MICHAEL SUTTON

Interview 25 February 2003

Interviews Menu - Interviews

How are you, what's happening right now.

I’m fine michael , I’m quite actively involves in promoting my new CD and establishing my small independent Label.

Let's start with the CD Hopeless Romantic. How's that going down at home and

abroad, a couple of tracks are getting a bit of attention in the UK.

I am quite surprised ! Its doing quite well considering I just released in on the internet in late August.

I’ve was a best seller and Editors pick on CD Baby for a while and have gotten some great reviews.

Tell me about the rationale for doing a solo album and how it all came

together, how long did it take and are you pleased with it and the reactions

you've gotten so far. It had to be an independent project did it?

Actually I had not planned on doing a solo album, I just decided to write some good songs and sing them myself. Just to have some fun and know that I could sing them instead of having someone else do them. One thing led to the next. My co-writer heard me sing and thought I should sing even more. Then another lady heard my voice and so the encouragement continued. I put this altogether in the last five years.

The reaction has been great. I am pleased with it thus far.

Given you're background do you like having your voice up front, in the

spotlight, or do you regard yourself principally a writer. Was this

something you had to do?

No it is not something I had to do . It was a choice. A decision that arose out of the

Logic of events in my life at the time.

What are you doing to promote- you talk on your website about you're

agoraphobia, this presumably makes gigging and stuff a difficulty, or is it

out of the question. You talk freely about it, yet it has had a devastating

effect on your personal and private life, how are things right now..and I

guess despite all this there are positives? It seems you're wife has been a

great source of strength and understanding?

Yes I intend to promote in in clubs, the internet and via national distribution. The agoraphobia has beem challenging, yet I look forward to doing some limited engagements in the future. I am doing much better with it than a few years back. Yes it did have quite an effect on my life in general. Although I am no longer married , my wife at that time was a constant support and I still love her for that and appreciate her. She is a Queen and the mother of my children. I felt it would be good to talk about it, because it lets people know that we artists have the same challenges that everyone else has. When I look back in retrospect I can see how the anxiety disorder /agoraphobia has had some positve effects on me.

What else have you being doing recently, you've been doing some gospel work

haven't you... and what's ahead?

I just produced 4 songs on Pat Boone, as well as a song embodying the voices of some popular singers of our time.

Has this album been your only solo project.

Yes

You were a staff writer and producer at Motown for seven years, what years was that and how did it all come about. How did you connect with Stevie in the first place?

Now I’m telling my age , but it was 1974 till 1980. I connected with Stevie via Seth Riggs his vocal coach.

My ex-wife and I (Brenda ) was performing at the time in clubs and the managers who booked us happened to be taking lessons from Seth and found out that Stevie was looking for backup singers. Well we met Stevie up there at his house and after he heard us , he thought we should be doin our own thing.

Who did you work with and what were your best successes, can you tell us about some of the people you worked with, Michael Jackson, Smokey, Diana Ross, Thelma Houston and others.

With all the controversy about Michael I guess I’ll start with him. This was an awesome experiennce. He was about 17 then and we had a lot of fun in the studio. He is nothing like the media portrays him. I am honored to have worked with him, by the way you can go hear the song I wrote for him on my website at www.michaelbsutton.com . Smokey was great too, as well as Thelma. Our best success however was with Smokey a song called “There Will Come A Day” went to top 5 in Billboard.

You did the Thelma and Jerry album didn't you - what was Jerry Butler like

Jerry was just like they called him “The Ice Man” real cool and professional . Jerry and I also wrote a song together on one of his solo albums called “ I Don’t Want Nobody To Know”

and the Originals - one of the greats in my view.....

The Originals were a great group and still are. We had some great times in the studio and we got a Number 1 dance record out of it called “ Down To Love Town”.

'Disco' was good to you as well Michael & Brenda,Cheryl Lynn.......tell me about that period and other things that you got involved in.

That was a real interesting period. We got a lot of experience as artists then and the Cheryl Lynn hit(Shake It Up Tonight) was quite a surprise. That’s another story..

You then set up your own Publishing Company...I suppose that was a natural development or was it something that you were forced to do?

I think it was a natural development. Artists were getting tired of giving away all their rights to big publishing companies. Yet the big guys were there when we were trying to make it . so they arent all that bad.

You have done a lot of TV and film themes, can you tell us what you have done. Do you get the same kind of satisfaction out of these kind of things, or is it more of a 'job' at this level.

I have done some films. One False Move, Machine Gun Blues, Guilty As Charged. I mainly wrote these with Brenda and Bobbi Jo Lathan my other co-writer as cues or theme songs. I did score a coouple of “B”movies. That is hard work.

Are there any projects that you are working on in this line.

Not at the present

What about the future, what can we expect from you in the forthcoming months.

Well now that I have secured national independent distribution, you can expect to hear from a couple of female artists in the near future as well as a spoken word project and new age..