EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW w/ CHRISETTE MICHELE

Section: Talent

Angel

You might know 24 year-old Chrisette Michele’s powerful vocals from such hits as Jay-Z’s “Lost One” or Nas’ “Can’t Forget About You” but this soulful singer is coming out with her own album “I AM’ on June 19th.

Angel: Hi Chrisette
Chrisette: Hi, How are you?
Angel: Pretty good. Thank you for taking the time to sit with me.
Chrisette: No doubt.
Angel: First off, I want to congratulate you on your upcoming album. I love your sound, so I can’t wait to hear the new album.
Chrisette: Thank you.

Angel: My first question is how did u end up signing up with Def Jam?
Chrisette: Um, I don’t know [laughs]. I guess they found me, from a bunch of piles of.. What are those things called?
Angel: Demos?
Chrisette: You put it in an envelope and your names in it and your c.d. is in it…
Angel: A Demo. [laughs]
Chrisette: [laughs] Yeah, a big pile of demos & pictures. You don’t really hear that that much right now. But they actually looked through their piles and an assistant at Def Jam came onto it and gave it to Shalik Berry. He came and saw me perform, and a little while later I had an audition with L.A. Reid, and I was signed that third day.

Angel: Oh Ok. So your album is entitled ‘I AM’ how did you go about picking a title?
Chrisette: You know.. I wrote every song on the album and the thing I couldn’t come up with was a title for the album and that’s pretty crazy. But a bunch of people kept emailing me saying, “this is a good one” and “this is a good one.” And Finally somebody, Amber Nobal emailed me and said “How about ‘I Am’”
Angel: un huh
Chrisette: I looked at it for a few minutes and I said that makes sense, and I just went with it.

Angel: Your sound is really old school like Classical Jazz, mixed with Blues, mixed with Soul, mixed with a lot of different stuff. So, what would you, rather, who would you describe your influences as?
Chrisette: my influences are definitely Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Sarah Vaughn, which I incorporate into my live show. And then Lauryn Hill was definitely a great influence of mines when she came out, as well as Erykah Badu. I say those five people had the greatest influence on me.
Angel: Yeah, I saw that video on Youtube when you were singing that Billie Holiday song and I was like whoaaaa..
Chrisette: [happy] ooooOOh nooo
Angel: That was good, I was like whoa, you sound just like her..
Chrisette: [laughs] Cool.

Angel: Okay, so what producers and collaborators did you work with on this album?
Chrisette: I worked with Will.I.Am, John Legend, Babyface, Kelvin Wooten, Jazz, and I produced on the album as well.

Angel: So, who produced ‘Good Girl’ because that is my new jam.
Chrisette: Thank you. Um, Salam Remy he did Lauryn Hill’s first album.
Angel: Oh ok, that makes sense because that song is fly.
Chrisette: Yes, Salam Remy..
Angel: Can you bust the chorus for ‘Good Girl’ for my visitors..
Chrisette: [sings the chorus]
Angel: Ut oh! Thank you. [laughs]
Chrisette: Your welcome.

Angel: So how was it working with Jay-Z and Nas?
Chrisette: Scary. I was very scared to work with Jay-Z. You know sometimes every once in awhile, in life, you say ‘Why would I get the opportunity to do this.”
Angel: Yeah
Chrisette: So I didn’t know what he saw in me. So I didn’t know what part of myself to give. But when we got there, I literally recorded four hooks in the studio and he ended up liking one. So, like I said it was just very scary. He is very meticulous – he knows what he wants. So it was very scary. But Nas wasn’t in the studio. Basically, his manager called me while I was in the studio in New York City and told me what the song was about. Had me listen to it, and I basically just wrote what I felt and handed it in and they liked it. I also got to write two other songs on his [Nas] album, which was very cool, and sing another hook.

Angel: Ok. You said Jay-Z is very meticulous, but obviously he thought you were good enough to put on a hook so I guess you got the stamp of approval right?
Chrisette: I’m still thinking in my head, “You really like this.” You know like for real? [Both of us laugh].

Angel: So what type of music do you listen to?
Chrisette: Classical & Jazz and a lot of Adult contemporary. I listen to everything, hip-hop, country..everything.
Angel: Ok, so a very eclectic mix of stuff.
Chrisette: Yeah. Mostly Jazz and Classical – but yeah I listen to everything.

Angel: So, how do you feel about the whole music scene right now? Because we basically got a lot of pretty girls that can’t really sing their way out of a run-down strip club..
Chrisette: [laughs]
Angel: So how do you feel about the music scene right now?
Chrisette: We have a lot of wonderful dancers.
Angel: [laughs] What about singers though?
Chrisette: .. A lot of great choreography. A lot of very healthy people, and that’s wonderful. We have a great dance culture right now and I think that is a lot of fun for the young people to emulate when they watch it on television. We have a lot of cool outfits, but I don’t think we have a lot of singers right now.
Angel: We sure don’t. So, how are you gonna add on to this then? Because you’re a singer so you gotta find you way into the mix.
Chrisette: How do I find my mix into the dance scene that’s on right now?
Angel: Yeah, because you know that’s the mainstream thing right now. How you gonna find your way into this mix of dancers and people who can’t basically sing, when you actually have some concrete talent.
Chrisette: I have no idea. I have no idea, and it was never my plan to try and fit in. It was just a plan to be myself and see what happens. When I got signed to the label, I was like, “WORD?” [both of us laugh] So I don’t know. God’s favor is taking me places, so I just want to see what God is doing and leave it up to him. Because I have no idea sista, no idea.
Angel: Keep doing you and you don’t have to worry about anything.
Chrisette: Thank you.