REDWOOD CITY, CA – Garnering 15 Grammys (and an unprecedented 44 nominations), seven Canadian Juno Awards, an Emmy, three Oscar nominations and countless monster recording hits with the world’s greatest singers in a career spanning 40 years doesn’t just happen to anyone. Unless, you’re a born “Hit Man” named David Foster.
Continuing the success of David Foster and Friends last May at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, TC Entertainment and ABS-CBN International’s The Filipino Channel (TFC) have signed a contract to promote 2009 Hit Man David Foster and Friends in its North American tour.
The US tour includes Chicago, IL (Oct 21); New York, NY (Oct 23); Newark, NJ (Oct 24); Boston, MA (Oct 25); Atlanta, GA (Oct 28); Tampa, FL (Oct 30); Hollywood, FL (Nov 1); Los Angeles, CA (Nov 5); San Jose, CA (Nov 6); and Vancouver, BC (Nov 8).
TFC is the official Asian Media Partner for Television.
In Foster’s recording studio in Los Angeles, TFC Production Manager John-D Lazatin sat down for an exclusive one-on-one interview with Foster.
Here are gems from the Hit Man:
TFC: Is there a difference between David Foster the composer/artist and the producer?
Foster: When I go to the doctor’s office and they ask for occupation, I still put musician. I’ve been playing piano since I was 5. All the time, all the things that’s been happening in my life since I started playing piano have always been a result of my being a musician and that’s how I think of myself.
TFC: I read your book, “Hitman: Forty Years Making Music, Topping the Charts, and Winning Grammys.” Lesson number one is “Always go with what you love.” Is that always true?
Foster: The phenomenon that exists in this country and probably the whole world is that when a child turns 17, he or she all of a sudden is forced to make the biggest decision in his or her life: what am I gonna train for as a living for the rest of my life? So at 17, they go, “Hmm, do I wanna try medical school, do I wanna be a lawyer?” But you know, not everybody has a passion at 17. So, most people end up doing what they’re taught to do, not what they love to do. I was one of the fortunate ones that got to do what I love doing. By age 10, I knew what I love to do and I knew that was how I’m gonna make my living. So, my recommendation is always try to go for what you love, not what you’re taught to do.
TFC: If you were not a musician, what would you be?
Foster: I’ve always joked that if I were not a musician, if I had to be a shoe salesman, I’d like to be the best shoe salesman on the planet. I love airplanes. I’m a pilot. I would have loved to be a professional pilot. Had I had more talent in the athletic world, I would have loved to be a hockey player because I played hockey when I was a kid and I was pretty good but not good enough to be a pro. There are other avenues, but the main thing is the discipline that I have as a musician and as a songwriter-producer. That discipline that I learned at a really early age I would have applied to anything. Maybe my gift wasn’t even music; maybe my gift was that I’m disciplined.
TFC: What’s the secret in staying in this industry? How can you stay for 40 years in this business?
Foster: I don’t know if there’s a secret in staying in any industry. The music industry is very youth driven. As you may have read in my book, I credit the man named Ronnie Hawkins for teaching me that you need to sometimes retreat and attack in another direction. The 70s for me was great - I was a musician, everybody wanted me. I became a producer in the 80s and it went great. Then at the end of the 80s, my career just kinda tanked and all of a sudden I wasn’t making hits anymore for a couple of years. You have two choices at that point: you can keep banging your head against the wall and pushing forward in that same direction, or you can do this (hand motions towards another direction) and I did that – I did Natalie Cole’s “Unforgettable” album which ended up being a huge hit. That thrust me into the 90s where I had great run with Celine, Toni Braxton, Whitney Houston, etcetera. At the end of the 90s, that same thing happened: I came up against the wall. All of a sudden, my sound wasn’t on the radio anymore so I went around and did Bocelli, Bublé and Grobin.
TFC: Do you believe in luck?
