Hi dude. Inspired so much by and Soul. Where did that all come from?
“I think it’s because of their melodic qualities and the emotion in the music. It’s pure, and you can’t fake that kind of music. It’s not pre-fabricated, it’s spontaneous and I think it’s the pure essence of the human emotion.”
You work these influences into your house music productions too right?
“Yes of course. For me, all the music I create comes from some form of Soul music because that was the primary style of music that I was influenced by as a child.”
Who were the artists that influenced you?
“Everybody really. I can’t really focus on any one particular artist. My parents listened to everybody. My mum’s favourite was Aretha Franklin and my father’s was James Brown. But I heard everything, especially during the 70’s. Growing up in St Louis was quite an interesting thing because the mid-west states of the U.S are all pretty much in the centre of the country and so we got all the music that was from the popular cities as well as music that were regional. So we pretty much got everything.”
When did you move to New York?
“I moved to New York when I was about 18. I’d moved to L.A when I was 17 and I stayed there for around a year a half before moving to New York. I was basically bi-coastal – I had a place in both New York and L.A. I spent my young adulthood and adolescence in those two places but my educational years and musically influenced years were in St Louis.”
I’d say that Prince was a big influence on you…?
Definitely. When Prince came out he was such a big influence for all of the musicians in the area because he was a mid-western artist, I mean he’s from Minneapolis which is considered to be in the north of the mid-west, but he was such a big influence for us because here was a guy that we could relate to.
His music was also similar to what we were playing such as funk, and that’s pretty much what all the musicians we’re playing in St Louis – soul & funk.
Let’s talk about your band. It’s not the first time you’ve put a band together is it?
“No, but most of the instrumentation on the album is myself alone. There’s only a few songs that the band actually play on, and even they were more ‘studio’ type sessions rather than us all playing live in a room together. I’d say 92% of the album is just me playing alone.”
How long did it take for the whole album to come together?
“I actually started some of the songs from this album in 1994, so it’s from then to now. Not a lot of songs have made it from that period but the staple songs such as ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Paint me a Picture’ are from the mid-to-late 90’s and early 00’s. They’ve been re-recorded several hundreds of times! And the newer songs on the record have been written over the last 4 years, so it’s been a long process. To me, it feels like my first album because it’s the one that I’ve worked on the longest and it’s the closest to me musically as well as the most vulnerable I’ve been musically. So to me it feels like my first album because it expresses the evolution of myself as a person.”
Are you happy with the finished album?
“Yes, definitely. The songs on the album are where they need to be, but the album was more about the responsibility of being the artist I thought I was ready to be. It was different for me as I’d come from the standpoint of a producer for most of my career and when I started the label I didn’t have the idea of being an artist but once you put your name on a record you become an artist.
For the last 10 years I’ve been known for house music producing and I’ve got use to just being behind the scenes, so the way I see the album is me taking responsibility of seeing what ever comes my way in this next step. Vocally and with singing, I think people now expect a lot more from you and from what I’ve experienced over the last 10 years is that it’s quite invasive. It’s invasive how people attach themselves to you personally because from what they get from your music.
There is a lot of responsibility and with this album and at this stage of my life I guess I’m accepting and ready to take on whatever additional responsibilities I’ll have to come across as an artist.
You can’t blame people for attaching themselves to you because of your music though can you?
“No not at all, and I’ve reached a point now when I’m ready to take that on and also take the responsibility of that on. But it is kind of invasive when you go out on tour and you have people putting a lot of pressure on you most of the time, and it’s not a negative thing but there are times when you don’t have the energy to sit down and talk to people and be nice all the time. So it is a big responsibility in how you’re perceived by a person who has just met you for 10 seconds because they will take that with them for the rest of their life.
Personally, I wasn’t ready to take that on until now.”
Do you think that your ego may inflate a bit now that you’re the lead singer with you’re band and you have the album out?
