{"id":1482,"date":"2010-09-12T18:19:59","date_gmt":"2010-09-13T01:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2010-09-12T18:22:45","modified_gmt":"2010-09-13T01:22:45","slug":"angie-stone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/09\/angie-stone\/","title":{"rendered":"Angie Stone"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANGIE STONE<\/strong><\/h1>\n

A soul songstress\u2019 new music embraces her past and the present<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Angie Stone\u2019s latest album, Unexpected<\/em>, lives up to its title. She departs from the bread-and-butter traditional soul that has characterized her career over the last decade, returning to the flavor of her pre-solo groups: the \u201980s funky hip-hop of the Sequence and the \u201990s dance and R&B of Vertical Hold. \u201cI stepped out of the norm of singing songs that cater to the neo-soul ticket,\u201d she says. \u201cEverybody\u2019s expecting that. I took a chance on encompassing my entire career up to this point.\u201d The Atlanta resident took time during a recent visit to New York to talk about the evolution of her brand of sweet soul music.<\/p>\n

It was surprising to hear Auto-Tune <\/strong>on \u201cTell Me.\u201d Why did you do that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love T-Pain, and it was just paying homage to him. I think people get a bum rap when they go outside of the box. Why kill the dream of someone that picked up that torch and ran with it? You have to allow people to be clever and creative. I heard a lot of people comment, \u201cOh he\u2019s only using that because he can\u2019t sing.\u201d Well I did it, and I can sing.<\/p>\n

Where did you record the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I started out in Marvin Gaye\u2019s studio [Marvin\u2019s Room] on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, and I ended up in a little studio down in Atlanta [M Studio], and stayed there. I did preproduction in other little studios that were owned by some of the producers, but that place helped me to finish the album in a good space.<\/p>\n

Your father died while you were making Unexpected<\/em>. What impact did that have on the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It pushed me a little harder. The industry has been so jaded lately, with everybody like crabs in a barrel trying to stick to the top. So when my father passed away, it gave me a whole other purpose to work hard. I actually went in and re-recorded the vocals to quite a few songs, because after my father passed I had a little bit more energy and adrenaline to go in and approach the songs from another area.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been making music for <\/strong>three decades now. How have <\/strong>the changes in technology <\/strong>influenced your creativity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It really hasn\u2019t had an effect on my creativity. They found a faster way to cut, which in my opinion is like racing to the finish line. The result is super-fast songs and super-fast lyrics and super-fast energy. In earlier days it was a slow brew. The song grew as a result of the creation of it together. Back in the day you took your time and you created a masterpiece. That\u2019s why they\u2019re called standards! I still want that authenticity and that slow brew sometimes. As a matter of fact, two days ago I got this sudden urge. I don\u2019t know why, but I felt like I wanted to do something in the [classic soul] mood of Black Diamond<\/em> [1999] and Mahogany Soul <\/em>[2001]. I told one of my managers, \u201cGet me an \u201987 Fender Rhodes and call the studio to see if next week is available.\u201d I just want to go in and shut all the doors and create an awesome, awesome soul album. I don\u2019t know where that urge came from, but that\u2019s where I want to go next.<\/p>\n

How do you think you fit in <\/strong>today\u2019s musical landscape?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I honestly don\u2019t believe in \u201cWhere do you fit in?\u201d I have my fan base, like Rihanna has her fan base, like Beyonc\u00e9 has her fan base, like Toni Braxton has hers, like Sade has hers. What you\u2019re asking me is, \u201cHow do you think you compare with the likes of these 15- and 16-year-olds?\u201d My thing is, I don\u2019t compare. I\u2019m different, I stand in a class of my own. There are adults in the world. This whole world is not made of children. There has to be someone who is a keeper of that flame, and I\u2019d like to be that person.<\/p>\n

\u2013Richard Cromelin<\/p>\n

Jan\/Feb 2010 Issue of M Music & Musicians<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANGIE STONE A soul songstress\u2019 new music embraces her past and the present Angie Stone\u2019s latest album, Unexpected, lives up to its title. She departs from the bread-and-butter traditional soul that has characterized her career over the last decade, returning to the flavor of her pre-solo groups: the \u201980s funky hip-hop of the Sequence and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1025,741,1023,32,1024,1022,1021,1020,1019],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1485,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions\/1485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}