Charles Bradley: The Soul Of A Man (Interview)

Charles Bradley, the veteran soul man who forms part of the Daptone roster along with Sharon Jones and Lee Fields, is scheduled to perform in Auckland this coming March. The 66-year-old New York-based singer has had a bust few years…his latest album, Victim Of Love, was released in 2013, a documentary about him, called Soul Of America, was released in 2012 and just recently, Bradley returned to the iconic Apollo Theatre in Harlem, where he took part in a Daptone Revue show along with Sharon Jones and a host of other Daptone acts. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to Charles Bradley just a few days after the string of Apollo performances.

Listen to the interview with Charles Bradley here:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: You just got finished performing at the Apollo Theatre with a bunch of other… the Daptone people, is that right?

CB: Yes. Yeah that’s right. If you hear my voice it’s still a little croaky.

MD: You’re right.

CB: But yeah I did at the Apollo I did, was it Thursday, Friday, Saturday and then someone called me and asked  me to do a show on Sunday. So I’ve been working at it.

MD: Whoa.

CB: So like, you know, it’s like you give back to your area, you get back to, you let them know that you’re not just running away from them.

MD: Right. So it was you and just about everybody else who’s on Daptone, that must’ve been an amazing series of shows. What can you tell me about it?

CB: It was crazy. I had to do a show with 2 bands. I did a show with, was it the, The Menahan Street Band

MD: Right.

CB: And The Extraordiniares and the Budos and then they had Sharon Jones and then they had this other band, all African band.

MD: Antibalas?

CB: Antibalas, yes…it was nice.

MD: Yeah.

CB: It was like really, when I got into it, it was beautiful. I mean, everybody, they gave me a standing ovation. It was, I don’t know, it was nice.

MD: Is there a sense of any kind of competition between you and say Sharon Jones or any of the others to kind of, you know, really make an impression on the crowd?

CB: That’s a strange question because I’ve never answered that question. Sharon is her own character, she likes what she’s doing.

MD: Right.

CB: I mean I’m in my own character, I like my stage too. Certain things with Sharon Jones… I can’t really get off the way I really want to get off unless I have the stage to myself.

MD: Yeah.

CB: But I always learn to, when I’m on stage with her, like at the end of the show, I kind of just, kind of back up a little bit and give just, when I’m on stage I give her, her space. But when I get the stage to me, then I will get my space.

MD: Right.

CB: It’s sort of like you know what, two artists on stage, Sharon is the person who is driving her music and she want her space and it’s the same thing with me. I respect her and I give her, her space.

MD: Fair enough. Just being at the Apollo, I mean, I know that the Apollo looms large in your history, you know, you saw James Brown there, I believe you played there, headlined yourself last year there. Is it still a very significant venue for you?

CB: You know, when I went to the Apollo this time I seen that they did a lot of things to it. It looked smaller. When I was coming upit looked bigger, everybody’s like wow. It’s just like, to me, the Apollo just feels like home.

MD: Right.

CB: When I go on stage I just feel like I’m home and like I love the way, I’ll always love that Apollo stage because the floor is made out of wood and I can really go out and dance if I want to dance. It really give me that slipperiness that I need.  The Apollo just never changed the floor and that’s what I like about that. When I get into it the floor is like really nice and slippery, that’s when I can really get down.

MD: So you’re still doing a very physical set, is that right?

CB: Yes, yes. You know, I don’t know why but just like the feeling is still there. As long as the feeling is still there and I get that adrenaline I get into it and that’s just the way I feel.

MD: Excellent.

CB: Honestly I don’t know how long it’s going to last but I’m gonna keep doing it as long as I got the strength I’m gonna keep doing it.

MD: Right, right. Now of course you were also a subject of a film, relatively recently, the Soul of America documentary and I was wondering, you know, what your reaction was to it once you saw the finished product. I assume that you were involved, you know, you kind of talked quite a bit to the director or whatever as it was being made but what did you feel about it after it was all done?

