It ain't easy being a male soul singer in these times. For one, female soul mavens have pretty much cornered the market, embracing the warm sound of the past by giving it a modern facelift a la hip-hop conformities and lyrics that deal with problems that only those in the present could face. So it comes as a surprise that Raphael Saadiq is showing up the females by throwing it completely back to the Motown era with his forthcoming album The Way I See It, an expertly crafted collection of tracks that captures the crackling feel of a classic soul without soiling it with any traces of the present.
Of course, it's never easy to just dive in and recreate that sound, and Raphael took four months out of his schedule to perfectly nail it. Holing up in his L.A. studio, Raphael channeled the old school vibe of the soul musicians before him, taking notes from Al Green for woozy love lyrics on the sugary "Love That Girl" and The Delfonics for some sitar and string pointers on "Oh Girl." Raphael even got one of the original pillars of classic soul - Stevie Wonder - to play on album standout "Never Give You Up," but still keeps it fresh and modern by including Joss Stone on the doughy and optimistic "Just One Kiss."
It's taken years for Raphael to embrace this vintage soul sound, although he's been hinting at it throughout his extensive career. Originally a member of Tony! Toni! Tone!, Raphael embodied the early '90s sound until he left the group and reformed with Lucy Pearl, the now-defunct neo-soul outfit that showed Raphael taking baby steps towards his current style. He edged closer to classic soul on his 2002 solo debut Instant Vintage and 2004 record Ray Ray, flexing his production chops in the meantime by working on albums for Joss Stone, Teedra Moses and Kelis.
Now, Raphael is set to be one of the few artists in the music industry to make music that sounds as if it could have been recorded 40 years ago. Standing outside of the Soho Grand Hotel in New York City, Raphael, jetlagged from having to wake up at 6 AM (Pacific time, of course), talked with VJ Avian about how having Stevie Wonder as a neighbor worked in his favor, what's the best thing to do while listening to this album (he said it, not us) and demands that Avian fess up to how she knows so much about the album.
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