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Yeah, I believe us the media we are one of the main reason it’s about what we put out all the time, Jazz music is not airing enough. But in the meantime, our outfit has always given a good share to Jazz music because we believe it’s time to get back to the fundamentals of music. Things are getting off the tracks.
Thank you for that.
In your teens you began gigging around Nashville, and one of your demos caught the ears of Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, the production team who have written hits for Shakira, Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson, and are best known for discovering Rihanna as a teen and signing her to their production company SRP. Why when Rogers flew to Nashville with an offer to sign you, your parents refused? Do you think you would had had a different career?
Well it’s a bit complicated my father was a bit stubborn at that time. I think he wanted to give a different direction to my career that wasn’t meeting, what Rogers and Sturken had in mind. Beside the artistic direction, I think he wanted to have the exclusivity to put me out there a certain way. He wanted me to grow a bit more. That happened when I was 17. I ended up moving out of the house when I was 21. My mum told me you should try to get back in touch with Evan and Carl. She got the number from my father and I called them. I said I’m living on my own now and he asked are you ready to be a star? (Laughs) later on I got that contract with Blue note.
So, it means, it was simply supposed to be that way .
Yeah, the timing was good.
While creating your music, what inspires you the most?
I think music is bit therapeutic. I like timeless music that everybody can feel.
How do you see your art? A way to simply entertain, or it has a deeper meaning?
That is a very good question. It may be difficult to explain but I sing from heart I sing from soul. Make some fun songs. And of course, everybody can give the meaning they want from it.
Beside music, you have a huge interest in automobile. I know women love nice cars, but for you it’s a different passion why?
Yeah beside music I love cars, right now I’m recycling them, I have a collection of about 13 cars from the classics to the new Humvees, I love their symmetric forms.
You could have been a car designer?
Yeah, I’m an artist, I draw cars. I love the horse power, the feature, the sounds. I like to work on them paint their body and stuff like that.
Music critics while listening your albums Soul Eyes (2016), and Indigo (2018) have dubbed your style, a refined mix of R&B, Jazz and Pop music. Don’t you think that to label you as a Jazz singer mainly, is reductive, unless you believe that since Jazz is the root of all these genres, then it’s perfectly normal to be a jazz singer while exploring other influences?
Absolutely, I’m not just straight Jazz. Nina Simone is a great example. She had a lot of different influences. I get to mix it up even if my foundation is Jazz, I need to have a bit of Soul, Gospel, Pop R&B. people love it. It gives me a broader audience
You seem influenced by the link between the past and the present why?
I like to take these old sounds, negro spiritual, blues and rhythm, and mix it up with more modern vibes. It always amazes me to see how old music sound in you a new concept.
Is it’s a way to vivify ancient music?
Absolutely. Giving it a new life, is always cool.
Many outsiders can try to define an artist or a person but the truth only comes from the individual. So how do you define yourself. What type of artist you are? And what type of person are you? Is the artist different from the person?
Well that is a good question. There is the showbiz side but the main thing is really me. The artist I ‘am, Faithfully represent the person I am. It’s true my voice tone will take different colors, because while singing I go through all my influences, so at a time I will sound like Billy Holliday, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, or even Norah Jones, who has influenced deeply my teens years.
On the album, what is the song where you most felt that the first take was the right one?
It's Absolem. For the record, I was in the studio with Tefa and the team. And Brav sends us a kind of voice memo that he recorded at home, with his voice. Together with Tefa, and Kayna, we said "we have to do it now". I took a few minutes to put the melody in my head, I laid it on track and I did not come back on it. On pieces like that, febrile, fragile, that come to take my heart, it must be done right away.
Flashmag November 2019 www.flashmag.net
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