“Maybe I just passed away early and ended up being reborn in this one. “I do feel like I was born in the wrong era sometimes,” Ms. Her songs often recall gospel-rooted, idealistic vintage soul, updated with deeper bass and programmed drumbeats. Her new album, ∺s I Am, will be released this fall. “She doesn’t compromise,” said Clive Davis, the chairman of BMG North America (the parent of J Records), who has nurtured her career since he signed her as a teenager and his company released her 2001 debut, the multimillion-selling “Songs in A Minor.” “I would never think of remotely asking her to compromise.”Īlicia Keys in her mothers house in Washington Heights. She is an accomplished keyboardist and a singer who needs no electronic assistance. She writes and produces her own songs, with various collaborators including, on this album, the rock and pop producer Linda Perry and the songwriter from Floetry, Marsha Ambrosius. Keys comes across as a proud throwback: a soul singer in the era of abbreviated R&B hooks. Keys.Īlthough she is only 26, in many ways Ms. Careers have been forged by “American Idol,” which boosts singers rather than songwriters, entertainers more than musicians - nearly the opposite of a self-determined performer like Ms. Keys’s studio albums, CD sales have stayed in a tailspin and albums have been dismantled in favor of singles and ring tones. Keys as a musician and for a recording business with few young stars that inspire loyalty.
Getting it right is essential both for Ms. It’s there when it’s right, and that’s when it’s there.” “ ‘I’ve just got to turn the song in by Wednesday, and I’m not going to get in the way, but - ’ ” Marroquin reported, imitating the tone of the record-company man. Keys he had just gotten a no-pressure-but-pressure call from her A&R contact at J Records. Manny Marroquin, who was mixing the album’s first single, “No One,” told Ms. The album was about 10 days from being finished, and well into the wee hours people were busy with last-minute mixing and mastering. While some of its songs reaffirm her connection to 1960s and ’70s soul, others lean closer to rock - from the Beatles to U2 - than she has before. “I just was really adamant about doing things that were not expected,” she said. Keys has been describing it as “rebellious” at every opportunity. 13, “As I Am” will be her first studio album since she released “The Diary of Alicia Keys” in 2003, and Ms. It’s where she made her next album, “As I Am” (J Records), working at her own pace. Photos of Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley and other old-school figures presided from the walls. But beyond its parlor the Oven was a warren of clean, well-equipped studios on three floors. “It looks like Grandma’s house.” From the outside it did. “I love my spot,” she said proudly as she offered a visitor a tour, wearing wraparound sunglasses and a “Born to Be Wild” T-shirt. She spent the afternoon rehearsing with her band in Weehawken, N.J., then headed back to the Oven for a late-night mixing session.
Keys and her producing partner, Kerry (Krucial) Brothers, have converted into a complex of recording and mixing studios. That morning the Jamaican bassist and producer Robbie Shakespeare, from the duo Sly and Robbie, had flown in from Miami for a session at the Oven: a house on Long Island that Ms.
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Watch a video of the full Q&A below.AT midnight on a Monday in late July, the day was far from over for Alicia Keys. KISS Kruise XI is already scheduled for fall 2022, to set sail from Los Angeles and stop in Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada, Mexico. Concerts were affected when Stanley and bandmate Gene Simmons tested positive for COVID-19. KISS were due to play a Las Vegas residency to end the year but it has reportedly since been canceled. "Honestly, at this point, there isn't a real reward in it," he said. Stanley's remarks echo similar comments he made in March when he told USA Today that he didn't "really see a reason" for KISS to release a new album. "We're happy going out and playing," he added. From 1974 to 1998, they issued 18 studio albums.Īnd performing those old songs is where KISS currently keep their focus, which Stanley acknowledged. KISS have released two albums of new material in the last 23 years, 2009's Sonic Boom and 2012's Monster.
Because those songs are like snapshots from your past, and you're connected to them in a way new material never could be."
He continued, "You really love the old songs, and nobody is going to embrace new material, no matter how good it is, like you do the past. You can have great songs on the more recent albums, but people then go, 'Great. "Any big classic band with a history, you go, 'Oh, put out a new album.' If the Stones put out a new album, you go, 'Oh, that's great, play 'Brown Sugar.'' … Yeah, maybe not now. "Why would we need a new KISS album?" Stanley replied.