Interview: Oleta Adams - Singer, Songwriter and Producer - Page 5

When you first came out, you were doing a style of music that was different from the norm, so your first two albums were self-financed. What particular obstacles did you have to overcome? One source noted that you spent nearly $5,000 on your demo!

Yes, $5,000. I borrowed $5,000 from the bank. Understand that I had been a professional musician performing in clubs and so forth for 17 years before I got discovered by Tears for Fears. So this isn't one of those things where you say, "Okay I'm going to be a singer," and you sing a couple of songs and then somebody says, "Oh my God! What a voice you have!" and they whisk you off to Hollywood. That did not happen. I'm a preacher's kid. In those days, it was not cool as a preacher's kid to be singing anything other than Gospel. That was the first thing. There were so many things to get over – like the jealousies of your peers when you receive a lot of attention. I remember being belittled by the community churches because I was singing somewhere other than in the church after having been the director of four choirs in my father's church. In those days, it was not cool for church people to go to clubs or listen to anything other than Gospel music. It's different now. I sit back now and go, "What was all the fuss about? Why did I get all the arrows?" Now, it's cool. It was not then. Then I was trying to get a start after school down in Los Angeles. It was a whole thing of, "Well you know, she sounds too Gospel." It's interesting, isn't it? The problem I went through is that I was trained classically as a lyric soprano singing classical music, but also being raised in my dad's church where I sing Gospel. So you got two completely different styles of singing and I was coached. My mentor was my high school music director so I could sing Broadway musical stuff, classical stuff or Gospel. I sang it all appropriately the way it was supposed to be. When I started singing jazz in certain places, one agent came up to me and said, "Well you know, when they put your picture in the paper and people decide to check you out live, they expect you to sound a certain way." All of my black friends would say I sounded too white. Then there were people who were not black that said that I sounded too Gospel-y. I lived with that for most of my life. That was probably the toughest battle of all. The people who passed on me in those days because they said, "Well, it just sounds like church music," because I had such a big voice. Who knew that it would become this thing for people of all races, creeds, and colors, even from the Philippines or Japan wherever for everybody. They were singing like they go to Gospel churches or non-denominational churches, singing Gospel music in the pop style. I mean, who knew? But you know what? It made me real strong. My influences were a lot of different kinds of people, but mostly Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand – I love the purity of her sound, the way she used words. That's what I love about Roberta – the way she infused jazz and classical into R&B and blues and she used the words. It all paid off in the end. 

Article Author: Clayton Perry

Clayton Perry's mission parallels that of John Hope Franklin, Marcus Garvey and Carter G. Woodson. As the founder of the NUBIANO Project, Perry facilitates the design of projects that give voice to the Black diaspora, empower the Black community, …

Visit Clayton Perry's author page — Clayton Perry's Blog