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Maria "Miss Funkyflyy" Granditsky: Hello Mica, how are you?

Mica Paris: I'm good, thank you. How are you?

Fine, thank you. You're panting. Did you run to the phone?(laughs)

You can hear that? Yeah, I was on another floor (laughs).

(Laughs). Now, Mica, before we begin, I'd like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me.

Aww, that's alright, darling!

I assume that you are busy, with the release of your new album "Black Angel"?

Yes, it's kinda heating up a little bit.

I hope it blows up! I really like it.

You like it? Oh, that's great!

I haven't stopped playing it since I got it! Is "Black Angel" the first thing you've done since "One", the single you had out in 1995?

Yeah!

Really? How come?

Since I've been making the album the whole time. I've been making this album since "One". I was supposed to put the album out in 1995, but there were so many changes at the record company. There were new managing directors all the time. The managing directors kept changing, like four times. I've had four different managing directors and every time the new one came along they would say they didn't like it, so I would keep going in the studio, re-recording stuff and writing more. So it ended up taking me four years to make this album, because of all these changes. I didn't bother getting involved with that, I just thought "they don't like it? OK, fine, I'm just gonna go back in the studio and carry on writing." And that's what I did. So I traveled to L.A. for a year, I worked with some friends there. I worked with a guy in Sweden, Stephen Simmonds, who's amazing, and I worked with some DJ's here in London. You know, I really just got to work. It was very frustrating, having been put on hold all the time and everyone expecting you to release something and you're not being able to do it. But I took the frustration out in the studio. I just thought: "sod this crap, I'm just gonna carry on and make the music. When the time is right, it'll happen". I'm a real big believer in the Spirit and I believe that the Spirit looks after us. I was very depressed and very hurt about being on hold all the time, but I just believed that it was for a reason and that's what made me carry on. I really believe, I really have a belief in the Spirit, so I tuned into that and that's what kept me going because everything around me was falling apart (laughs). Everything I wanted to do fell apart.. Everything I tried to go for went wrong. So I kind of retreated in the studio.

Well, I'm glad you did because I missed you!

Ohh, thank you! Thank you.

Are you still on Cooltempo records?

Yeah.

Oh, OK. I asked because on my promo copy of "Black Angel" it says "EMI Records". I know that Cooltempo used to be distributed by EMI, so I assumed you had signed directly with EMI. I don't get it..

I don't get it either (laughs). It's like, I was signed to Cooltempo, and I still am with Cooltempo, but EMI's going through so many changes at the moment, who knows what's what? I guess I just tell people I am on EMI..

You signed with Cooltempo in 1995. I read somewhere that you had a "much publicized dispute" with your former record label, Island...

Oh my God, yeah! I was signed to Island at seventeen and stayed there for seven years. The first two albums, "So Good" and "Contribution",I had control over those and I did everything with those albums. But with the third album, "Whisper A Prayer", I had no control at all and that really hurt me a lot. I just felt like I was in prison with the third album and it was that album that made my relationship with Island Records fall apart. It was very bitter, the breakup. I had been there for seven years and I just felt that the record company had changed. When I signed to Island they were very much a family-based kind of company. Chris Blackwell was great.. Then Chris sold the company to PolyGram and it just went weird. It became corporate. It was nasty, it just wasn't the same place any more. It became more monetary as opposed to artist development and that really annoyed me. And you know when you're young and you're used to a thing being a certain way.. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like too much change and I was so happy there, it was like a little home in a home, Grace Jones, Robert Palmer, U2, everyone would be walking around the building, smoking joints and just having a great time. It was a family place, you know? And all of a sudden it was all corporate and square and it was a very big change for me. Obviously they had control on me so I had to make that third album how they wanted it and it was very depressing for me. I left them after that and it was very publicized, yeah. People couldn't understand it. People were like "wow, they've spent a million pounds on this album and they didn't even promote it!". "Whisper A Prayer" cost one point five million. That's a lot of money, but they didn't promote shit (laughs). They put all the money into making the record, but they didn't promote it.

I'm glad you said this about "Whisper A Prayer". I was a little apprehensive of how to bring up...

I have nothing to hide! I think it's very important that artists talk about these things because there's a very big misunderstanding in the music business; people assume that just because you're famous then everything is fantastic and you have a wonderful life.

Yeah.. But Mica, reading old interviews with you from the time of "Whisper A Prayer", there was nothing that even hinted at how you actually felt about that record or the label. I'm curious, how do you act in a situation like this, when you have made a record that you don't really like and feel like you are being forced to promote it.. And, on top of that, by a record company which you are on the verge of leaving... Do you brainwash yourself into liking it, so that you can convey that to the media and fans? Lie?

No, I never lied. You know what I did? I just focused and concentrated on the music. Whenever I am going through a very painful crisis of any sort, I focus on the music. The music seems to be my therapy. Some people have to see a therapist, but my music is my therapist. At the time when I was going through a lot of pain on "Whisper a Prayer", what I would do in my interviews was just talk about the music. Talk about what it had been like working with Rod Temperton and Narada Michael Walden. I just kept talking about them people because it deflected away from the painful situation I was going through at the time. As always, as human beings, once you've left a situation you can analyze it. But when you're in it, it's quite hard to express.. But no, I've never been a person who sits on stuff and pretends it doesn't exist. No way! I'm very open like that.

