Cameron Adams talks to Alicia Keys about long-distance duets, a live album, poems and … oh, a movie.
You’ve just scored another No.1 in America with your Usher duet My Boo. That song wasn’t on either of your latest albums originally. Where did it come from?
It was a song of his he wanted to put on his album, but never did. We started talking about stuff and I asked him if he’d be on my remix of If I Ain’t Got You. Then he asked me if I’d be on My Boo: that’s how it all came together. We were in different countries, so much it was kind of one of the weirdest recording experiences I’ve ever had, but we kept the vibe strong by speaking on the phone a lot, making sure we were on the same page. But it came out really cool.
So it’s one of those hi-tech new duets where you aren’t even in the same country when you record it?
Um, yeah. After I recorded my part, I played it for him, I played it to him over the internet, then when he recorded his part he sent it to me over the net.
There are whispers that there was an early version where Beyonce was the female voice, not you . . .
No, what happened there was there was a version that was around before I wrote my part on it. It was a demo
of the idea of the song. And the girl on the demo kind of sounded a bit like Beyonce, and suddenly, poof, everyone said it was Beyonce.
And of course the rumours started that you and Usher were doing more than singing together . . .
I was waiting for that, I figured that’d happen pretty quickly. The song is talking about a first love, both of us have definitely experienced that: all of us have experienced that first really innocent love. But no, we’re not together.
Is it true you met him when you were both teenagers?
Yeah, he’s maybe a year older than me. Before his first album came out and I was still doing the showcase circuit and trying to get people to dig my stuff we kinda would meet at random parties and say hi, so we’ve known each other since then. We’ve kept in communication since then.
You couldn’t have too many complaints about how your second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, has gone.
Absolutely not. It’s a confirmation that people are with me for the long haul and through all the different changes I go through. They feel me as a person and I appreciate that.
There’s talk you’re doing an unplugged live album.
Yes, yes, I’m definitely looking into that, I might record it somewhere in New York in January. That’ll be my first live album. I love live so much, to do it in a very stripped down, intimate, personal setting – which is my thing anyway – is going to be fun.
Your hero Stevie Wonder singing your song with you on the MTV Awards. Discuss.
It was a dream come true. Hell yeah! I was so excited to be up there. Aside from the fact of joining him and Lenny Kravitz and us all being on one stage playing. But when I was playing If I Ain’t Got You and he was playing the harmonica over it: oh my gosh. That was really, really dope. At rehearsal he was singing on it, playing on it: it was one of the craziest moments. I spoke to him the other day and later I thought, “That was Stevie, calling me!”
Are you itching to do another record yet?
Actually, I’m letting the music come to me. I’ve been writing on the road, but I’m not in a rush to make another album. I want to let my life evolve. I want to take my time so it comes when it’s supposed to come. Not to say it’ll be like seven years or anything, but there’s no rush. This album is still going: we’ve got Karma coming out, My Boo is still rocking, so that’ll take it to the end of the year. Then I’ll sit back, ingest it all and see what goes on after that.
Tell us about your book.
It’s called Tears for Water, it’s a collection of my poetry and unreleased song lyrics and stories that bind them together. It’s a beautiful book. I love it.
When does a poem become a song, or a poem stay a poem?
I don’t know why I know, but I just know. Usually it’s when I’m trying to explain something that just needs to be said, the explanation becomes very long and has no rhyme or rhythm but it has a point, but not a bridge, a hook nor a chorus. It’s way more freeform and stream of consciousness.
How far do they stretch back?
Probably from when I was 15 or 16. My second book I’m going to start working on soon is more of a novel. It’s taken from my journal entries that come from when I was nine.
And you’re doing a movie?
Yeah. It’s being co-produced by Halle Berry. I’ve been involved since the way, way beginning. It’s a story I’m really excited to tell about a classical pianist (Philippa Schuyler) who was born and raised in Harlem. She’s half black and half white. It takes place in the 1940s, there’s the whole racial side of things, but she’s this classical prodigy but she tries to play her music in certain places and isn’t accepted for it. It’s really deep, a story of trying to find your way and find yourself.
You’re at that stage now when you can pretty much do anything . . .
It certainly feels limitless right now.
The Diary of Alicia Keys – Repackaged Edition (BMG) out now
Source: Herald Sun
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