{"id":7458,"date":"2012-09-24T01:21:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T08:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=7458"},"modified":"2012-09-24T01:21:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T08:21:49","slug":"joss-stone-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2012\/09\/joss-stone-2\/","title":{"rendered":"JOSS STONE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

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

The neo-soul sensation wraps her vocals around a new set of classics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Joss Stone was a nervous 16-year-old kid in 2003 when The Soul Sessions<\/em> made her a star, thanks to its old-school grooves and the slinky hit \u201cFell in Love With a Boy,\u201d a vivid reworking of a White Stripes song. Nearly a decade later, the British singer decided she\u2019d like another crack at it. She re-teamed with Soul Sessions<\/em> producer Steve Greenberg for her latest release, The Soul Sessions, Vol. 2<\/em>. The album features Stone\u2019s interpretations of R&B tunes including \u201cI Got the \u2026\u201d and \u201cWhile You\u2019re Out Looking for Sugar,\u201d along with the Broken Bells song \u201cThe High Road,\u201d the collection\u2019s nod at indie cool.<\/p>\n

Recording a second volume was an uncharacteristic choice for Stone, who has made a point of not repeating herself with projects. But the 25-year-old artist wanted to make the record with experience she didn\u2019t have the first time around\u2014and to counterbalance memories of a project that, for all its success, didn\u2019t live up to its potential in her mind. \u201cI usually don\u2019t try things twice,\u201d she says. \u201cThe fact that I went back in after it went wrong the first time was a big thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She and Greenberg convened in the same Nashville studio where Stone recorded her previous album, LP1<\/em>\u2014but instead of carefully plotting which songs to record, she allowed the material to choose her. \u201cWe had a hell of a good time while we were playing it,\u201d she says, \u201cand it wasn\u2019t too thought-about\u2014that to\u00a0me feels like school, too studied.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What made the timing right for this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Steve had asked me, but I didn\u2019t have time because I was doing LP1<\/em>. I wanted to do it because it sounded fun, and when he asked me again I had time. And it just happened that it\u2019s been almost 10 years since the first one. I guess it adds to the story\u2014something to write about. It doesn\u2019t mean much to me. Though perhaps it will encourage us to make another in 10 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What\u2019s changed in a decade?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first time I did The Soul Sessions<\/em> I literally did not know how to make a record. I actually didn\u2019t know how to sing. I\u2019d never been in a studio before, never played a gig, never sung into a microphone. So it was kind of like the world watched me grow up. At the time I was nervous because I didn\u2019t know what I was doing, and I was a lot quieter than I am now because I was busy listening. I probably should be a bit quieter now. But with all the experience I\u2019ve had from record to record, I\u2019m at the point where I make records the way I want to make them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How was this process different?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first time around we were in New York. The mistake we made was pre-picking the songs. A massive part of my method now is spontaneity\u2014not thinking too hard and not worrying. It\u2019s funny, I feel like you can overtalk the idea of making music, or any kind of art. When we were back in Nashville for the second time around it was like, \u201cOK guys, set it all up, make sure the band is ready to go, the record button is ready to be pressed, and my mic is on.\u201d Then we would go into the control room, everyone would sit around and we\u2019d play songs from this massive list that Steve had. And I\u2019d say, \u201cOK, why don\u2019t we try this one?\u201d Moments later we were playing it, and what you hear on that record is what we played.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are these mostly first takes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

They\u2019re first, second or third takes. If we had to mess around with a song for more than that, I chose not to carry on because what\u2019s the point? Either it feels good or it doesn\u2019t. These musicians are so good they don\u2019t need more than two or three takes. Then it\u2019s just lethargic and it takes the fun out of it.\u00a0 And I wanted everything to feel good\u2014not like an unruly jam, but a jam all the same. It adds a spark and a bit of \u201cOh my God, we don\u2019t know what each of us is going to do.\u201d Because I\u2019m singing with them, they have to listen to where I\u2019m going with my voice and use the dynamics to complement that. And sometimes they would move the dynamic, and I\u2019d have to go with that. We\u2019d kind of bounce off of each other.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How many songs did you know?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I knew some but not all of them. Steve picked loads of good tracks I\u2019d never heard. I knew \u201cThen You Can Tell Me Goodbye,\u201d which is one of my favorite songs, so that was really hard for me to do. But we ended up changing it so much that it wasn\u2019t too bad. I love the strings on \u201cI Got the \u2026\u201d They\u2019re amazing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How was it working with Steve again?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was funny\u2014and interesting because the last time he worked with me I was a kid. So I don\u2019t know what it was like for him, but I\u2019m sure it was a bit strange. He had to figure out what I\u2019m about\u2014though I\u2019m pretty easy to read; I\u2019m not a quiet person. If I\u2019m feeling something I will just say it. It\u2019s pretty easy for people to understand where I\u2019m coming from.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You once referred to your second album as your real debut.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was to me then, because I was writing. And the third album was actually the music that I wanted to make, because I really loved that hip-hop kind of R&B sound. The first record is all covers and it\u2019s basically Steve\u2019s project that I was lucky to be part of. I was able and allowed to write songs for the second album, so that was a bonus.\u00a0 And the third one I was able to be a part of the music. It was a journey\u2014and after that I just made whatever I wanted to make.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This album is also covers, so where does it fit in?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first wasn\u2019t really my project. I was the singer but I was doing a job I didn\u2019t know how to do. It had my name on it but that was really Steve\u2019s baby\u2014he put the songs together, he had the vision. This time I created it with Steve Greenberg and [co-producer] Steve Greenwell\u2014so although we didn\u2019t write the songs, it\u2019s as if we did. It feels like we created the sounds and the changes and all that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Did the SuperHeavy<\/em> project with Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart influence this?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably not. I think making Colour Me Free!<\/em> and LP1<\/em> gave me the experience to make this one in the way that we did. Those records were so free-form, and that\u2019s the kind of treatment this album needed. The SuperHeavy<\/em> record wasn\u2019t like that: We did two sessions of two weeks, and I went in, I wrote, I sang, and then I left. After that it was in Dave and Mick\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So you\u2019re happier with Vol. 2<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Way happier. If I weren\u2019t, I wouldn\u2019t have put it out. I really did have a lovely time because we were in an environment where we could.<\/p>\n

\u2013Eric R. Danton<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JOSS STONE The neo-soul sensation wraps her vocals around a new set of classics Joss Stone was a nervous 16-year-old kid in 2003 when The Soul Sessions made her a star, thanks to its old-school grooves and the slinky hit \u201cFell in Love With a Boy,\u201d a vivid reworking of a White Stripes song. Nearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[4924,4922,2469,4538,4923,970,4921],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458"}],"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=7458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7460,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7458\/revisions\/7460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}