Transcription Interviews TSShow 28/04/2009 Part 2

[sexymailletf]

Special Thanx 2 E****s


PRINCE

Tavis: Welcome back to night two of our conversation with my man, Prince. I'm still holding these papers from last night. I didn't even change clothes. (Laughter.) Then again neither has Prince, but he looks good all the time anyway.

When we last left --

Prince: Well, actually, I changed. (Laughter.) This is the double of all the same stuff. Tavis is the one who didn't change, though.

Tavis: Yeah, yours is double, you got two of those.

Prince: There you go.

Tavis: Well, if it works for you, it works for me. I changed, too. I got two of these. (Laughter.)

When we left you last night I had these papers in my hand. We were talking about some of the song lyrics on his new CD, "Lotusflow3r." You know it's out -- three CDs in this package: "Mplsound," "Elixer," and "Lotusflow3r." So three CDs in the package at Lotusflow3r.com, if you want to get it.

We were talking last night, though, Prince, about some of the lyrics, and we talked about "Dreamer." I didn't get to these other three. Can I ask you about "Colonized Mind?"

Prince: Yeah. "Colonized Mind" has to do with the state of the union right now, the state of the union for all of us -- not just Black, not just White, but all of us. Yesterday we spoke a little bit about how I was raised, and my father, he was a very strong individual who demanded a very high standard from me in everything.

You said something very interesting, is that I could have turned out a mean person. I do have that side of me, but what I try to do is I, to the best of my ability, funnel it back into the music. Larry Graham is a dear friend of mine, I just want to say what's up to him and Tina and Aaron and Latia -- I'll be home shortly. I'm having a lot of fun out here, though, so. (Laughter.)

I just want to say something -- Larry has got a volatile side to him, too. He told me a story once -- I hope you -- Larry, I got to tell this. This is -- I just got to tell it. (Laughter.) One time, Larry and Freddie from Sly and the Family Stone are on their way to a gig to open for Jimi Hendrix.

Now, right then I'm shaking, can't wait to hear what's about to go down. On the way to the gig they pick up some of their amplifiers and their car is loaded with these amplifiers, right?

It's hard to see, but they're driving and they're late trying to get to the gig. They either hit this guy or a guy runs into them, but there's an accident, right, in the middle of the street, New York. Larry jumps out the car, whups this dude's backside. (Laughter.) Freddie's with him. They're both from Oakland so you know what time it is, right? (Laughter.)

I don't even want to see what the other dude looked like, okay? So it's like he got that side to him, right? And I just -- I was just taken by that part of the story. But then I asked him, I said, "So when you got to the gig, like, what happened? Who won the battle between you and Hendrix?" And Larry said, "Oh, we spanked him." (Laughter.)

I said, "Wait, wait -- you spanked Jimi Hendrix?" He said, "Yeah, we spanked him." That's Larry Graham, man. So it's like, same thing with him -- if you listen to his music you can hear the bass and the funk. The anger is in songs like "People" and "Water" and "It Ain't No Fun to Me," and stuff like that. So that's what I learned from. That's my teacher.

Tavis: "Colonized Mind." Two more I want to ask you about. We referenced this last night on the show -- "Feel Better, Feel Good, Feel Wonderful." I love the -- I love the song, but I love the title.

Prince: It's about telling folks to celebrate and stop hating. There are references in the song, though, to a record executive who we've had some pretty interesting conversations. And there's a line that says, "You tried to do me like my good brother Steve," all right?

What we believe happens in the music industry is this -- is that you can put out a record and SoundScan refuses to count as many as they actually sell, but you get paid on what SoundScan says that you sold.

So if it's a lone number then you only get paid on that number. Meanwhile, when you go overseas and you check some of the barcodes and titles over there, they've already ripped you off several different times in several different ways.

Also with the influx of the Internet no sales then you've really gotten your bank account emptied out. So we never really knew what "Purple Rain" sold. I don't know to this day. I only know what they tell me. We're conducting an audit, but who knows?

Tavis: A whole bunch.

Prince: Yeah. (Laughter.) Well, we suspect.

Tavis: "Old School Company" on "Mplsound."

Prince: Yeah, that's just an ode to how I grew up and what we used to listen to, and there's a few current references in regards to bailouts given to banks and things like that, whereas there's a lot of us in the 'hood still going through the same stuff.

