India.Arie
    Interviews

Thank U, India

03/27/2002 2:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Billy Johnson Jr

Don't let the Grammys and Soul Train Music Awards fool you. Even though those award show programs should be ashamed for not extending R&B vocal performance honors--or any trophies, for that matter--to this Atlanta-based, soulful singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player, the past year has still been great for India.Arie. Her debut album, Acoustic Soul, which includes the empowering hit "Video," achieved platinum status and critical acclaim, and India received praise from three of her music icons: Sade picked Arie to open her Lovers Rock tour, Stevie Wonder featured her in his December 2001 benefit concert, and John Mellencamp recorded a duet with her, "Peaceful World." LAUNCH recently sat down with the talented artist to chat about her upbringing in Denver, her days playing in a school band, and how she's reacting to her explosive success. She also performed live for LAUNCH, but not before trimming her fingernails so she could be at her guitar-playing best. Here's how it went...

LAUNCH: When you got out those clippers to clip your nails, it made me think of the decision you must have made at some time, to not have long fingernails and pick up a guitar and start playing. Do you remember the point in your youth when you made that decision to play guitar?

INDIA: Well, I didn't play guitar in my youth. I didn't start playing until five years ago, something like that. But I mean, I want to make music--I don't care 'bout no fingernails. But the funny thing about that is though, when I was growing up--because I'm into sculpting and making jewelry and stuff--when I was 12 going into a teenager, maybe 12 to 15 or something, I was fascinated with acrylic nails, 'cause it was like a sculpture, and you paint this stuff on, like this powder stuff. But I didn't really like it because I wanted long nails, I liked it because it was making up sculpture--you could paint them and put little designs, that's why I liked them. But when I started playing guitar, it was never even an issue. "Oh, I can't play with that, give me a razor, give me something, I need to get these off!"

LAUNCH: What was it like taking up guitar as an adult?

INDIA: It was just um...I don't know...what's the word? It was very fulfilling. It filled up this space that was empty for a long time, 'cause I grew up playing woodwinds and brass instruments and I was really into it. I was in all kinds of ensemble bands and regular bands and marching bands. Even as a kid, I took recorder, but I was in the ensemble where we did competitions, and I played the tenor and the alto and I was really into all kinds of wind instruments. And I always sang. But when I was in about 11th grade, I was tired of sheet music and band teachers and having to be on time to class and all that crap, and I just quit everything. And the music was always there--I liked listening to it, talking about it, singing it, writing it, all that--so the interest was still in my heart, you know. So when I got to college and someone gave me a guitar...I had always wanted to play because of James Taylor, really, that's why I always wanted to play guitar, 'cause he was just...it sounds so beautiful with his voice. So someone gave me a guitar and I jumped on it right away, and it was never even an issue of is it hard or easy, or "my hand hurts, I'm quitting," or anything. It was just, "This is fun!" It took all this stuff I had learned to an adult level. Even now I'll listen to my guitar playing and be like, "Oh my God," 'cause I haven't practiced...well, I'm about to tell on myself: I haven't practiced all the month of December, 'cause I had been on tour, and I just went home. And when I came today, I didn't warm up or anything, so I was kind of warming up as I played, but then I listened back to it and I was like, "It's cool; mistakes are cool." But having said all that, it was like this challenge and this really interesting, beautiful-sounding instrument that I could all of a sudden take everywhere and I had a reason to, a format, a way to write my songs around. It all came together at once. Because before that, I didn't write any songs, none. I wrote stories and stuff, but then when I started playing guitar, the songs just filled up this whole space that was just empty of music, void.

LAUNCH: When you write songs, do the melodies come first, or the lyrics?

INDIA: Most of the time I start off with the guitar riff, and then lyrics and melody come together. But there's a lot of different ways. Sometimes I write a song to a rhythm instead of a chord progression. Like "Stevie Wonderful" on my album, I wrote it by beating on the table [beats and hums tune], from my head, you know. It just depends. But words are always everywhere, and I hear people say stuff ,and you know...I'm always thinking about writing songs.