CB: It just feels, because a certain clause about the documentary that I’ve never seen before until they put me on…and one day they see it and a lot of things, say with my uncle, my oldest brother, they went down South and they interviewed… that part I never seen and when I saw that, it had some of the words that my uncle said and my brother said, it was very shocking to me.

MD: Really.

CB: I had to get up and walk away because it was like really, it was painful.

MD: Yeah.

CB: Because like some of the things that, you know, I feel that it shouldn’t have gotten out but my uncle spoke his mind.

MD: Right.

CB: And my brother spoke his mind and its while I heard some of these things that they said, I was, I was really shocked and that’s why I’d never let my mother listen to part of that documentary.

MD: Right, right.

CB: it was, my mom was, uncle was saying things about my mom and why would I let her hear those things, I think she would have been very hurt.

MD: Yeah.

CB: You know, she is gone and it doesn’t bother me now because she will never be able to hear some of the things that were said.

MD: Right and what about for you, yourself? Do you think it really caught your essence about kind of who you are and what kind of artist you are?

CB: I know that my roots came from deepness and celebration came from a lot of deeply things that I never must express because back in the days I couldn’t really actually say what’s on my mind, I was afraid I was gonna lose my job or afraid I’m gonna lose this or lose that, but a lot of things now it’s like I’m beginning to open up and in my music I let it out and I’m seeing a lot of things that the world is hearing about me and now they’re very happy to hear that I’m letting some of my truth out because a lot of things I carried, I had a burden inside me most of my life cause I was scared of losing things that I have. If I say that I have a job, if I’d say this, I was afraid I was gonna lose my job. But now its time tell the truth. I’m beginning to speak out cause’ hey, I’m getting older.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uegzZWp6Y4w]

MD: Right.

CB: And it’s time for it to come out. It’s been way time for it to come out but I’ve been always been afraid.

MD: Now I’m interested in your song writing process. Your song writing I assume it’s relatively new to you and you’ve, now you’ve written two albums of material. Do you consider yourself a, you know, do you write songs all the time? Are you thinking about it or do you do it just if there’s an album coming up?

CB: We’re thinking about, already looking into album three. But, you know, a lot of my lyrics come out, it comes out when I go to the studio and what we’d normally do, Tom normally, he got just some instruments and he don’t get in his library and he actually just come there and listen to him and I listen to him, but they’re not the same format that I want but he had the sound that my ears can deal with.

MD: Right.

CB: my ears can deal with it, just give the microphone and I just let my lyrics come out of me, flow out of me and what Tom do, Tom just like, he’d just record what I’m saying.

MD: Right.

CB: And then I would say maybe the lyrics sound real good.

MD: Right. When you’re coming to New Zealand to perform, what kind of show can we expect from you?

CB: You’ll all get the best of me cause’ I don’t go no place if I can’t open my heart and I got no, once I get into my music, when I get into my depth I open my soul and I always give my shows like it’s my last show. So you know, it’s gonna be a good show. Just always want to give the best of me. I’m like, when I get on stage I just feel that …what you do when you get on stage, how do you get your energy to get back on stage and do it again, I say because I give it from my soul and it’s like I give it like it’s my last show and somehow I find a way to get my strength back up again and do it all over again.

MD: I hear you have a tendency to go in and hug the audience, should we be looking out for that?

CB:  Cause’ the love that they give to me, they really open my spirit. You know, I can’t tell you all the things I’m gonna do when I’m on stage, it’s just that when the feeling hits me, I follow my inner spirit, if I feel like going out…one time I was in L.A. I did not know what was gonna happen, I went out to shake hands with the people on the side of the stage and before I know it I was up in the air, they were passing me around like a piece of tissue.

MD: Oh right, you were crowd surfing.

CB: I was shocked. Yeah, I was shocked. Oh my God. So you never know what’s gonna happen. It’s just that when the spirit is open and you feel the love, you just let it out and that’s why I never give a plan to you of what’s gonna happen on stage.

MD: Fantastic.

CB: It just comes out natural.

 Click here for more details about Charles Bradley’s upcoming show at Auckland’s Powerstation.