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Maria "Miss Funkyflyy" Granditsky: Let's talk some more about your new album "Black Angel". You wrote both the music and the lyrics on six songs and you also produced it.

Mica Paris: Yes. I wrote "Should Have Known Better", "Is It Good Enough", "Carefree", "I'll Give You More", "Waiting" and "Perfect". I produced four of those songs solely by myself and I also produced the whole album. The record was produced by me and lots of other people I had involved with me, working with me. See, when I produce a record it's like I work with people. It's not like I just sit there and do it myself. I like to share it around. I like to work in teams. I produced "Perfect", "Waiting", "I'll Give You More" and "Should Have Known Better" all by myself. The overall album was all put together by me and thus the production credit. Production is putting the whole thing together.

"Waiting" is one of my favorite tracks, it has that funky slap bass.. You did some of the funkiest tracks yourself..

Yeah. I'm really on the one. I'm on the Funk tip.

I love the songs you did with Soul-Sweden's pride and joy, Stephen Simmonds..

Stephen's such a great guy. What a talent!

How did you two hook up?

I heard his "Alone" album two years ago and it blew my mind. I said "who is this man? I want to get him now!" I flew to Sweden to meet him and he wrote me two songs on the spot which were "I Hate To Love You" and "Let Me Inside". They're great songs. I had his voice way up in the mix because I was blown away by his voice. He's such a great guy..

What producers besides Stephen did you work with?

I worked with a guy in L.A. called Julian Jackson, I worked with lots of DJ's. I worked with Ronin, who's in London, Dodge, Richie Stevens, Guy Farley.. James Ingram, he wrote "Love's Gone" and sang on it too. And Boy George, obviously, who wrote "Black Angel".

Now, that was a surprise. Boy George goes Soul?

He is very, very soulful. He's got it in him, he's got a great voice. He wrote me that song seven years ago. It's taken us this long to get it together. He produced it and did a great job on it. The song blew me away so much that I decided to call the album "Black Angel".

What does the title mean?

I can't tell you exactly what it means, you have to ask Boy George about that, as he wrote it for me. But I interpret a "Black Angel" as a person who helps everyone else. Someone who's there for you. I'm very motherly. People always look to me and lean on me. I've always been like a caretaker person. I feel very comfortable with the song, with the description of what my role is in life, as a musician, as a human being, as a mother. I feel like I'm always caretaking people. I'm always looking after people. The "Black Angel" song is very much in line with my character. It doesn't mean that I am perfect in any way. It just means that when people have problems, I'm always quick to dive in and help them out. Just be there for them. It's very much a woman thing. I think women do that a lot, most women do that. It's the nurturing side of our being.

There's only one cover on the album, your version of Sly Stone's "If You Want Me To Stay", which was also the first single. Was making it sound different from the original version something you paid much attention to?

Oh yes! Very much so. I always feel that if you're gonna do a song by somebody else, you must make it your own. Otherwise you shouldn't do it. I mean, what's the point of copying them? They've already done it their way, so I just interpreted it the way that I saw that I could. I tried to relate it to me, as opposed to trying to be him. I took it from the female perspective. It's true, if you want me to stay you gotta flippin' accept me for who I am. I'm accepting you, so surely you can accept me? That's basically what I'm saying and that's what Sly is saying.

Is that your own hair in the video?

Yeah, yeah! Blow-dried.. Messed up.

I'm impressed! How do you get it up that high?

Well, it's a Black thing (laughs). We have very thick hair.

(Laughs) yeah, well, but that Afro is huge..

Ohhh, you mean the first video? "Stay"? Some of that is extensions. It's really big in the video. I thought you meant "Carefree", the video after that. In that video, my hair is shorter. I haven't got extensions in that one. I've always been a big fan of "Bladerunner", it's one of my favorite movies, so I tried to go for that kind of futuristic, messed up kind of look. I'm like: "space girl" (laughs).

(Laughs) speaking of "spaced out". The conversation, or should I say monologue, that opens the "Black Angel" album is really mysterious.. What is going on there?

The guy in L.A. who put it together taped a conversation I was having with him on the telephone. I was speaking to him from South Africa and I didn't know he was taping it. All of what you hear is completely natural. I was talking to him on the bloody phone and I had no idea he was recording it (laughs). You hear a woman say "hi, this is the Table Bay Hotel". I go "hello" and he goes "how how are you doing?". He cut out the rest of his voice from the conversation and just left my voice on the recording you hear. In the beginning, all I'm saying is that we're all the same. My experience is your experience. It might be a different time, but we are all one. If I tell you my life's story, you can relate to it, trust me. I really feel that this album is feminine. It's very much for women who are in tune with themselves because it took me five years to get to this place and all I've done on this record is express exactly the five years I've been through.

Are you still married?

No, I got divorced seven years ago. I have a beautiful little girl.

Is her name Monet?

Yeah. Monet.

Is the song "Baby Angel" dedicated to her?

Yeah, she's such a great little girl. I absolutely adore her. She keeps me together. They do that, they keep you focused and they give you unconditional love. In a world that's really full of hype, it's really nice to have a kid just there.. Your kid.. Your kid is there because they love you, not because you're famous. I need that.

I've always wondered about that. Does being famous make a person more suspicious about people who wants to be ones friend? I mean, don't you ever wonder if someone want to be friendly with you because they sincerely like you as a person, or if it's just that you are a celebrity? I'm sure I would think like that..