LAUNCH: Speaking of "Stevie Wonderful," you had an opportunity to play that for Stevie Wonder. What was that like to play with him, and play that tribute for him?

INDIA: He is beautiful for a lot of reasons, in a lot of ways. I wanted to do it but I didn't want to do it with the house band, because I felt like it was going to be too busy, and I didn't want to be put in an uncomfortable situation where they were too loud or whatever. So I had a friend--his name is Kenny Mohammed, the human orchestra. He's on tour with Angie Stone right now, and the title "human orchestra" fits him 'cause he's very remarkable. Very remarkable, and creative, and everything. And I was like, "You should come to L.A. and we can do 'Stevie Wonderful,' me and you, and you should beatbox and I'll sing." And he made it. He was like, "I'm gonna get my ticket and I'm coming," and he came--all the way from Ohio or wherever they were at the time. He came, and we got to do that, so creatively it was fulfilling, something I had been wanting to do. And then to be there with Stevie there and be able to sing it--it was beautiful. It would have been a fulfilling day whether I got to sing "Wonderful" or not, 'cause I got to sing with him. Me, him, and Musiq Soulchild did "Visions" together--that I felt like was floating in the air! I was just going...I was gone. People started clapping after it was done, and I was like, "Oh, earth to India, earth to India!" But that was a beautiful day. He came out and played harmonica on "Brown Skin," too. I just started jumping, I just stopped singing altogether. That was a good day.

LAUNCH: Did you know he was going to play on "Brown Skin"?

INDIA: No, I just heard some harmonica coming from backstage, and he just kept playing slowly as he walked out. That was good, that was good.

LAUNCH: Yeah, 'cause didn't he tell you he loves that song?

INDIA: Yeah, he did, he did He told me he likes "Promises," too. He told me he likes the whole album. But yeah, he told me he likes that song. And I was hoping he would come out on it. And he did. That was good. That was great.

LAUNCH: On your album, you have these interludes were you say the names of all these renowned singers that were influences. Did you grow up listening to all those singers?

INDIA: I listened to the radio a lot. And I watched MTV a lot, you know. I was a kid when it was new. And BET. But my parents also had records, so I listened to those a lot, too. But music was all I did. If I wasn't listening to a record, I was trying to play some clarinet or something. That's all I did. But I can't say that I listened to all the names that I named on my album. Um, I didn't even know who all those people are. I know what all those people sound like, but I can't name their albums--some of them, yeah; some of them, no. But it was just about reverence when I started singing that in the studio, I just said whatever names came out, whatever came out. But all those people are ancestors--they're in heaven. So that's why I said all those names.

LAUNCH: The other thing about your record is it's encouraging. You could listen to it and feel like, "I'm gonna go do that thing I've been wanting to do." What was that your vision, to give people that power?

INDIA: No, I wish that I had that clear vision when I was recording my album, but I didn't. All that you hear on there is about me and my opinions and how I feel about life. When I first started writing songs, I knew that I just wanted to say things that were uplifting, because if I was going to sing them over and over again, why not make it something that feels good to sing? That's when I started writing lyrics like what you hear on my album, and once my album came out, and I would hear people say, "That's exactly how I feel!" Especially about "Ready For Love,"--a lot of people, men and women, are like, "That is exactly how I feel." And then I started thinking like, "Oh, OK, God is using me." That's cool. That's what I asked for.

LAUNCH: "Ready For Love" is deep. Most people don't go there, it's a really vulnerable thing to sing about. Was that based on an experience? When you hear that song, does it take you back to a particular time?

