Interview: Tamia, Singer and Songwriter - Page 3

Your latest album, Between Friends, does not feature a single collaboration. In fact, you really took the independent route—putting up the money for its release on Gallo Records in South Africa. How was the experience, for better or worse? What was different with this album than with others in the past?

Being independent is just a completely different ballgame. You really have to be knowledgeable of the industry and what you need to do in order to sell your album. It is a lot of work but much more gratifying at the end of the day, because you are involved in it from beginning to end. Anything that you do correlates to the success, or the lack thereof, of the project.

You worked pretty heavily with Shep Crawford on Between Friends. What relationship do the two of you share? And how was the album produced, from concept to actual CD?

Between Friends was the easiest album ever. In terms of the music, I knew what I wanted to do and what I wanted the album to sound like. All Shep and I had to do was go into the studio and create. With the success of "Stranger in My House," we developed a wonderful friendship. We definitely have a great deal of chemistry, so it was effortless to go from there and create songs. We always said that we wanted to work together, so when the time came and we had the opportunity to do so, we went into the studio without even thinking, "Hey, we want to do an album." It was more like, "Let's see what happens; let's go and create." The industry was changing; I wanted to be ahead of the curve and the change, so the time was right to try an independent release and see what happened.

What particular song did you enjoy recording? And did any of them pop out of nowhere—giving you an "aha" moment?

There is a song on the album called "Me." It is a beautiful song. Originally, I wanted to put it on More, but I had just recorded A Nu Day, which had "Stranger in My House." Since it was very similar to "Stranger in My House," we decided to wait a while before releasing it. So my "aha" moment happed when we finally picked the CD to put it on. That is the great part of being your own boss.

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, …

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