Foster: My mother taught me that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I don’t think I believe in luck because they say that luck is when hard work meets opportunity. And I do believe in that because I think you always have to be prepared. There’s been so many times in my life where I’ve been somewhere and a singer has come up to me and said, wow, I really like you to hear my stuff and whatever and I say, okay, give me a CD. Oh, I don’t have one on me. I’ll say, okay, sing for me. Oh, I don’t know what to sing. That’s crazy! Be prepared. Luck is opportunity meeting hard work.
TFC: What did you know about Filipino artists before you met Charice?
Foster: Before I met Charice, I knew that the Philippines and the Filipinos were great lovers of music and especially, it seems great lovers of my particular kind of music. The first time I heard of a Filipino artist that I loved was Lea Salonga. She sang so beautifully in “Mulan”. And of course she was cast in “Miss Saigon”. She was incredible and we actually almost worked together. And then this new kid from Journey got everyone’s attention. But I’ve always believed, at least for the last 5 to 6 years, from my trips to Asia, that the next huge big star will be Asian. I believe that Charice is the one. It just makes sense. There’s a billion-and-a-half Asians. Twenty or thirty years ago with the Japanese, they used to copy American music. But in the last 10 years or so, the Asians have really found their own sound. It’s just not copying anymore. They have such rich heritage to draw from, thousands of years of music to draw from. And I think it’s all coming out. You see that in Charice, she’s so well-rounded. I believe she’s the next big star.
TFC: After Charice, are you watching out for other performers from the Philippines?
Foster: I’ve yet to go to the Philippines but I’m excited to go there. I want to know more about this country and this culture that has embraced American music for so many years. It’s really no different from what England did in the beginning. England in the beginning copied American music. The Beatles’ favorite artists were Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. They took it and made it their own and I believe that’s what’s happening to the Filipino community now, too. They love the American culture and the American music scene. But they’re now taking it and making it their own. So, I’m sure if you drill down the Philippines, you’re gonna find a lot more talent. But I don’t look for talent though, talent finds me.
TFC: What’s your idea of David Foster and Filipino Friends?
Foster: What would be exciting is for one is to have some of the local artists perform with me and sing my songs. Because the David Foster and Friends traditionally, at least with the last two or three concerts, and the tour I’m about to do in 12 cities in America is my music so that is sort of what it’s all about. So, having Filipino artists, young or old, singing my music will be a lot of fun plus I think we should have a talent search and find somebody - a complete unknown - that could win a spot to open the show.
TFC: How long have you known about The Filipino Channel?
Foster: I knew about The Filipino Channel. My friends Michael and Millie (Gurfinkel) have told me first about it and it’s spectacular what you guys do. It’s amazing – the coverage has been incredible. I’d like to say to all the Filipino communities across America that I am going on tour in October and November and, of course, I will be bringing Charice. I would love for all of you to come out and see the show. Come and support me which would be great, but most importantly, come and support Charice because I believe that Charice is going to be the next national treasure for the Philippines.
David Foster gets by with a little help from his friends. And by “gets by’’ we mean has made a fortune. The 15-time Grammy-winning composer-producer’s friends over the years have included Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Madonna, and Michael Bublé, to name a handful of hundreds. The Canadian multi-instrumentalist has played with all four Beatles and starred on questionable reality shows like “The Princes of Malibu’’ - which has the dubious distinction of introducing the world to a young man named Spencer Pratt. On Sunday a few Foster amigos - including ex-Chicago vocalist Peter Cetera, Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind & Fire, and new Filipino teen phenom Charice Pempengco - will join him at the Agganis Arena for a variety show-style stroll through the catalog of tunes he helped make famous, like “After the Love Has Gone,’’ “The Glory of Love,’’ and “Un-Break My Heart.’’ He’ll also unveil the winner of his local talent contest, details of which can be found at www.namedrop.com. We caught up with Foster by phone at his home in Malibu, Calif.