I'm not going to say that I think "Whisper A Prayer" was a bad record. I think it had its moments, but to be honest with you, it disappointed me. I guess after a funky record like "Contribution", I wasn't expecting you to do an album that was, in lack of better words, flat. The new album "Black Angel" is the follow-up to "So Good" and "Contribution" I wanted you to make.

"Whisper A Prayer" wasn't a shit album, but it wasn't me. It wasn't fully me, if you know what I mean. It was like I was wheeled into the studio to sing and leave. I wasn't involved. Me, I have to be involved! I produce, I write and I wasn't allowed to do any of those things on "Whisper". It doesn't mean it was a shit album, it just wasn't Mica Paris and I think you owe it to your public to be you. Your public are buying you, so why the hell try to be someone else? Fair and square, though, there are some artist who actually love that. Some love to walk in and sing and then leave. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not that type of artist. I've always been very involved in my stuff.

I think your new album is so much better than "Whisper A Prayer". It sounds like you're back where you belong, where you sound the best. I recognize you now, you're not doing those big, American, "adult contemporary" type ballads any more (laughs).

(Laughs) nooo, which is very "record company".. You have a great voice and they assume that that's all you do. Put a sequin dress on and get some flippin' candle lights and that's it. But I love to get down! I love to funk, I love to funk up stuff. I like to have dirty grooves and I also like a good cry. I like to be all-round. You're never gonna see me on stage doing dance routines and shit like that. God bless artists that do, but I'm a musician. Besides, I couldn't get involved in dance routines because I'd probably hurt myself (laughs). I like to do all types if music, in terms of style, and my music is very varied. I'm trying to take R&B to another place. R&B is quite boring. You'll find that what's exciting in music right now is Hip-Hop. It moves and it changes. Plus, you've got World Music, Massive Attack; all these other aspects of music that are doing things, that are evolving. And I'm evolving. The tendency with record companies and artists like myself is that the companies tries to keep us in the same place all the time, making the same albums. This is a thing that artists really have to watch. They have to make sure that they are growing. We are prophets, you know, and we have a message to bring across. It doesn't mean that we're gurus. I'm not a guru. But I see myself as a spokesperson, musically, and I've got a very big responsibility. If I stay in the same place, musically, what the hell am I gonna teach people? What, the same crap? So, record companies find it quite hard to deal with artists like me, who want to have different records all the time, who want to change and grow. They would prefer me just to sing "I love you dearly" twenty-four hours a day.

Going back, even to your very first single "My One Temptation" in 1988, your records have always had a certain timeless quality. When I listen to "My One Temptation" today, it still sounds fresh.

Yeah, it's still there, isn't it? The thing about it is, I'm very critical of myself and I'm so afraid of embarrassment. I have huge pride in that way. I always look at my music and think "Jesus, if I can't listen to this stuff in ten years from now, I'm gonna top myself". So I do expect a lot of myself and I try to make music that is timeless, but also music that evolves. I listen to lots of different things. I listen to Flora Purim, she's a lot of Jazz, I listen to Hip-Hop, mostly the Roots.. I like to take the music to different places all the time, but also bring in real life experiences too. I think there's more to life than just having sex with a guy, there's more to life than talking about having a good shag, "ooh, he's leaving me"... All that is bullocks.. There's more, there's talking about human relationships, for Christ's sake! There is a shift right now in the human consciousness on the planet. You can see it's happening. The feminine consciousness is becoming more powerful and we have a job do to, as women, you know? We have a job to enlighten the men. It is not about disregarding them, but with the power that we now have, we have to show them that it's about sharing, not about selfishness. I think that is what I am trying to do, so badly. Just try to show people that it's OK to be feminine, but it's also OK to have your own strength and be in touch with your masculine side. You know what I'm saying? People have always been very intimidated by me because I'm six foot tall and I'm a black girl, so obviously that's even worse..So, they see me and they shit themselves. I'm very feminine and I love men, but I'm in touch with my masculine side. I'm not one of those girlie-girlie types. I can sit down with guys and have a good old chat with them and I can sit down with girls and have a good old chat with them too. I'm just saying that the stereotypical image of the male and the female is wrong. Men should be allowed to be feminine and women should be allowed to be masculine. It doesn't mean that you have a problem (laughs).

(Laughs) I totally agree with you!

You would, because you're from Sweden.You guys are great! I feel that you guys are a lot more open in terms of the way you see things, as opposed to the British. I think the British are very suppressed, in a lot of ways. It's quite sad, because the music here is very potent.

Oh, it is! Some of the best R&B music being made today is British. In fact, I dare to say that bands like D-Influence are among the few whose records excite me almost as much as records used to "in the good old days".

Yes, yes! There's definitely a cultural thing in London. London is special because we've had a lot of cross culture here. You've got Jamaicans hanging out with Irish and Asian. We all grew up together. We all went to the same schools. What you hear is all the different types of music meshing into one another. That's what we did, we'd hang out with each other and play each other's stuff that we liked. People like Jamiroquai, D-Influence, all these different bands from England that are making music that sounds so interesting.. It's the culture! In America, it's very much the African-Caribbeans stay with the African-Caribbeans, the white people stay with the white people.. In London, people of my age group, I'm twenty-nine, we all listen to the same shit and there is no segregation. All that needs to happen now is that the record business in London invest in the street talent. As opposed to just taking street talent and making it Pop.
 

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© Maria Granditsky January 1999.
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