Oh yes. You can become very cynical, if you're not careful. What I tend to do is, I don't give too much. I used to give everything away and tried to help every single person, but you actually lose yourself when you do that. I think you give a lot more when you're not trying to. When you don't try to give, you end up giving tons more. I've learned over the last eleven years that you can send love and support in many different ways. Support doesn't mean that you have to help everybody. You can basically do that by the music that you make, by the life you live, by the way you are. I'm very optimistic, I don't feel cynical, I know there are people out there who are not good but to me, every bad person is good. It just take change, you know? If I see someone who's really annoying, I don't get pissed off about it, I just go "oh, well, there's another case. Send 'em love, man" (laughs).

(Laughs). Mica, going back to what we talked about earlier, how exciting much of today's British R&B is, is it true that you have worked with Hinda Hicks? I think she's great. What a voice! And what a nice personality!

I think she's absolutely stunning! She is so nice. I'm probably gonna produce a couple of tracks for her later. We're just waiting for schedules to be right. Her record company wants me to write and produce some stuff for her. I can't wait. I'm actually quite excited because I think she is the most promising talent that we have come out with in a long time.

Hinda is like Stephen in the sense that they both are incredibly nice, talented and humble. By the way, did you know Stephen hadn't even thought of becoming an artist and wasn't sure if he'd be comfortable with being in the spotlight at first. He was like "oh? you want me to make a record?". He more or less slipped into the record business by accident.

I know... It can be an absolute curse.. When I was a kid, I was very shy too and if it hadn't been for my grandparents pushing me to sing, I probably wouldn't sing either. I had the right encouragement. I was very withdrawn.I was always quite laughable and crazy but I didn't want to sing in front of people. It was really my family who pushed me to do it. I'm glad they did now because I wouldn't have had the guts to do it by myself (laughs). And I still get very nervous. Even now, going on stage, I shit myself every time.

Really?

Oh yeah. Just because you have a great voice doesn't mean that you don't get nervous. I pray very hard and I thank the Spirit every day for the voice that I have been given. I really do appreciate my gift. I do not disrespect it. It's very important that you don't do that because many people wish that they have what you have and you can become very complacent, so I try not to.

I get nervous before doing some interviews too. I kind of assumed that it was a sign of me not being a pro. But when you, one of the world's finest singers tell me that you get nervous too, then hey, maybe I'm not a total disaster at what I do (laughs).

Nahh.. It's part of being human.We wanna get better. We wanna improve.

Yeah, but some people would rather die than admit a thing like that!

Sure. But I see nothing wrong about it. If you didn't have your fear, you wouldn't be human. It's nothing to hide. Fear is something that is human. I think that it must come from the right place, though. As long as you're trying to improve and help the next person, then there's nothing wrong in trying to better yourself. I just think it's bad if you're trying to compete. I don't believe in competing with another artist. I refuse to go into that frame of mind. I do what I do and I try to do it well and I appreciate everyone else for what they are doing too. I think the industry sometimes create this competitive mental state. It's wrong and it can really damage an artist. You can't compete! There's room for everyone. It might be my time now, next time is somebody else's time. I have to allow that, I can't dominate the whole scene. That's sick.

Your creative input has never been bigger than on this album and as good as it is, I think you should have even more on the next one. Have you thought about that?

Yeah and I've already started working on it. I'm in the studio already. I don't want to leave such a big gap until the next one. The label is allowing me to work on my own, so I think they are impressed by this album. They can't believe I did it myself so they're like "my God, maybe she does know what she's doing" (laughs). I think the climate is good for artists making their own music. Female artists, that is. I think we are being trusted a bit more.

Let's hope so!

Yeah, I hope so too. Keep your fingers crossed.

You bet! You know what I would like to hear on your next album?

What?

I want a new duet between you and Paul Johnson! I know you guys did one in the late eighties and that I'm a bit late in discovering this guy, but when I heard "Represent" on the last Soul II Soul album, I fell head over heels in love with his voice.

He's a good friend of mine! He's on this album too. He sings on "Waiting". He's doing the backup vocals on that one. He's great! He's writing and doing his own stuff, hopefully he'll be picked up soon. But yeah, maybe me and Paul can do a duet on the next one.

While doing research on you I was struck with how many things you have done. You've performed with Ashford & Simpson, Simply Red and the Artist. You've worked with Omar, Nile Rodgers, Mantronix, Rakim, Danny D, Narada Michael Walden, Rod Temperton, Leon Ware and have sung with Will Downing.. Everybody! Even had a record produced by P-funker Junie Morrison. You've won many awards, well, done more in ten years than most do in a career. Do you ever think back and say "wow"?

No. I just thank God that I've been privileged to work with these great people. I feel very blessed. But I never look back. I always look forward for new experiences. I have a very bad memory for things. I really don't remember things in the past. A few things, but not many. I just try to live now and look ahead. It's just when I do interviews that I realize that I've done all this stuff (laughs). In my mind, it doesn't feel like a long time. But no, I really appreciate Prince, all of them, they were amazing. I learned so much. That's why I can now produce stuff myself, I learned so much from these great artists.

What is the most important thing you have learned, since you signed your first deal?

Hmm.. The most important thing I have learned is that you must have strength of character and you must believe in yourself and your ability. You have to dip into the music business, but not live the music business. The music business can kill you. It's very, very monetary. If you rely on that, it will break you. You just have to have endurance and faith in yourself. You almost have to have a one track mind. You have to be very focused, very much like an athlete, focused on your goal and on doing good. Those are the things I have learned. It's harder when you are true to yourself and you're not trying to be what everyone else is telling you to be, but you will win.

Mica, it was great talking with you. Thank you so much for the interview.

It was great talking with you too. You take care now. Bye honey!
 

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© Maria Granditsky January 1999.
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