Q. You’ve done one-off concerts in the past but as primarily a studio guy have you ever done a proper tour like this?
A. Never in my life.
Q. So what was the inspiration to hit the road?
A. I used to, and still do, a lot of charities [concerts] and I say that not to get a pat on the back but it’s just a win all the way around because I get to perform for free. Meaning I don’t care whether they like it or not [laughs]. So over the years I’ve kind of honed these hosting skills.
Q. (Foster briefly answers another call in which he talks about finishing work at 3 a.m.) So I have to ask, what did you work on until 3 this morning?
A. It’s actually called “The David Foster-Andrea Bocelli PBS Christmas Special.’’ We just finished editing and the guests are Mary J. Blige, Reba McEntire, Katherine Jenkins, Natalie Cole, and the Muppets.
Q. Do you ever wake up thinking, “I can’t believe this is my life’’?
A. [Laughs] The part that’s really fascinating to me, honestly, is that I’m still semi-relevant all these years later. Because the business eats its youth, you’re constantly trying to think like a 16-year-old, which is impossible. I’m going to be 60 soon. I’ve really come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to be making the next Beyoncé single. I love listening to that kind of music but I don’t know how to make it and I think the producers, writers, artists, and behind-the-scenes people that really hang themselves are the ones who don’t come to terms with the fact that they can’t stay relevant all the time. I don’t think people leave the music business, the music business leaves them.
Q. Who is the dream artist that still eludes you?
A. Stevie Wonder. I’m obsessed. I know exactly what to do with him to do a great album; and we’ve had dinner together and we’re circling it, but he walks to his own beat.
We meet a lot of fascinating people at PopEater, but we’re rarely so in awe of our guests as we were when legendary composer and music producer David Foster dropped by. As a producer, Foster has guided the songs (and careers) of Celine Dion, Madonna, Michael Jackson - among dozens of other household names - and he’s put his stamp on one of the tracks on Whitney Houston’s highly anticipated comeback album. Foster is setting off on a North American tour with a handful of the acts he’s produced - and he’ll feature surprise guests in each city, chosen through his talent contest on Namedrop.com.
Foster explains his work, his tour, and whom he’s loved best in the studio. Watch the video:
On being a music producer: “A lot of today’s music is very producer driven. Basically the record producer is like a film director, only with one-tenth the cost and responsibility. You know, if the artist is weak and doesn’t know who or what they want to be, we jump in and put our musical stamp all over it. We arrange it, we make the music, we pick the musicians, we pick the song, we tell them how to sing it, we mix it, they come in, they leave. If the artist is strong … he kind of tells me what he wants, he plays the piano, he directs the drums, he’s sort of doing everything, and I’m just the objective view that in the end can go, ‘Oh, you know, I think that chorus there can be cut in half, or why don’t you change keys there, or that note doesn’t sound good.’ But, basically we are responsible for the final product, and everything that it entails.”
On working with Madonna: “Working with Madonna was an amazing experience for me. She is such a professional, always on time, her work ethic is unbelievable. I had a great time with her, and we had a hit together that together that we wrote called ‘You’ll See,’ which was on her Greatest Hits album.”
On Whitney Houston’s upcoming album: “I was involved in one song called ‘I Didn’t Know My Own Strength,’ which is a really good song written by Diane Warren, produced by me, and Whitney sang it great. The thing about Whitney is that the expectation is absolutely too high for her, because nobody can live up to the hype of - you know, everybody - she’s been gone for so long, and everybody wants that ‘Bodyguard’ voice. Everybody wants that feeling, and when you’re 18 and when you’re 46, or 45, or however old - you can’t be that same person. Nobody can be. You know, Barbara Streisand at 18 was not Barbara Streisand at 45. Celine at 40 is not who she was at 18. It’s just different now, and I think she’s made a really good record … Does the album stand out as being one of the great Whitney albums? I guess only time will tell. I mean, she just kind of ruined it for all of us, and for herself too, ’cause she made such good records, consistently. And she’s led most of her life, now she’s following a bit.”
