Angie Stone On Soulfest (Interview)

R&B diva Angie Stone is just one of the artists scheduled to appear at Soulfest, a celebration of some of the finest neo-soul, jazz and hip-hop artists around including Maxwell, D’Angelo, Common, Mos Def and Anthony Hamilton, among others. The festivals takes place at Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium this coming October. In addition to her music, Angie Stone has been busy with television, film and theatre appearances. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke to her recently about the upcoming Soulfest show and about appearing with her former partner D’Angelo.

Click here to listen to the interview with Angie Stone:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: You’re coming to New Zealand for the first time in a couple of months so this is all very exciting.

AS: Oh yeah, very exciting. Super excited about the line-up, I’m very exciting about the line-up you guys have. It’s so long overdue and I think it’s a package that you guys will hopefully wanna do again and again and again.

MD: Yeah it’s pretty impressive.  I’m wondering, you know, I’m hoping that it is gonna be one of those things that comes up over and over again. For you, how does it work appearing on a bill like that? There are people like Anthony Hamilton and D’Angelo that you have kind of a musical and personal past with. Does that effect what you’re gonna do when you get here?

AS: I just think it’s an amazing line-up, Anthony Hamilton and D’Angelo have both, you know… I’ve  done duets and worked very closely with them both so, I kind of know what to expect.  I think we’ll all be supportive of one and other and I think we’ll have a good time where all of us can be together. We haven’t been together on a stage, shared a stage together. I know I haven’t in over 12 years with D’Angelo so this is pretty exciting for me and I think, I wanna hope that it’s the same for him.

MD: Yeah, are you planning on doing any kind of collaborating or duetting. Have you thought that far in advance yet?

AS: Well I can’t tell you what happens, you know as I said we haven’t shared a stage in a very long time. I think it’s really up to the audience. I don’t know that we will but I can’t say that we won’t because you know, we’re spontaneous and depending on who’s on which show, is everybody on the same stage, are we… you have to tell me what’s going on, I don’t know.

MD: I’m not sure yet myself. I imagine it will be, yes. So we’ll see, like you say this is the first one of these kind of things that’s happened down here so we’re all kind of excited.

AS: Yeah so you guys have everybody Maxwell, D’Angelo, Anthony, myself, all of us on the same stage cause I did hear through the grapevine that it was two stages.

MD: Oh okay, well that very well could be, yeah just to keep things moving along. Now I’m curious, your Rich Girl album came out a couple of years ago and so, whereabouts are you musically right now. Are you still kind of coming off of that or have you been working on anything new? Where do you stand?

AS: Well I actually just got two new deal offers, actually I’m in the studio now working on a project. I don’t which company I’ll go with. I think it would either be Sony or Capital, I’m not sure. But um, I’m working on a television show right now, called  R&B Divas, I’ve done a television show for ABC, a couple of movies. So I’ve been kinda busy but musically I’m getting back into the studio now. So we’ll see what happens. Rich Girl did come out about a year and a half ago and that’s something that you guys… did that album come out over there?

MD: Oh yeah.

AS: Or is it just something you….

MD: Yup, we got it.

AS: Okay so what’s a favourite over there?

MD: That I don’t know. We’ll have to find out and see what the crowd decides at the time, but I know theres a big following. We just had India Arie here a couple of weeks ago and she was very impressive as well so you know the style is very popular here so it won’t be a problem at all. I have a feeling it’s gonna be quite an impressive showing. Now you mentioned that you’ve been doing some TV stuff as well. The R&B Divas thing and I think you were on a reality show, is that right?

AS: R&B Divas is a reality show, but I did the Wife Swap on ABC which is a huge network here.

MD: Right.

AS: And I did a movie a couple of months ago, another film, Scary Movie 5. So there’s quite a bit of television appearances.

MD: The Celebrity Wife Swap, that was with Mohammed Ali’s daughter. Is that right?

AS: Yeah, that was with Laila Ali and it was the greatest show of its time on the

MD: But what was it like for you to take part in that? Was it……

AS: Oh it was so much fun. I have to say out of all of the reality shows that I’ve been a part of, this is clearly the one that I had the most fun with.

MD: And do you kind of learn something about yourself or as you’re doing these things.