Now, it's interesting -- I don't live there anymore but I have to take care of a lot of people that live back there, and it'd just be best to -- I hear a lot of talk about redistribution of the wealth and stuff like that. It'd just be best to let us try running things on our own for a minute. Give us our master tapes back. Let us sell, just like you sell.

If you go to the Internet you'll see artists with 51 million hits. They say there's, like, 200 million people on MySpace. That's a nation, okay? I would shudder to look at their bank records with the music that goes through there.

Tavis: Depending on one's perspective, you are either a genius for doing stuff like this -- doing it yourself, distributing it yourself, et cetera, et cetera -- you're either a genius or you are a hater of the industry, a hater of the way things have been done, ought to be done. Tell me the strategy behind your doing what you do these days.

Prince: Well, first of all, there's no hate involved. I welcome the industry to stay and remain the way it is. It's actually good because when I'm sitting talking with somebody like Anita Baker, we can point to the industry as the way we don't want to do it anymore.

We don't believe in free goods and we don't believe in 90 percent of the contract the way it's written now -- the standard contract. We don't believe in 360 deals. Anybody that signs one of those are absolutely crazy. But it's a free country; you can do whatever you want.

The thinking behind this was to introduce a new artist to the world, somebody who's very dear to me. And her music is soothing -- it soothes me. I'm not a big fan of male vocalists. Usually when I do ballads I use my higher register because I love the female voice doing slow music.

I spoke too soon and mistakenly compared Bria's music to Sade's music. I didn't mean that she sounded like Sade, but I did mean that there's a romance that is present in Sade's music that -- like the song "Love is Stronger than Pride." It's one of the most beautiful tunes ever, and there's a romance that was missing in today's music.

And the best thing I could tell Bria was try to do something that is not happening today. Try to get into a niche, because you have a beautiful voice but you've got to do something with it that you don't hear. And that's what she's done, and it's one of those sleeper records that if people play and listen to all the way through, she got you.

Tavis: Why am I not hearing a lot of this on the radio?

Prince: I think it's because I'm not signed with a major label. Target is not a record company; they're a distributor and retail store, and a very good one at that. Thirty million people go through their stores every week, so they get a chance to pick up the "Lotusflow3r" record.

The beautiful thing about the relationship is that they're treating us like any other record company. They buy the same amount and they pay the same price, so we've done quite well already.

Bria's taken care of, I'm taken care of. I hope to do more deals like this with artists like Anita Baker and John Blackwell, Rhonda and Renato. We're trying to work on some jazz things right now. But time will tell.

Tavis: It was pretty amazing to me, though, that without radio -- it's just me talking -- without radio airplay, with a sole, a singular distributor, you end up missing number one when this thing dropped by, like -- it's like Maxwell Smart -- missed it by that much. That was serious.

Prince: Well there again, that's when the fighter in me comes out and I think about Jack Johnson knocking somebody down three and four times, and then they still say he lost the fight or something.

SoundScan said that it was number two. Other charts say that it was number one. So it doesn't make a difference to me one way or another. What makes a difference to me is that history is told truthfully, and that's not always the case.

I love golf and basketball and sports and boxing especially because it's mano-y-mano and we hold our own at the box office. It would be wonderful if it was on the radio. It's shocking that it's not. There's stuff on there -- all of "Mplsound" you could put on the radio tomorrow.

But there's some resistance to it. You'll have to ask your friends at radio. The few I've asked haven't given me a straight answer yet, so I don't know.

Tavis: If you had a station or a string of stations that you were the program director of -- owner and program director -- what would it sound like?

Prince: I would just want it to be good music, and I'd want it to be littered with artists who own their master rights. Because without that, they don't own any wealth. They can't put back into their community. There's very few artists that do own their masters right now. When that changes in the future, you'll see more radio stations being purchased, you'll see airwaves changing ownership rapidly.

Tavis: Because you obviously are -- you told that Jim Hendrix earlier and because obviously you are one of the greatest guitarists of our time --

Prince: Man, I like this show. (Laughter.)

Tavis: You know why? We just tell the truth around here. We just tell the truth. I'm just trying to be a truth-teller.

Prince: No, you're (unintelligible) thank you.

Tavis: Thank you. What do you make of this Guitar Hero?

Prince: Oh. (Laughs.) Well, I ain't mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that. But I just think it's more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It's a tough instrument -- it's not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it's cool for people who don't have time to learn the chords or ain't interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things.