On the singing contest: “I know it sounds kind of corny, but I love to discover new talent, and to just be around new talent. And there’s talent in every nook and cranny of this planet. So all you gotta do is go on Namedrop.com - you enter the contest … you can be young, you can be old, you can be black, you can be white, you can be male, you can be female, I don’t care. But I’m going to listen to the final 25 entries in each city, and the winner is gonna come on stage and be part of the show. And I think it’s a really, really cool idea. And who knows. I mean people always say to me, ‘you know, well, how will I find you?’ I mean, here’s my CD, what if you like it? I say, ‘if I like your CD a lot, believe me. I will track you down like a bloodhound. You won’t have to worry about me trying to find you, ’cause I will find you.’”
Hit King
David Foster’s lifelong passion is creating the soundtrack of our lives.
by Marie Speed
Success Magazine
www.successmagazine.com
Good has never been good enough for David Foster. He wants to be great. Which has worked out pretty well for him for the past 40 years, as he’s made his way to the top of the music industry. Today, Foster is regarded as the king of pop, the hit man, the No. 1 music producer in the country, if not the world. In the course of his career, Foster has worked with every imaginable star in the business. He refers to them casually by their first names: Celine, Whitney, Barbra.
He has 15 Grammys to his name (and 45 nominations), an Emmy, seven Canadian Juno awards, three Oscar nominations and a list of mega-hits that goes on for pages. In October, he starts a 12-city tour that includes a Nov. 1 stop in Miami where he will celebrate his 60th birthday onstage. The show is based on the wildly successful PBS special, Hit Man: David Foster and Friends, in which Foster plays master of ceremony and accompanist to a staggering lineup of stars. He’s also working on an upcoming Broadway musical based on cartoon character Betty Boop, as well as other projects, including a future TV series. It’s hard to believe one human being could do so much in one lifetime— but this isn’t just any guy. This guy has been special from the start.
Born in 1949 to a poor working family in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Foster was 4 when his parents discovered he had perfect pitch. “I can say unequivocally that I was given a gift,” he tells SUCCESS. “Having perfect pitch is not a key to success, but it is an indicator that you maybe should be doing music. You’ve got to believe that music is passed on in genes, and my father was a musician. My parents encouraged me in a loving way, but not in an overbearing way. Fortunately, I loved it so much it was all I wanted to do.”
When he talks about his parents, the people he’s worked with, even his ex-wives, Foster has the demeanor of a nice guy from a small town who works hard, saves his money, shines his shoes and knows which fork to use. But there is that special thing, that thing that makes him work harder and longer than the next guy, that makes him push artists to deliver their best, that never lets up, not on weekends, not on holidays, not ever. Foster cannot identify exactly what drives him to be the best, but he knows it has something to do with how he was raised—and with not giving up.
A Nurturing Upbringing
“My parents made me feel special,” he says. “I wonder if that’s because I was one boy in a family with six sisters or because I had this God-given talent, or they were just that kind of parents. I think it was a healthy combination of all those things. My childhood, as I recall, was perfect—or near-perfect. Of course we had no money, but somehow they never let us know that. We knew we were poor but we never wanted for food or clothes. So we had the essentials.”
Even as his list of hits continued to grow, Foster never allowed himself to think he could expect the same outcome by exerting any less effort and focus. “I am always worried that I’m not going to measure up to the thing I did last. It’s tenacity, for sure, and upbringing. The reason I never did drugs is that I did not want to disappoint my parents. The reason I have a good work ethic is because my father had a good work ethic. It’s simple; you’re either raised right or you’re not. A lot of people can’t control whether they’re raised right or not—to those people, I would say you just come to the fork in the road and you say, ‘OK, am I going down this road or am I going down that road?’ There is no dress rehearsal. You can either lay in bed all day and feel sorry for yourself or you can get up every morning at 6 and try to make the best of the day.There is no dress rehearsal. You can either lay in bed all day and feel sorry for yourself or you can get up every morning at 6 and try to make the best of the day. ”
Foster’s career began in 1972 as a keyboardist for the one-hit wonder group Skylark, whose song Wildflower made the charts before the group slid into obscurity. In 1973, he began working as a session musician, performing with people like John Lennon, Diana Ross, George Harrison, Rod Stewart. “I had to start all over again,” he says. “I had to do rehearsal piano at $5 an hour, but I knew the $5 would turn into $10 and the $10 would turn into $20. I’ve always felt—always in my life—that I was moving forward. Always.”
