Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: I live in Maryland but am from a small town in South Carolina called Kingstree. I began singing in my great-grandmother’s church, she was the pastor, and I spent most days and all-day Sunday in church. We were Holiness, very strict, no makeup, no pants, etc., but the music fascinated me, and I loved it. My first memory is singing at the age of 3; this little light of mine was the song. Everyone who knows me can tell you I sing without thinking, and there is always a song in my mind. I have always wanted to have a singing career, but the time was never right. The funny thing was time was not right this time either, but I prayed and asked God to push me through, and he did. So here I am, “Never too old, Never too late” is my new motto.
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: I like a lot of artists, CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, Zacari Cortez, Koryn Hawthorne, Aretha Franklin, Donnie Hathaway, Al Greene, Elton John, Chris Stapleton, Rick Springfield, Prince, so many artists, and influences, but I have found myself listening to a lot of Nina Simone. She has a hauntingly beautiful voice with so many nuances. She has become one of my favorites. I love music, I turn on my player and don’t pick a genre, I listen to whatever comes up. You discover so many hidden treasures that way.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: Because I grew up holiness, I couldn’t watch much TV as a child or listen to the radio, so most of the music I heard was in church. I could watch Educational TV and they always had plays and operas on the channel. So, I watched a lot of Hee Haw as a young kid; this was of course before cable, we got 3 stations ABC, NBC, and CBS on a good day. I remember when I time, my Auntie Cottie came home from college and played the Jackson 5, and my uncle played Al Greene and Bobbie Womack’s “Harry Hippie” on my new component set (boy, I just aged myself), I was hooked. I tried to sing like them, but I loved it. But my earliest influence was probably Gospel and Country, it’s what I heard the most. I do remember watching an Opera on ETV and thinking I want to sing like her, singing trying.
Q: You have just released your new single, ‘Walking with the Lights Out’. Is there a story behind it?
A: As I was working on my project, I wanted it to be mostly my creation, I got the beat from Tweezy, who’s my producer, and I stayed up late writing this song because I had time in the studio the next morning. I was in the kitchen trying to figure out how I wanted to sing it and how to make it mine. I, Tweezy, and Slim (my engineer) were usually in the studio. I was playing the beat repeatedly, and I heard the beginning, and it sounded like “walking with the lights out.” I think I rewrote the song in about 10 minutes, and 30 minutes later, I was in the studio just letting it flow; this song wrote itself. I direct a youth choir at my church, Shiloh Community UMC, in Newburg, and we were going to sing this little light of mine for the kids that Sunday. The song was in my head, but I did not hear it until we were listening in the studio, and I thought to myself, WOW, this is the adult version of “This little light of Mine” for me.
Q: Can we expect a new EP or even an album from you in the near future?
A: My EP is scheduled to drop on August 31st; it’s complete, with eight songs, including “Walking with the Lights Out.” All Beats were by my engineer Tweezy, and lyrics on 7 of the eight were written by me. I have named it Praise Evolution: One-on-One with God. This has been an evolution for me, from the 1st song to the last.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: As a Gospel singer, that is a tricky question. My music is very different from what I usually do. In church with other groups, I usually sing traditional Gospel songs; this project has a Blues, retro feel. I feel as you listen to it, you will realize the R&B influence in it. I wanted this to be a quiet, contemplative project, I wanted to express my love of God in a quiet, contemplative way. Sometimes you must be still and listen, which is what I wanted to show. My sound is probably a mixture of so many things I have heard before, all mixed up in my mind and coming in my soon-to-be-released project. Someone told me on this project that my voice sounds smoky; I guess I describe my sound as smoky, without the smoke.
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: This journey has just begun; I cannot begin to express the pleasure of completing this project, it has been three years in the making, and I have gone through multiple producers to find one who “let me be” myself. Because I sing in local churches and venues, people would often have a preconceived notion of what I should sound like and what the songs I sing should sound like. I had other things in my head. I wanted to try something different, and I did. I don’t know what I expected; I was a little afraid at first because, to put it out there, no one likes rejection, but even negative opinions mean you listened once; if I hadn’t completed the project, there would be nothing to listen to.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: I have poems I have written for years, songs I have written, and thought I would turn them into a project, but that did not happen. When I began this journey with another producer, he had written some music that I liked, we tried to write the lyrics, but it never flowed right, so we hired Krystal Oliver to write the lyrics, and boy did she. I couldn’t finish the song, I felt I was being led to mimic what she did, and that wasn’t what I felt. Entered Tweezy, who listened to me and sent me beats to listen to, I wrote what was in my heart and what the music said to me. I would listen to the music and hear the words I felt I wanted to say to that music, almost; in like a conversation with the beat. Sometimes I did not get a lot of sleep, so I would try to work on a song before bed, but often at 2 or 3 am, I would wake up with the music and lyrics in my head. I would get up, write them down and go back to sleep (sometimes), in the morning, I would record how I wanted it to go on my phone, and when we got to the studio, we would work it out. This was truly a collaborative effort with Tweezy and Slim, they encouraged my style and helped me bring this to completion.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve endured in your life or music career so far?
A: In life, the death of my great-grandmother and grandmother. My great-grandmother was my world, I did not know for years there was a world beyond my little village, I can truly say she instilled in me things I carry to this day. Small nuggets can carry you through a lifetime, she died when I was very young in elementary school, but I still remember some of her words and just her overwhelming loving presence. My grandmother died 2 years ago at the age of 94, she was a character, feisty, fierce, and driven. She taught me how to survive and navigate life. I still pick up my phone to call her and then I remember she is gone, she never let me talk on the phone for more than a minute or two, she would say, “OK baby, get off this phone before you run the bill up,” and then in that sing-song voice of hers, “OK, love you, bye bye,” and hang up on you. She could never grasp the concept of limitless minutes. We all joke about it now.
In my music career, I don’t think I’ve experienced the most difficult thing yet, I always tell my kids, “Life is difficult, at best.” Ask me that question after Project #2.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: I could go Mom on you and say, my children were my proudest moment, but they already know how I feel. I think hitting the button and releasing this song was my most significant moment. I didn’t tell my family until I had done it, they knew I was working on a project, but not when it would be released. To have my children say, “Mom, I love your song, I am so proud of you”, I cannot tell you how that felt. And afterward, they did not ask for money. I was overwhelmed. They have listened to me sing in churches and other venues for years and have said, why don’t you do a song, not even begin to understand how much that was what I wanted to do. Easier said than done, but now that they are grown and living their lives, it’s my time to pursue my dream, and they support it! That was a momentous time for me. I am living the dream; who would have thought I would get this far with my music, “Never too old, never too late.”
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