Adriana Evans

Interview 28 May 2004

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Buy Album here http://www.adrianaevans.com/

Hi Adriana, It's been a while. Tell me the story behind the new album. How it all came together, how you were left to take the independent route and so

on.

Well, After I asked to be released from my recording contract I needed to detox from the industry. I really wanted to reconnect with the purity

And simplicity that is absent from the music business. First I went to Mexico and lived with my friends family. Then I was in San Francisco and I

went to Brazil and stayed there for about a year. My travels and distance from the industry really created this record. I regained my love and passion for

music because I was away from the "business". I was able to create freely; incorporating sounds and styles that were my childhood loves.

Has that in a way been good, maybe allowing you to do what you want to do.

It was great, very cathartic. Sometimes you have to step away from your passion in order not to sustain it. Believe me being too close to the

corporate music mentality can kill your love for the music. So this record is devoid of the music business politics. It is "limpia", clean!

And so you're pleased with it?

I am so happy with it. It is my most honest work. I wrote about things and shared parts of my life that I was unable to explore on the first

record. Primarily it was my life experience, the pain and joy and my own personal growth as a human being that created this work.

How does this direction differ from what you had put out before...because it is!

The musical direction on this project encompasses all the different ways in which Africans have influenced music in the "New World"; which in

Turn has affected and enriched music all over the world. I looked at the idea of "soul " music more holistically. I incorporated the traditional 70's

Soul sounds with songs like "I hear music" but I also brought a heavy blues / rock sound as well. We forget that rock is a part of the R&B family

tree. I refuse to segregate music. I also brought in Afro Latin musical traditions into the pot along with some reggae flavors to round it off.

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You wrote all the songs, bit more Spanish in them?

Well I grew up listening to Afro Cuban music. I am African American and Afro Cuban. Essentially I am a New World African. So my music this time

around reflects a little more of those influences. Also going to Brazil where music is life, I was greatly influenced by their sense of African

and Portuguese melody usage and the infectious Samba rhythms. Yet on the first record there were those elements as well. Songs like "Tripping" and "In

the Sun" were very steeped in Afro Latin sounds.

Is this albums more you then?

I think so. Well the first record was me also but again I was at a completely different place in my life. I think this record expresses

more freedom because it was made without the constraints of the "business" attached to it. No"men in suits" lurking in the shadows!

Tell me about the songs, where you draw from and how it all came together. What ones are getting early reaction, and which ones do you

like best. Seeing your recent bio i can see that it's very personal in a finding yourself kind of way.

Life is my source for material. Life with all of its irony and ups and downs has an unlimited supply of inspiration. We are getting a great

response from people. Everyone seems to have different ones that speak to their hearts. "Remember Love" gets a lot of love as does "In Search Of"

and "7Days".The whole project and when I say project I mean the journey I’ve been on for the last seven years has been life affirming. God is

amazing, What a sense of humor he/she has!

At the risk of falling out before we start !!!!!!!!! i wasn't too sure at first, my initial thoughts were that it was fresh and different.

Having said that I'm persevering and am starting to feel it more. Definitely a grower.

Well that’s not too different from the initial response of my first record. What you have to understand is that my first record was done 10 years

ago! Even though it came out in 97', It was written in 93' and 94' and picked up by Capital in 95'. When we turned it in no one knew what to say. There

was no" NEO SOUL" movement and the record company was very nervous about the whole project. So i've always kind of danced to the beat of a different

drum. For me the idea of classifying music so rigidly goes against the idea of it's intended purpose, "To Liberate While Entertaining".

Who's in your 'team' now - Dred still there?. Who do you work with and how does it all come together including the admin/management side.

I wrote all the songs with my producer and partner in crime Dred Scott. He, myself and Paul Stewart , who was the person responsible for my first

Record coming out on his label at RCA, linked up and decided to do this independently. It’s been stress free with no worries. We also have had

Great support from one of our good friends, Colin Sutton, who was the head of marketing on the first record and is now working for Buzztone Marketing

Firm. This situation is night and day from my first experience.

Are you doing/ going to be doing gigs to promo it

Yeah that is the fun part!

What's your show like - you've been brought up in a 'live' environment one way and another.

My shows are about letting go and allowing the spirit of music to do its thing. Growing up watching my mother perform taught me valuable lessons

about the art of performing live and working with musicians. It's about sharing and creating a spirit of community on stage . If you can do

that then that feeling will affect the audience and make the overall experience more enjoyable for everyone involved.

How do you see yourself in the marketplace right now. Who out there grabs you now.