Big Breaks
Still, Foster wanted something more. He wanted to be a producer. “As a studio musician, I played on everybody’s records and I played on a lot of hit records, and I watched the producers from the other side of the glass and I’d say, ‘Wow, that’s easy; I can do that.’ ”
In his 2008 memoir, Hitman: Forty Years Making Music, Topping Charts & Winning Grammys, Foster writes that he grew certain about his desire to produce while signed on as one of several keyboard players during a big studio session with Barbra Streisand. Streisand wasn’t happy about the arrangement and made that clear to the producer. As she became more frustrated, they broke for lunch. “Ever the opportunist,” Foster writes, “I didn’t go to lunch.”
Instead, Foster stayed behind, trying to work out the song the way Streisand wanted, based on what he heard her telling the producer. At some point, a familiar voice interrupted him: “Hey you! What is that?” It was Streisand. Foster explained he thought the piece could be simpler, his voice quavering. Then he just played. Streisand was thrilled and ordered the song be played his way.
Despite many bright moments, making the transition to producer wasn’t easy. “In my cockiness, I thought I was going to come right out of the gate with a hit record. I produced three or four albums and they all stiffed. As a studio musician, I went from six figures a year to $5,000 total in my first year of producing. That was the only time that I thought maybe I had made the wrong decision.”
But Foster kept at it, focusing on the work, applying what he learned from one project to the next. “In my heart, I knew I could produce successfully, and I couldn’t do that if I kept working as a studio musician,” he writes in Hitman. “So I did what I had to do: I believed in myself almost to a point of madness.”
Hit Man
In the late 1970s, the tide was turning for Foster, who won his first Grammy for Earth, Wind & Fire’s After the Love Has Gone. The song came to him in a moment of panic when Motown founder Berry Gordy asked him if he had something that combined pop and R&B. Foster lied and said he did. “I sat down at the piano, and it was one of those moments where the chorus for the song just poured out of me like a gift from heaven.”
In the 1980s, more No. 1 hits came, including Chicago’s Hard to Say I’m Sorry and Peter Cetera’s The Glory of Love. There were songs on soundtracks to St. Elmo’s Fire, Ghostbusters, Footloose. There was writing and producing with artists like Al Jareau, Boz Scaggs, Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Rogers. The 1990s brought Celine Dion’s The Power of Love and Natalie Cole’s Unforgettable. There was Barbra, too, and Toni Braxton and Whitney Houston and more Celine. By the end of the 1990s, Foster had started his own record label, 143 (I Love You) with Warner Bros.
The next phase of Foster’s career would be the one he is probably best known for: discovering new talent. Foster discovered and signed Josh Groban and Michael Bublé, among others, and continued to work with giants like Andrea Bocelli, Madonna and Michael Jackson.
Through it all, Foster appears to have avoided becoming Hollywood-phony. Although he has a deep respect for the talented people he’s worked with, he is not particularly star-struck, nor overly impressed by the trappings of wealth and fabulosity. Again, he is all about the work.
