It's probably about time that you're introduced to Femi Temowo. The Nigerian-born guitarist (and producer) is amongst the most talented jazz musicians currently residing in the UK. Fittingly, he's just been nominated for a MOBO in the Best Jazz Act category.
Fink, aka Fin Greenhall, is a musician with an impressive CV. He's an accomplished singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and DJ. Signed to the record label Ninjatune, Fink has built up his acoustic blues/folk music into critically successful array of albums for his hordes of fans. On a crackling phone line, Fink chats to Soul Culture’s Philip Javens about his latest album, Perfect Darkness; graffiti artist Banksy; working with the late Amy Winehouse and rap artist Professor Green; and his philosophy on making music - "the better the music, the better you’re going to do..."
As the name suggests, Perfect Darkness takes on the chiaroscuro effects it evokes, and forms a deep thunderous catharsis with the voice of a melancholic baritone acoustic singer called Fink. Fink's fifth album sounds like a broken man who’s torn away the passions of his heart and laid it to rest onto this CD – it feels like a modern day Greek tragedy. Produced by Billy Bush (Beck, Garbage), Fin Greenall and his band produced this album in the space of 20 days. Recorded in Los Angeles, the Brighton-based singer/songwriter wanted to capture the raw, organic urgency of fear onto his album - and from the opening number, I can safely say that Perfect Darkness well executes their conception with heart-throbbing accuracy.
Keri Hilson doesn’t particularly care what you think, especially if you think she’s wrong. The 28-year-old is a regular (and not always unwitting) magnet for controversy but claims to be nonplussed by the chirping of her naysayers. “I don’t feel backlash”, she tells SoulCulture bluntly, “I rarely feel it”.
Given that in the past two years, Hilson has been attacked for her choice of collaborators, accused of cynically sexing-up her image, and disparaged for taking perceived indirect shots at her female peers, it’s lucky she deals so level-headedly with the running commentary.
Some people may know Natalie Williams from her earlier self-written solo albums Yours Truly and Secret Garden, some may even recognise her vocals on a few underground drum'n'bass hits but what they might not know is that Natalie been in the music industry for quite a few years, having worked with the likes of Goldie, John Legend, Amy Winehouse, Lemar, Jamie Cullum, Babyface and many more.
Prompting Natalie's 2010 MOBO Awards nomination for Best R&B/Soul Act [alongside Sade and Corinne Bailey Rae - but pipped to the post by Brit rapper-turned-singer Plan B], Natalie's current album My Oh My [released in late 2010] is a smooth blend of pop-inspired jazz and soul mixed in with a hint of R&B and makes for a perfect Sunday afternoon soundtrack.
To borrow a very '90s Americanism, Liam Bailey keeps it real. The words ‘truthfully’ and ‘honest’ surface frequently during his SoulCulture interview and no-one could accuse Liam of being anything else. There’s something so refreshingly unguarded and guileless about him it’s impossible not to feel completely at ease in his company; that and his wicked sense of humour.
We’re sat upstairs in one of Camden’s celebrated drinking holes and Liam waxes lyrical about holey trousers and the monotony of Dance music since the late 1990s. Just as he settles down to answer some questions he spontaneously bursts into a rendition of Michael Jackson and Patti Austen’s ‘It’s the Falling In Love’. Heck, I can’t resist the urge to join him.
Born and raised in Nottingham, Bailey hails from a family of ‘music appreciators’ as he puts it. His own musical journey started during the '90s Britpop explosion and a life-long fascination with the band Oasis began. It was Noel Gallagher that inspired Liam to pick up the guitar.
“Well I can’t speak about Paloma Faith because I haven’t heard of her, but as far as comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Joss Stone are concerned... those artists are pop singers, not R&B singers; they don’t sing R&B like I do” says US soul legend Teena Marie, dismissing the UK’s two biggest white skinned soul exports of the last decade. Singers who like Ms. Marie have achieved record buying success with black American punters and UK authentic soul music fans, “crossing over” despite the colour of their skin (in Teena’s case pinkie white).
Had Teena (aka 'Lady T' aka 'The Queen of Ivory Soul') not blazed a trail, it’s arguable that the UK-led white soul invasion wouldn't have occurred on the scale it has. It’s a debt not lost on Winehouse in particular, who thanked Teena Marie in the sleeve notes to her debut album Frank. Teena, who is sitting comfortably on a settee, situated in a penthouse suite of a swanky St. Paul’s based London Hotel, elaborates...
In 1999, Chaka Khan's socially responsible propensity compelled her to found an organisation in support of "women and children at risk", particularly those with autism, due the sense of loss and confusion she experienced when her nephew was diagnosed with autism around that time. So began...