“No, I’m not an egotistical person. I’m really clear about myself and I’m really clear about why I do the things I do. I’m not in this for fame, money or any of that. When I started the label I made a pact with myself that I would just do music because it’s a healing force for me and it’s my passion, and it’s the way to express myself. It would’ve been fine for me not to receive appreciation from people. Of course I do love the fact that people do understand and get my music, but that’s not why I do it. By being a producer for most of my career I’ve seen loads of artists ruin their careers because of their egos, and when this happens their music becomes secondary. When you don’t have your passion you become a parody of yourself, and I could tell you a million examples of when I’ve seen this. I think it’s a blessing for me to have been able to learn those lessons from other people’s mistakes.
What has this album enabled you to express?
The album itself has let me express where I am personally. Musically it’s the music I’ve been making from day one, although it’s been mainly house music for a lot of my career. I’d say that 30% of the house productions contained this type of music; it was just never represented properly because the house music was always at the forefront. It’s the right time for me, personally, to express: ‘This is who I am’ this is the closest (musically) you’ll get to what I do and what I am. The songs are about my evolution, such as the relationships I’ve had in my life, relationships that have made me change and which have taken me through ups and downs.”
Is that depicted in the opening track – ‘All My Tears’?
“Well all the songs are pretty much about relationships – ha! ‘All My Tears’ is about the downside of a relationship – how someone can be in a situation and know that it’s right for them and know that it’s the best for them but they kind of give up and settle for something else.
‘Complacent’ is a song which is about a lot of people that I know are in relationships and stay in them even though the situation of it is really unhealthy. It’s human nature I guess to stay in situations and get complacent just because they have the fear of not being with someone.
So the record also expresses my experiences of that but also the fact that I don’t need another person to complete me or to define me. Of course I’d love to spend my life with somebody and share with somebody but at the end of the day you are one person and your growth and your life is based upon yourself. What I’ve learned about relationships is that people join forces and they end up losing themselves and they start to think as one as opposed to two people in one situation. I think being individual is the most important theme about the album.”
Which singles are you going to release from the album?
“I haven’t really picked any singles out as yet, but I think one of the strongest would be ‘Butterfly’ which is one of the oldest songs (written in 1994) and it’s more about hope. It’s seeing the world as it is and wanting to correct the wrongs if possible. ‘Compatible’ is about a screwed relationship where there’s nothing right about it but you stay in it. For me the strongest single would be ‘Paint me a picture’ which is about a relationship I was in with a painter (an artist) and it includes a lot of references to painting and drawing. It’s kind of like that movie ‘What dreams are made of’- it’s basically saying ‘Paint me a picture that’s beautiful and has nothing negative in it’ so that song is more about the fairy-tale idea of a relationship.”
The album is an amalgamation of soul, jazz and world music. So why did you feel you had to depart from your traditional house background?
“It’s not that I had to depart from it it’s just that over the years house music has become less important to me in the sense that whilst I was doing the house music I was still working on the sound of this album but just not releasing it. It’s not really a departure but more of a reversal to what is closest to me in actuality. I think in general house music has become a bit boring and I needed a break from it. I’ve been listening to what’s been happening in the genre and with the new technology there are a lot of people making house music who perhaps shouldn’t be making it. It’s just become one sound for me.
Releasing this album is like a release for myself. I mean it’s done and it’s out there and whatever happens with it is fine. It’s a personal endeavor for myself and if people get it – then that’s fine and if they don’t its fine. It’s the same feeling I had when I set the label up and put my first house record out in that it was strictly for me. I had no ideas or expectations about it, it was strictly for me and by the grace of God I had some listeners.”
Has the title something to do with your spirituality as well?
“I’d say yes because if you look at the album cover there’s 3 flares and each flare represents a specific rebirth that has gone on in my life, spiritually. There’s one above the head that represents the time I became a priest, there’s one at the back and there’s one beneath the balls! And each one represents a specific spiritual and personal rebirth that happened in my life. The picture on the cover sees a guy in the foetal position in a coiled grapevine on the ground, and it’s a picture I took about two years ago and it was from a shoot I was doing for a friend. I didn’t have a specific idea for the cover at the time, but that shot just looked like a guy being reborn so it was perfect and it works.
Album covers have always intrigued me and I think that’s what’s missing in album artwork today, there’s not much that draws you into it. I certainly think this cover is going to grab people’s attention.”