“I’ve had my moments of being a jerk,” he says, pushing to get the very best performances out of people. “But I have a lot of repeat performance in my work. I’ve had four albums with Michael Bublé, three albums with Bocelli, four albums with Chicago. I’m doing something right. There’s something to be said about the slow, steady climb. At the end of the day, my job is to get a great vocal out of a singer and in my egotistical mind, to be the one who can get a better vocal out of him than any other producer on the planet. That is my mantra. I don’t hit that mark every time, but as my friend Paul Anka says, ‘Good is the enemy of great.’ And I try to be great every day of my life. Every day.”
Incurably Romantic
Of course, not everyone thinks Foster’s music is great. A Time magazine article described “the unmistakable Foster touch” as replete with “soaring vocals, the lush arrangements dripping with strings and keyboards, the crescendos built on crescendos.” He’s been called schmaltzy, a producer of elevator music.
“Twenty years ago, those comments used to sort of hurt me, but the truth of the matter is, when I lay my hands down on the keyboard, what comes out is what comes out,” he says. “I am built to do romantic music. My emotion comes out of my fingers at the piano, and what comes out is what comes out. That is not to say I don’t love every kind of music. I truly love everything. The last type of music I had to learn to love was opera. And now I love it. Country music, rap, Jay-Z, Beyonce, 50 Cent—I truly love it all. I just don’t know how to make that kind of music. There was a joke that I don’t take elevators because I am afraid I will hear my own music in there. There are a lot of composers who would love to hear their music in elevators. Pop stands for popular. Hard-core critics don’t mind giving credit to a pop musician until he becomes popular, then they want to blast them. It’s like they’ve ‘sold out.’ Sold out what? They’ve sold out an arena instead of a club.”
Foster may make romantic music, but it has not translated to a particularly successful love life. With three failed marriages and years of haphazard contact with his children, Foster acknowledges the downside of being driven. He’s tried to make up for lost time. “Fortunately for me, my daughters and my new stepsons are very forgiving, and I’ve done more parenting the last three years than I have in the last 30.”
‘Go with What You Love’
Still, Foster believes he has stayed pretty much on point when it comes to following his heart. “Lesson No. 1” to becoming a success, he says, is to “go with what you love. And you have to be good at it.
“Most people do what they are taught to do—not what they love doing,” he says. “It’s so screwed up. At 17 or 18, you are thrust off to college and at that point in your life you are supposed to make a decision about what you are going to be the rest of your life. Isn’t that weird? I got lucky because, by the age of 10, I knew I wanted to do music—for sure, without a shadow of a doubt. I didn’t know I’d be successful, but I knew I wanted to do it.”
In addition to his career, Foster attends to his David Foster Foundation, which he started 23 years ago, inspired by fellow Canadian Wayne Gretzky’s foundation. The David Foster Foundation raises millions of dollars through events he produces to help the families of children in need of organ transplants. Foster sees philanthropy as the next logical step in his life’s journey.
“Honestly, I believe there is something hugely philanthropic left for me in my life—where that would be my life. I sort of know what it is, but I don’t know how to articulate it. And I know that sounds trite, but it’s been on my mind for two to three years, much the same as when Wayne Gretzky influenced me to start my foundation. But this would be in an all-consuming way. And it’s kind of not a bad way to spend your last round.”
That last round is a long way off. Living alone for the first time in his adult life, he is reconnecting with his children. In addition to the Foster and Friends tour and his Broadway and TV work, he has albums in the works with opera singer Katherine Jenkins, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé and newcomer Charice. He still works seven days a week; he says he’s not interested in just “sipping martinis somewhere.”
And, as far as advice goes, it’s back to that greatness thing.
“Good is just good,” he says. “It’s so easy to be good. I can be good any day of the week. I know how to do this job inside and out—I know how to play the piano very well, I know how to write songs pretty good, but greatness is what everybody should aspire to. I am gifted, but I believe in my heart that if I didn’t have music and I was a shoe salesman, I would be the best shoe salesman in the country.”
Not many global superstars get to have more than one defining moment in their careers.
Seal, 46, has probably had at least two, though many men would say marrying beautiful German supermodel Heidi Klum would leave any other achievement in the shade.