INDIA: "Ready For Love" is not about an experience. Certain songs on my album are actual affirmations, using the power of words, which is what my whole album is inspired by. When I say it's an affirmation, I mean literally an affirmation that I'm singing, because this is how I feel and I want to say these words because I want the call to compel the answer. So "Ready For Love" is about my desire to meet my soulmate or whatever you want to call that person, whoever is the best person for me and whoever I'm the best person for. And I believe that that is there for me, and I'm just saying that I'm ready for that. It's not about a certain person or anything in my life. I always explain this song by saying this song is a petition to the energy of love, not to a particular person. Like, "Why is he not calling me back?"--it's none of that. It's about just saying I'm open, and in that way it's an affirmation, so whenever I sing it, I feel really great. I feel blessed every time I get to sing it. And on the Sade tour, certain shows would last so long we wouldn't get to fit it in, and I would always be like, "I can't leave without singing it, that's my favorite song." And a few times I just would sing it anyway and we would go over and get charged money and all that, but I just had to--that song means a lot to me. Especially at the age I'm at where, you know, I'm like in between this old girl and full-grown woman, I'm like in here and exploring and ready and trying to see and experience life. I like the person that I'm becoming, and I feel like whoever is that match for me is going to be a dynamic person, very interesting and inspiring to my life! I'll stop talking about it now.

LAUNCH: I have this theory of quarter-life crisis: When you're 25, you think, "I've done everything I've supposed to do, how come life's not working out for me the way it's supposed to?" I don't know if you relate to that at all...

INDIA: That's funny, because I call that "emotional puberty." There's a whole other development of growing pains that you have to go through, but it's all inside and it's all stuff that only you can fix. Your parents can't help you, nobody can help you. You have to whatever--pray or move or change or whatever you do to find that grounding force and move forward and let go of the ways of childhood. You have to do it, nobody else. I didn't like that period. That was the hardest time of my whole life. That's when I was recording my album, so I was going through that and the whole business thing, but I know that it all went together. Phew, that was some hard times. My voice was gone for like eight, nine months--gone, gone, I just couldn't sing at all. There was no resonance to my voice at all for almost a year. And I had an ulcer and I was trying to record my album and argue with producers and...urrrghhh, everything. Yeah, I identify with that. That was some hard times.

LAUNCH: I was reading something about how were you were saying writing is therapeutic--you can get this stuff out of your system. Can you talk about that?

INDIA: That's the way my whole life started to change when I was 20: I just started writing songs. And as the years went by, I realized that I was speaking my mind, totally uncensored. I was saying exactly how I feel. And that's something that I never ever, ever did. I mean, not ever--not to my mom, not to anyone. Especially when it comes down to matters of the heart, I was just [gestures zipping her lips]. Writing songs changed all that. And it's funny, because "Strength Courage And Wisdom"...after that eight or nine months when my voice was gone, and it was just now kinda starting to sorta come back, I was in the studio with [producer] Bob Power, and he was trying to figure out what songs of mine he wanted to attempt a production to and he played "Strength Courage And Wisdom," the guitar/vocal demo, and it hit me. I jumped out of my seat and I started yelling, "I can do this! Yeah that's my song!" I spoke to my own self. That's when I realized how important songwriting is to me, that's when it really hit me, 'cause it really made me feel like I could do it. So it was around that time, if you listen to my voice on that track, you can see were it was kind of new and sick. I don't want to say that word but yeah, that was a harsh lesson to learn about humility.

LAUNCH: Has that helped you in your personal life?

INDIA: Yeah, now I know how to just say, "I don't like that" or "No thank you," instead of holding it in 'til I'm like, "I always hated that anyway! You're fired!" I can just like communicate and let things be more natural. If a person doesn't know what you're thinking, it's your fault, you know. And I learned how to accept the discomfort for what the tradeoff is. It's more kind sometimes to just tell a person what you think, whether or not it's nice--it's the kind thing to do. 'Cause I will explode on a person. So yeah, I'm learning about that. I'm a lot, lot, lot, lot, lot better than I was! That's what took my album so long, 'cause I couldn't explain to people what I wanted, but I knew that I didn't want them to do it all, 'cause: "That's not how I hear it! I don't know, I don't know, but that's just not it!" You know, there was a lot of that. But finally I realized I had to calm down and learn how to speak and convey my ideas and help a person see my vision, or my album was going to be something that I didn't like. And that was the turning point, 'cause that was my worst nightmare. So yeah, I learned that lesson too.

