Last year you and Lascelles created Deco Recording Group. As an independent artist, what are the pros and cons of releasing an album on your own terms?
You have a lot more control over how many singles, what singles, what videos, how many videos to do. You can control the creative aspect of it much more closely. I think that a con is that it's constant. It's a 24/7 kind of a thing, you know? You can't leave any stone unturned. You got to be out there hustling. You got to micro-manage every aspect of the business. I'm so used to working with many different departments when it comes to putting together a record – packaging, photo shoots, scheduling, itineraries, radio gigs – there are different departments for those kinds of things. When you're dealing with a much smaller staff, it's a lot more work.
What is it like to work with your husband on a professional level?
When we put our minds together, when we're in sync, a lot of things flow more easily than when we're separate. When I say separate, I mean when somebody else has their hand in the direction of the steering of the business. For some reason, it doesn't quite flow as nicely as when two of us come together and come together with our teams to figure out how we're going to execute whatever the mission is. We've worked like this for years now starting off as songwriting partners and doing it to a much more of a business level. He's managing me as well. Now he's totally focused on running the label. We have our ups and downs but I think that the most important thing is that we always work it out. Usually our personal relationship is mostly intact. It's the professional business where we may disagree about certain things. We never really argue unless it's on a professional level.
How did the two of you come up with the company name, Deco Recording Group?
I usually come up with the names. It's just my name.
Ah, I see! [laughing] Shortened.
Yeah. [laughing]
That's cute! [laughing] The first project from Deco was The Promise, which was released in the midst of your third pregnancy. In fact, you were visibly pregnant in the music video for "Beautiful U R." From a marketing perspective, how has the promotion differed from the albums of the past, and in what ways did you have to be more creative in promoting awareness of your album?
Right now, it's a really serious transitional time for the record business. We had to try and find ways of staying visible while the whole thing is transitioning and figuring itself out. Once I found out I was pregnant, we put all the photo sessions on the fast track. The video, on the other hand, we couldn't get done earlier because the scheduling didn't work out. When it did work out, I didn't think it would be right to try and hide the pregnancy or anything like that, so we incorporated it. I'm due in February, so I've stopped promotion and everything now for the next couple of months. I'll pick up again once I have the baby and I'm ready to get back out again. The plan right now is to release a new single. "Saying Goodbye" is the next single and then we'll have the video ready for that, probably March. Then we'll forge forward with the next single. We will also be bringing "Beautiful U R" stateside, as well. I'm sorry I couldn't give you a straight answer, but we're really navigating our way through it as we speak, you know.
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1 - Richard
will you make friends with me?