I see myself getting out there and letting the universe guide me to my intended destiny, wherever that may be. I of course will work hard to

make this successful but what happens ultimately is out of my control. As far as what grabs me goes, I like Jet a lot! Their album is hot. Also I have

been listening to a lot of music I brought back from Brazil and some very, very underground hip hop that is really interesting.

And what's been happening since the last album which is now some 7 years ago. I see you been taking a load of time out and travelling and stuff.

What brought that on (if I can go there!), and how has it helped you, coming out the other side. What kind of things did you do.

I wrote a lot while I was in Brazil. Travelled throughout the Brazilian countryside learning about the people and their amazing culture. Well

like I was saying earlier I needed a break from the business. It's an awful business. Nothing can prepare for it and only God can heal the wounds

that it can and does inflict on you soul. I was blessed to have a loving family who in a sense prepared me by raising me not to allow anything or

anyone to abuse me. So when I came face to face with what this industry was doing to my spirit I left it. I longed to be somewhere "limpia", clean. I found

this purity surprisingly in the ghettos or "favelas" of Brazil.

And the first album was certainly a great album, you still proud of it. Where did it take you or where did you think it was going to take you

in the overall scheme of things. It was certainly critically acclaimed..but you've moved on?

Yeah .I'm very proud of that record. It is kind of a souvenir of that time for me. It documents who I was and what I was thinking at that time in

my life . It took me on a very interesting ride . I don't know who I would be without that experience. It was all very necessary to my overall

evolution. I am grateful to have lived that experience .

Yet I see you're going to reissue it with some additional material.

There were a lot of songs that were left off of that record that I think people would like to hear .Why not, I own them and there is no record

company to tell me they are not radio friendly or whatever idiotic excuses they use to keep the public from hearing the music they want .

You're a West Coast girl from a musical family. Growing up was it always going to be music for you.

It was always music . I grew up in the Haight Ashbury, the daughter of a jazz singer. There was only one choice for me - MUSIC!

And it was looking good from quite an early age with the Dred Scott album, leading into yours?

Yeah. Dred and I hooked up in my first year at school. We were kindred spirits. His album was the beginning of my first record.

Being a writer I guess you've been writing your experiences down and this probably exceeds your output. Can we look forward to seeing

something reaching the light of day or do you just move on.

Some ideas are just for me. So some of my writings will never see the light of day.

Your early influences were mostly jazz greats? Pharoah Sanders is your godfather I understand. Do you see yourself moving in that direction

more.

No. I have done one straight ahead jazz song called "Lucky Days" for a movie. It was a lot of fun but I am not really a jazz singer.

Who were your influences as a kid as you moved into Soul and then Hip Hop.

I never really listened to the popular R&B of the time. As a kid I used to listen to old Minnie Ripperton records and Marvin Gaye, Rufus and Chaka

Khan, Ceila Cruz, Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, Sarah Vaughn,etc. Hip hop was the only popular music that I liked. It had the feeling of all the

records that I loved. It used rock breaks and the old soul grooves that I adored. Hip Hop was beautiful. It was free. I found my experience

reflected in the voices of my new heroes. Some were political, some were playful and some were even down right violent ; but they and the music that

blanketed their voices were authentic.

It seems that there is a whole mish mash of directions in you, from all the jazz, the synergy with Dred into hip hop , funk, blues, bit of

everything. Do you wonder what's going to come out, or where your going to go next. As you say you're a 'sponge' - I'd be totally drowned and

confused in all that, yet you sort it all out!

I don't really give it too much thought. I just let whatever comes out make its case to be born. If I feel it then thats what gets created. My

musical process is very organic. For me I don't really get caught up in the different genre names or styles " esta todo musica" It's all just music

to me. I think that is very characteristic of someone who is from an underground hip hop background. Peolple like DJ Premier, Prince Paul,

and Pete Rock drew from different "genres" to create their sound. In the end I'm just a B-girl. I guess that is what buggs people out. They see me

as this smokey jazz singer but little do they know!

Tell me about how you take all this diversity into your songwriting.

Like I said I don't spend much time thinking about it. It just comes out. I can't really give it much thought. I think over analyzing it would

Actually impede my process.

And what's happening next, in the immediate future to promo the album.

Promotion, Promotion, Promotion. Yeah that pretty much the train I 'm on for now. Shows , press whatever it takes to get this record out there.

And the bigger plan.

To have a clean life devoid of music business sludge. To buy a property in Brazil and to speak Portuguese properly and continue to make good

music.

Be good to get you in the UK - have you been over.

I would love to come to the UK. I love your music scene over there. I really enjoyed performing over there the first time around. I worked the Jazz Cafe. I loved London in fact my mom is over there right now visiting my uncle who has lived there

for over thirty years.

Good Luck and thanks for your time.

Thank you for all of your support. Great questions by the way!

Peace Out!

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