Dwele Interview

[Lunatic]

http://raptalk.net/website/content/view/2448/54/



Today, June 29th, neo-soul singer Dwele puts out his new album “W.ants W.orld W.omen” via E1 with guest appearances and production from DJ Quik, Nottz, Mike City, Slum Village, David Banner, Raheem Devaughn and more. Lead by the single “What’s not to Love”, Dwele offers up a concept album broken down into three separate musical sections.

Dwele took time out of his busy promo run schedule to speak to www.raptalk.net and give us all of the juicy details on his new project. Topics of conversation include working with DJ Quik, collaborating with Kanye West, the new album and more.

Enjoy.

Read Full Interview:
http://raptalk.net/website/content/view/2448/54/

[Lunatic]

Raptalk.Net: its www.raptalk.net and we’re right here with R&B artist, neo-soul himself, Dwele. How are you doing Dwele?

Dwele: I’m good man. I can’t complain.

Raptalk.Net: Growing up in Detroit, who were some of your R&B influences?

Dwele: I grew up listening to a lot of Marvin [Gaye], Donnie Hathaway & Stevie Wonder of course. I listened to a lot of jazz coming up too, people like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Roy Ayers – cats like that. I really got into hip hop when I got to high school. I started listening to a lot of Tribe Called Quest and cats like that.

Interview: Cool. Who would you say influenced your style the most?

Dwele: From the soul side of things I would probably have to say… early on, I was influenced a lot by Michael Franks. Michael Franks’ style was real simplistic but it was all emotion. He was trying to get emotion across in his music. I think that’s who I patterned myself after when I was younger in the game.

Interview: We’re gonna’ get into the single. Tell us about it, “What’s not to Love.”

Dwele: “What’s not to Love”, that’s the joint I put out with Mike City. It’s just a feel good song. I know the first time I heard it, I thought it was perfect for the summertime. It’s uplifting to women and it kind of forces women to look at themselves and see what it is about them that’s lovable. What’s not to love about me? That’s what it makes the next woman say. I think it’s a good message. It’s just a feel good song.

Interview: With “What’s Not to Love”, what was the video shoot like?

Dwele: The video shoot was kind of hectic man. It was cold outside. That’s the only thing about shooting a video or a movie in the city of Detroit. You never know what the weather is gonna’ be like. Places like Los Angeles, you pretty much know what it’s gonna’ be. You can dress accordingly for LA weather. Detroit, anything can happen. I think we had three different weather seasons within the first hour of that video shoot. It started out windy, cold and raining, and then the sun came out, and it went away and got gloomy and hot. It was crazy. I think the video turned out great considering the weather conditions which we worked around and made it happen. We had a lot of fun on that shoot.

Interview: You really wanted to shoot the video in your hometown.

Dwele: This first video, it most definitely had to be in the hometown. I like shooting videos here in Detroit. It shows a part of Detroit that’s not necessarily busted or broken down. I feel like everybody thinks that’s all that Detroit is, abandoned buildings and that’s not what Detroit is. That’s because Detroit gets a lot of negative publicity and that’s the only publicity it gets. I wanted to show this side of Detroit.

Interview: It’s a concept album. The title and cover are very interested – “W.ants W.orld W.omen”, a period after each ‘W.’ Why the title? Describe that concept to us.

Dwele: I called it “WWW” because I wanted to make it something people would talk about. I wanted to create a little buzz. People are like what the heck is he talking about? What the hell is he saying with this album title? With “W.ants W.orld W.omen” from the jump, it sounds like I’m saying I want worldly women, but that’s not necessarily what it is.

The album is actually broken off into three different sections. The first section is the “W.ant”, and that’s the section where I do what I feel. That’s like my alter ego. That’s where I get to have fun with the record and do things I otherwise wouldn’t do musically. Really, that section is where I get to have fun.

And then you have the “W.orld” section, that’s more of my audio time capsule of the things that has been going on in the world and in our community, and in our country over the past few years. It captures the climate of the times politically. It’s the more soulful side of the album.