AS: Oh yeah. I learned a lot about myself. You don’t stay in a relationship for 8 and a half years, having a love marriage and you see couple that’s really together and moving in the right direction with family and strength in the family. They really don’t have to sit and wait for someone to give you their life when you know, got you the people you should have in your life and it taught me to start being you know, so comfortable in that situation and therefore I’m trying to change some things.

MD: Okay and do you think about whether or not you worry about exposing yourself a bit too much, you and your family from appearing on something like that. Is that a concern?

AS: I feel it’s definitely a concern, but because reality TV have become such a way of promoting music these days that the music industry in the state of emergency you try different things. Especially me and my age, where I am and the mix that I put down, it’s just about survival for me.

MD: Right, right. I wanted to ask you about that. I mean you started recording in the 80s and 90s.

AS: 79, 1979.

MD: 79. Yeah the music industry has changed quite a bit in that time and there is a need to kind of change along with it. Do you think it’s changed for the better, for the worse, it is just different? How do you look at it?

AS: Well I think you know, nothing stays the same, everything must change and I think change is a, you know, expected. How far can we stay to ourselves and be true to ourselves is you know, gaged upon what the world is doing at the time, there’s something going on. So I’ll say that there are times when change is for the better, there are times when change for the worse. I just know that I’ve reinventing  myself now for almost 3 decades and I’m content.  I’m in a space that I’m happy and I’m still winning and I’m grateful that I’m still relevant. So that’s all that matters to me is that I give this generation and the next generation something to look forward too and show them that you know, music is forever.

MD: Right, right. And as far as being a female artist in particular has it changed for the better or worse? There are people who have one opinion then another so how does it work for you?

AS: Well I think change, like I said it’s inevitable. At times it’s for the worst, at times it’s for the best. I think that my television profile is greater now than my music profile so it balances out evenly for me.

MD: Right and you’ve also done quite a bit of acting, some theatre work.

AS: What I mean, my television profile, I’ve just finished with The Color Purple, which was very rewarding for me. so I’m excited about that. You know, all of that is great.

MD: Now I just recently did a radio profile on Gladys Knight because she just turned 70 years old and then I read somewhere that you have thought about the possibility of performing as her, appearing as her in a film or whatever. She’s quite an inspiration to you, maybe you can tell me a bit about how that….

AS: Who? Gladys?

MD: Yeah.

AS: Well you know it’s so funny, I’ve done tributes with Yolanda Adams and Deborah Cox and I have several people approach me about you should really play Gladys Knight. If they ever put a play or a movie together, it’s beyond a doubt that you should play her. I was flattered and honoured at the same time because it tells me that I’m young enough to make a difference… I’m old enough to know the difference, still young enough to make a difference and um, I just think that I probably could play her pretty well.

MD: Yeah. Do you know her? Have you met her?

AS: Yes, we love each other a lot.

MD: The other person that, the last time I was in Atlanta, I got to spend some time with Candi Staton who I believe lives near-by.

AS: Oh yeah, Candi. Candi Staton was actually a hero when I was a little girl and of course only because we just started reviewing some of her music probably like in the last month or so listening, I had some of her lyrics. She’s an amazing artist and an amazing woman so again she had a distinct sound and an incredible spirit that I absolutely love.

MD: Right and I know she’s kind of vacillated going back and forth between singing gospel and secular music and it’s also something that you’ve kind of dealt with as well. Do you talk about that at all with her?

AS: Yeah I think, yeah I’ve never talked to her about it but I’ve seen the dynamics of being bred in the church. It’s something that never leaves our soul. There are times I went on stage and that spirit enters our state and we can’t help but drive the car in that direction.

MD: It seems like something that stays, I mean even going back to as far as folks like Little Richard and whatever they’ve, and Jerry Lee Lewis… they’ve dealt with that throughout their careers and kind of not known exactly where they should stand on it I guess. So when you come here for the Soul Fest is August are you bringing your own band? How logistically is it working? What can we kind of expect from your performance?

AS: Well you can expect a good time. I am bringing my own band and singers as with everyone else, I think everybody’s gonna be on their A game because it is the first time that you’ve magically brought together the sources and the powers that the, for the soul movement. I think that everybody in the States will want to emulate this and I just think you know, being one of the only females on the show, you know, we’ve got to give it a 100% and then some so I’m really excited.

Click here for more information about Soulfest.