The English singer/songwriter’s first seachange occasion occurred in 1995 when Kiss From A Rose, the third single from second album Seal II, was making little chart impact.
But when it appeared underneath the credits for film Batman Forever, the complex song with a joyous chorus became a Grammy Award-winning hit.
Seal’s second life-changing moment took place when then-US presidential hopeful Barack Obama asked Seal to perform the Sam Cooke classic A Change Is Going To Come at a mid-year rally before last November’s elections.
The success of that cover, which perfectly captured the mood for modification sweeping the US and the planet, led to Seal releasing Soul, an album of a dozen soulful covers in union with uber producer David Foster (The Corrs, Michael Buble).
Seal, in Australia for a promotional tour ahead of a national tour in November, which unfortunately misses Adelaide, is typically humble about last year’s moment.
He says the process for Soul, which was recorded in a heady four weeks, “all started with A Change Is Going To Come, which I heard on the radio and I just thought it was quite an appropriate song for the moment, you know”.
Was the song just for Obama?
“Well, not so much Obama, but the social climate,” Seal says. “It was more I kinda wanted to do it as a contribution to the cause.
“People in general were feeling that they needed some kind of change, and were indeed on the brink of change, and I sort of did it because I was literally inspired by the moment and then, of course, one thing led to another. President Obama, I think it was at the time, he heard it and asked me if I would perform it, and I did.
“And then David and I enjoyed working with each other so much that we ended up just recording because we love each other’s company so much. We ended up with this great, great album, y’know, an album of these great songs.”
On the question of whether Seal himself considers A Change is Going To Come a defining moment, he replies: “I guess so. I’m glad that you think that. It’s certainly been a journey and one of the more enjoyable parts of my career, which has been filled with many, many great experiences and great moments, and many enjoyable ones but that definitely is going to be right up there.”
Soul also contains James Brown’s It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Stand By Me (Ben E. King), Al Green’s I’m Still In Love With You and 1972’s If You Don’t Know Me By Now, by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, better known for its lush treatment by Simply Red in 1989.
“They’re songs I’ve known pretty much, growing up as a child,” says Seal, who once studied to be an architect in his home town of London. “My mother always played these songs so I’m familiar with pretty much all of them.
“It was something I was very comfortable with and I’ve always felt are a natural part of my DNA, as it were.
“So yeah, when the opportunity came up to do more of them and sing them . . . to tell you the honest truth mate, it was more I just really loved working with David Foster. He’s amazing.” Did Seal have a soul hero, such as Sam Cooke?
“There isn’t one person whose music is on the album who hasn’t really been an influential part of, not just my life, but everyone’s life at some point. So it was a real pleasure to be in a position where I could now sing the songs of these great artists.”
Asked if he set out to give If You Don’t Know Me By Now a lighter touch than Simply Red’s lush treatment, he says: “(Foster’s) main priority was to showcase my voice and so we went for a kind-of “less is more” approach on a lot of the songs, on the arrangements.
“So that would be the reason for that – for that more structured, stripped-down approach.
“I find I actually like music better when there’s a lot of space, when there’s a lot of negative space surrounding my voice. I tend to thrive better that way.”
Would some people find that statement incongruous with the techno beats and wall-of-sound approach of, say, his breakthrough 1990 dance-floor hit Killer (produced by Adamski)?
“I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a wall of sound,” Seal says. “One of the things David is brilliant at is pretty much the same thing that (former producer) Trevor (Horn) used to be pretty conscious of when we were making records, which is arrangements.
“You can have a lot of, if you like, a wall of sound, but at the same time, if one pays careful attention to arrangement, then you can still enjoy that same space around the voice that I am talking about.”
What is Seal’s personal definition of soul music? “If you take the basic, literal translation, music that comes from the soul,” he says. “I consider people like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, some of the greatest soul singers of all time. It’s not necessarily R&B but it’s certainly soul.”
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