LAUNCH: How do you feel about the finished album?

INDIA: I mean, there's always things that I would change or could change, but everything is like that--a story, a term paper, whatever. There's always things you could change, but at some point you say. "This is what it is, and it captures a certain time period." So for that reason, just being logical, I don't even harp on it, 'cause it would just make me really tired, trying to go back into the past. I didn't have a very clear vision of what I wanted production-wise for my album, so what it is is fine with me. You know, as long as I have the storylines and the words that I want to say--which is the most important part, that and my singing--as long as I have that, I'm OK. And everything else was just experimental, and I'm OK with that. Now I listen back to my album and I think I would like to incorporate more of those sounds that give me the chills, like tabla. I love tabla. The whole time I had my independent album out, my band was me and a cello player. And there's like hardly any cello on my album. And I love flute. There's hardly any flute. There's no flute--well, yeah, there's a little bit of flute. But not the way I want to hear it. So there's things that I definitely want to do for my next one, but not like I wish it was on that [first] one, 'cause there's nothing I can do about that. But for my next one, you know. I like my album--yeah, I do like it. I have to put that in there. I like it. I like it. I like it.

LAUNCH: When I heard your first single, "Video," I thought, "It's about time someone came out and said this." And to be nominated for a Grammy for that song, first time out--that's incredible. Is that a confirmation for you that people were ready for something like that?

INDIA: Well, I don't want to say it that way. I think I just see that after everything that happened last year, where the world really starting to change...we all knew that things are and were going to happen, it's the turn of the century, you know what I mean. It's like, you know something's going to change--it's the new millennium. I wish I could explain better. Like, I think after everything that happened last year, the kind of album I made became very relevant and desirable. And even before the turning point of September 11, it's very clear to me that a new millennium means that a lot of changes are going to be going on in everyone, in our hearts, in our heads, with new ideals. So I knew that it's plain to see. We all knew that. I was hoping that my music would be recognized as a part of that, you know, 'cause for a while I was wondering, is my music going to get overlooked and everyone is going to say, "Yes, 'I Believe I Can Fly' is so inspirational, we're so thankful for R. Kelly"? Not saying that song is inspirational, but R. Kelly does a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but I'm about this. You know? And it's, yeah, validating to be finally seen for what it is that I am attempting to do lyrically through my album. I just think it's relevant. And for that reason, God had me in the right place at the right time. That's how I feel. Like, now I understand why I had that feeling in '99 of "OK, it's now or never." I don't know why I feel this way, but I'm just gonna jump in you know, and make that big tradeoff of having all the control of my stuff or have it be heard worldwide. And I just decided to make that tradeoff for that reason, 'cause saying these words is not going to mean anything if people don't hear them. I'm still formulating that idea 'cause it's real new, but I definitely noticed after...I was on tour with Sade and on September 13 we had a show in Denver and I didn't change one little inkling about my show--the way I dressed, what my band had on, what I said the order of my songs, I didn't add or take anything away--but when I played that show, it was very appropriate, and the same show I had always done took on more power where the audience was really getting it, understanding it. And that gave me this whole other understanding of what my goal and purpose is with this music, and why God would have me write this way. 'Cause I hear lyrics in my sleep and I know it's not me thinking, you know what I mean? That's something I've been thinking about a lot, actually. I don't even remember the question you asked, but that's something I've been thinking about!

LAUNCH: Can you explain what prompted you to write "Video"?