And then you have the “W.omen” section which is the baby making music. It’s the feel good music for the woman. All three of those sections come together to make that trio that is the entire album.

Interview: That’s a pretty cool and unique concept. Mike City produced the first single as you mentioned. Who else appears on the album whether it’s production or guest appearances?

Dwele: I got two songs from Mike City. I have a couple of songs from Nottz. I have one song from G-1 who is the guy that produced “Find a Way” for me back in the day and also “I’m Cheating” off the last album. As far as musical guests, I have Raheem Devaughn for the east coast, I have Slum Village and also a singer named Monica Blair from Detroit. She’s a ridiculous singer, that’s who’s repressing the Midwest on here. I have David Banner representing the south and DJ Quik representing the west. I covered all the coasts on this joint.

Interview: We want to talk about a couple of those. David Banner seems to do a lot of tracks with R&B artists. What was it like working with him?

Dwele: [David] Banner is cool and very professional. He’s a very professional dude and just a cool guy. He’s really about his music. He knows his music and he’s quick with the turnaround time. It’s great working with a dude like that.

Interview: And here at www.raptalk.net, although we cover all coasts, we mainly cover west coast artists. As you mentioned, we couldn’t help but notice you worked with DJ Quik on the project. That’s a pretty interesting collaboration. Tell us about that.

Dwele:  [DJ] Quik is crazy. Quik is a phenom in the musical world. From the jump, growing up and listening to him, I was like okay, DJ Quik is a rapper. But he’s so much more than that. He’s a producer, he’s engineer and he mixes and masters. He does everything. He knows the book knowledge for everything in the studio. For the lack of a better term, I’d say DJ Quik when he’s not in rapper mode; DJ Quik can turn nerd on you real quick! (laughs). When it comes to musical advice or new instruments, he’s a nerd and that’s dope. I got a little nerd in me but I’m not trumping DJ Quik’s nerd when it comes to that studio.

Interview: I like that! What’s a session like with DJ Quik?

Dwele: Working with Quik is cool. It’s the same deal. He knows what he wants but he’s open to creativity. He’s good to bounce ideas off of. He works quickly in the studio. It was good to actually be in the studio with him and to actually be working with someone I grew up listening to. I thought that was hard!

Interview: What do you like about working with E1?

Dwele: E1 is good man. I really don’t have too much to compare it to besides Virgin Records. The difference I’ve seen between E1 and Virgin Records is that E1 really gives you creativity. Once they see where you’re going creatively, they let you do your thing. This is my second album with them and we’re very comfortable with each other. They let me go out and be the person that I am. That’s what I really like about dealing with E1.

Interview: June 29th is the date of the album. What’s up next for Dwele?

Dwele: A lot of touring. I have a lot of shows coming up. I’ll be promoting the album everywhere. With this album, I’m really getting into the video thing. I actually have my own equipment now and the means to actually create music videos. I’m really looking forward to doing that with this album. I’m trying to cut a video for every song on the album. To check out my videos, you can go to www.dwele.com and I created three commercials for the album that you can see on there. It’s just sort of a pre-cursor video wise for what’s coming next. I’m really looking forward to that because it’s another aspect of creativity that I really want to touch on.

Interview: Is www.dwele.com the same website where they can check out the tour dates?

Dwele: I believe we’re still getting the website together. They will have the tour dates on www.dwele.com, but right now the best place to go to get it is to check for me on Twitter at www.twtter.com/therealdwele and I’ll post the tour dates as they come up.

Interview: You’ve worked with a lot of artists as far you doing guest appearance. Are we gonna’ be able to hear Dwele on any upcoming albums?

Dwele: Yeah. We just finished up a song with Kanye West. I think he just leaked it, it’s a song called “Power.” I just finished that one up. I’m working on a couple of other things but I don’t like to speak on things prematurely though. Will just say I do have some stuff in the works.

Interview: Cool. I appreciate your time Dwele and we wish you the best of luck with the album. Do you have any last words before I let you go?

Dwele: I appreciate everything and I appreciate the people for supporting. I’m gonna’ keep bringing out that hot music.