Lowe, and what are your career highlights to date both in the recording and LIve arena?
Obviously working with Mark de Clive-Low was excellent and a great thrill to be with such an amazing musician who was effortless to work with and before you knew it the track was done. I have sung for Andrew Lloyd Webber at a private party of just 15 people in Cliveden House (which is where the Profumo Affair happened in the 60’s and look that one up if you don’t know about it!). I’ve sung with my son and nine other singers in acapella for David Frost’s wife’s birthday awith Hugh Laurie and football player, David Seaman in attendance. I’ve also been on tour with Leroy Hutson’s full band, singing backing vocals for this amazing legend who has worked with Donnie Hathaway and who coincidentally was his roommate. Touring in Japan with them was super memorable playing in Tokyo and Osaka and at Billboard, a fantastic venue there.
I’ve also performed on both the Main Stage and West Holts Stage at the Glastonbury Festival to thousands of people as well as performing in the rainforests of Malaysia and and the list goes on and grows each year.
Please can you give us 3 of your own tracks which are quintessentially Andre Espeut and tell us a bit about how they came together and why they stand out for you?
I must mention the Andre Espeut Quintet, which was a great project and it was Jorge Montiel who encouraged me experiment with jazz expressions adding them to my musical palette. One song ‘Is Ain’t How It Ends’ which I was working on at home and brought to Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel to have a listen and they instantly like the vibe so we got together to rebuild the track in an amazing way with two different keyboard players because there were parts needed for specialist players of different styles. It took quite a while to come together but the results were really wonderful and it was fun making it. It was really well-received and was played on the A-list of Jazz FM for 6 months and every now and then it gets rediscovered and gets more plays and props. I’m not sure I’ve even performed that track live yet…lol:-)
The next track is a deep house one called ‘The Sound Of My Life’ on Large Music and it was about what sound does for your life in terms of your environment. For this I teamed up with the amazing ColorJaxx who took it to another level and added some live sounds from nature as well as own production. You’ll have to listen to that one to find out what it’s all about.
What’s coming up next for you?
I have a few releases with Imagenes Recordings with Juan and Jorge and there’s three more to come that are surprisingly different from me but also somehow sounding classic. In mid-February there’s a Cooperation Records compilation which includes “Here We Go” with Wipe The Needle. “Leaf” with Robert Burbidge on Tangential Music also just came out recently with Robin Lee from Faze Action on strings.
I have a super cool release coming on Large Music which is a remix of a deep house tune called “Single Tear’ with Julian Sanza. I wanted to do a real downtempo version of it so I created a really slow version and Julian is now working on it for a summer release.
There’s a lot more I could tell you but we can save that for later and I hope to see you at one of my live shows.
“Universal Love” by Juan Laya & Jorge Montiel and featuring Andre Espeut and a Tommy Glasses Remix is out on Imagenes Recordingson February 14th.
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