INDIA: That's one of my stories about my teenage and young adult years, where I was trying to figure out how to be comfortable with how I am. 'Cause I'm not going to change it. By the time I was like 14, I figured out, "OK, every day I go to school and the kids talk about me." That's why I hated school, because of the kids. It wasn't even the work or the teachers or anything--it was how I was treated by the kids. I brought it on myself, really, because I liked to wear bellbottoms and patchouli and whatever--I was just me, just being me. And drawing all over my pants and I had braids that I did myself, like long extensions with different colors and beads, and they'd be down to my butt sometimes. I was just being my mother's daughter. She's very artistic and she's an actress and a painter and a sewer, and she taught me everything I know about music. So I was just being her daughter, you know. And I was like, "Well, am I going to change the way I dress even though this is what I want to do, or am I just going to figure out how to insulate myself?" And so, that's what I did. And that's what that song is about. It's not me saying, "You need to put on clothes" or "I don't like the way you are dressed, there's too many video ho's." I wasn't saying that at all. It was just the sentiment of "This is me." And that's why I had that song concept for my first single for a long time, before the song actually got written. I knew that I wanted to write a song that was like that, that was talking about how I am. So, I wrote "Video." I had alternate verses, all these different verses and stuff, and one of the verses was, "I can recall like it was yesterday/Being ridiculed for doing my own thing/I had to be strong, go crazy or change/But I here I am and I'm gonna stay this way. The beauty of imperfection/This is the true confession/Of a weird girl in an old world/I feel like everybody's watching me." You know, that's what "Video" is about--just me feeling so different and growing up. And at 20, when I started playing guitar and stuff, that's when I started deciding like, "I don't wanna do that" or "I don't wanna feel this way and I don't care what anybody says about how muscular my arms are, I don't care, this is how I'm built and I like it and I look like my mom, and I think she's pretty and this is fine." And I just started letting things go and becoming more comfortable with myself. And now where I stand, I don't like everything about the way I look, just like everybody else, but I'm comfortable with how I look and I am very grateful for my physique. I'm thankful I don't have to work out very hard, it's really just hereditary. My dad's a basketball player so I'm thankful for that, 'cause I know I will age well.

LAUNCH: Back on the subject of songwriting, have you been getting requests to write from other people, and is that something you've been thinking about doing?

INDIA: I haven't gotten a lot of requests, but people ask. And whenever I run into different artists, they're like, "We should do a duet together, but you're going to write it." They always say, "You're gonna write it!" But that's cool. I'm just happy to know that art as a reflection of life is saying these things and knowing that that means people are feeling different and thinking different and growing and expanding--and me too, you know. We're all being more expansive and more spiritual in our approach to everyday life, more accepting of different kinds of people. If anything, I know that last year taught me that we all bleed red. I have a song that is not on my album, but in the song I say, "Spirit knows no color/Either you're a hater or lover," and it's all about good or evil now. It's not about the color of your skin, and if any of us haven't learned that yet, we're all gonna find out, I believe. And I like what music is saying about where people are. And so when someone says, "You're gonna write it," then I know like, "Oh yeah, I will write it, and we will sing it." I had this opportunity to write some songs for a three-guy group on Motown. And I remember thinking to myself, "So that means if I write this song, I can have these three young men saying what I wish young men would say!" And I'd be like, "You can't change that lyric. No, it goes like that--sing it. If you want me to write some songs for you, you gotta sing it the way I wrote it." So that's a good prospect and a good feeling, to know that I have the opportunity to do something like that.

LAUNCH: Did you already write this song for them?

INDIA: No, I haven't written it yet. I have some song ideas 'cause they're from North Carolina, so I wanted to write something about Southern men, or something about growing up in the South and having your grandma teach you manners, or growing up around your aunties and they taught you how to treat a lady. That's what I like about the South. It's funny, 'cause as I traveled around the world--it gave me a very deep and new appreciation for the South. There's a very warm energy about the South, and the way that people interact with one other is totally different from anywhere I've been. People actually go, "Hey" on the street; it's like normal to go, "Hey, how you doin'?" Just because you make eye contact with someone, you're not gonna say anything at all? I never understood that. So I wanted to write something about that with the underlying message being "I know how to treat a woman, so give me some of your time and I will be kind and sweet" and all that stuff. So yeah. But I don't know, I haven't written it yet.

LAUNCH: So you know there's this thing were certain guys are like, "I'm a man, you are going to like me because I'm a man!" and then there are the guys who try to cater to the woman. Where do you fall in terms of your taste in men?

INDIA: My mom always says...like, there'll be some guy friend of mine or something who's telling my mom, "I really like your daughter" or whatever, and she'll always say, "He's really nice and everything, but he's not challenging enough for you--you will run all over him." And I don't want that. But I also don't want someone who's so hard that it's hard to get any emotional response from them. So yeah, you know--balance. It would be nice to have someone who's confident and also knows when to be catering. But that's where the whole soulmate or whatever--I don't even know, "soulmate" is the only word I know; sometimes I feel like that word is not all the way what I want to say--but that's what I think the whole soulmate thing is about. When you get someone, they understand you, so it's like, you know, I'm in a bad mood, they don't think you're saying, "I don't like you." I'm just in a bad mood. I want that understanding thing, 'cause I'm a little bit like this [gestures back and forth]. I'm a woman--you know how we do. But a little bit of both. And sometimes I hear--I love Joe, he's like one of my favorite R&B singers, just producers and songwriters and singer, favorite artist all-around--but whenever I hear some of his songs, it's like, I know what he's trying to do, and it's cool in a song, but I like someone who's maybe a little bit more realistic and real-life.

LAUNCH: I was prepared to go on about your mother for a whole interview! This is what she told me: that she sings background on your record and when you listen to the album together and hear an off note, you argue about who it is. Can you talk about her being a singer, and that story?

INDIA: Yeah, well, my mom grew up in Detroit when Motown was new. She had a band and they knew all about her. They wanted to sign her but not her band, so she didn't do that. Then they wanted to put her in Martha & the Vandellas but she was too young, so she didn't do that. Then shortly after, she met my dad and they got married and had kids and stuff. So my mom by trade is a designer and a seamstress. But she taught me everything I now about singing just by example and by sitting me down and showing me things. I remember when Paula Cole was new, I was asking my mother, "A falsetto is when you sing up here like this" and I was like, "How does she do that loud falsetto [sings] like that?" And my mom sat me down, like, "This is how you do it." She taught me a lot of things. I remember being 13 or something like that, and she'd say, "I'm going to teach you how a song is structured--melody, bridge you know. And I was 19 standing in the kitchen--I was just walking by the kitchen--and she said, "You know, I think you should give it a shot at being a professional singer, you could be one of the best, you could be one of the best. Do you want to end up like me and your aunts, where we just sing at church and sing in the kitchen?" And I was like, "OK, I'll give it a shot." And I went away to college like a month later, and came back three months later with songs. And I had started playing guitar. My mother is a great inspiration to me, and my dad too. Because they always told me and my brother we could do anything we want. They would tell us this! It's funny now that I'm older, how much of a difference I know that makes. 'Cause even one of my background singers, she can really sing and she writes these really nice songs and stuff, but when she gets onstage she always gets nervous and her singing is not always that extra level where I know she can go, because growing up her parents were like, "Singers don't make any money, you can't do that, you should be a doctor." And my parents never ever, ever, ever did that. And when I wanted to leave college to make music I was like, "Mom, this is all I've ever done. You know this." [She said], "All right." And I got home and I was there for about six months and she's like, "You know, you need to get a job." And I was like, "I don't want to get a job. Just support me for two years and I will get this off the ground!" And a year later, it was like I had my independent album out. So my mom and dad they had faith in me. I inherited my willpower from them, so I think they know that I can make things happen, and I will do whatever I need to do to make them happen. So yeah, my mom is very, very influential to me. I have a voice that's almost just like hers, because, you know, she's my mom. We speak almost alike, the same low voice, and we sing very much alike. We have a little bit different style--she's more like a Tina Turner, like raspy and all that, and I'm kinda [makes rolling gesture]. But we sound very much alike. That's why I'm very thankful that my mother was a singer. It makes me feel like I sang in all my past lives, too, 'cause my whole family sings. It's a real thing to me.