To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings, and I would -- I don't know, I wish it upon everybody. It's heaven.

Tavis: She's one of the three records -- "Elixer," by Bria Valente, in this new three-CD package at Lotusflow3r.com. Tell me how you found her. I'm going to talk to her in just a second, so you're going to give me the lead-in here.

Prince: She says that she met me first, and that's what she told me. I say that I met her first. I will say this, that Morris Hayes was very instrumental. He's my keyboard player. He's very instrumental in us actually coming together.

And once we got together, it was -- we clicked. It was pretty easy. And the most interesting thing about her is how rapidly she picked up understanding of scripture, because I pretty much talk about that with everybody I know because it informs my life so much now.

The other thing is that she's really funny and she likes to laugh, and you know, Travis, I love to laugh. (Laughter.) So -- no, I'm kidding.

Tavis: Yeah, he's funny. Yeah.

Prince: I'm kidding, I told her I was going to say that to you one time. (Laughter.) That was for her.

Tavis: You got it out. And on that note, you can get out of here. (Laughter.) His name is Prince. His new project is called "Lotusflow3r." It has not one, not two, but three CDs in it -- Bria Valente, "Elixer," Prince, of course, "Lotusflow3r" and Prince, "Mplsound." It's all good stuff. Prince, I love you, and there ain't nothing you can do about it.

Prince: (Laughs.) Love you back.

Tavis: Glad to have you here. Appreciate it.

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BRIA VALENTE

Tavis: Bria Valente is a talented singer featured on one of the three new disks from music icon Prince. "Elixer" is the first CD that kicks off this unique new set, which you can get at Prince's website, Lotusflow3r.com. From the new project, here's some of the video for "Every Time."

[Clip]

Tavis: So Bria leans over to me during the clip and says, "We're just trying to make some stellar elevator music." (Laughter.) It's a whole lot better than that. Brian, look behind that curtain and make sure Prince is gone. Make sure he's -- is he gone? Good. All right. He's gone now. So tell me the truth -- how did y'all really meet? He says he met you first; you said you met -- what really happened?

Bria Valente: Oh. Well, I was 17 and I'm from Minneapolis, Minnesota and I was working with Morris Hayes at the time and he had brought me over to Paisley Park. And I waited for Morris and he had met with Prince, and all of a sudden 10 minutes later he came down and just sat next to me, and didn't look at me. He just said, "Hello," and I said, "Hi." (Laughter.)

He said, "What's your name?" And I said, "I'm Bria." And he said, "Nice to meet you." And that was it, and then he was gone. (Laughter.) I didn't talk to him since. So that was the first time we met.

Tavis: And then fast-forward a few years later and you've got a project together.

Valente: Yes, yes, I moved out to L.A. and in a chance meeting we ended up getting back together. So that was really cool. And Morris Hayes was again the --

Tavis: The conduit.

Valente: Yes, the conduit for the collaboration.

Tavis: That's amazing. What's it like to be put out there, to be exposed, to be introduced by Prince?

Valente: It's a privilege and a blessing, and really the situation that we had and the working environment that I was in was like a family. And we all love music. I grew up with music, my father's a musician, and coming from Minneapolis, too, I think there's a really special connection there.

And when we all got together we just combined our talents and then we made this record that we are all really proud of, and I never, ever thought that I'd be working with Prince, to tell you the truth, so I moved away from Minneapolis and I ended up coming right back home, basically. (Laughter.)

Tavis: That's a fascinating story.

Valente: So it's really interesting, how that works.

Tavis: Tell me about your music, tell me about Bria's music.

Valente: I wanted a record from front to back that you can just play through and it just talks about the best qualities of love, and that's what this record really captures. So we did that, and there's a lot of live instrumentation. A few songs are jam sessions that we turned into songs after the fact, and it just turned out beautiful. I'm so proud of it.

Tavis: Whenever Prince introduces us to somebody there's always at least one song -- maybe a couple, but always at least one song that we all latch onto because it has that quintessential Prince artist, Prince protégé sound.

Mikey, one of my camera guys, and I were talking earlier. We think the song that does that on your project is "Tonight."

Valente: "Tonight," yeah.

Tavis: Would you agree with us?

Valente: Yes.

Tavis: Mikey, she agrees. (Laughter.) Tell me why we think that has that quintessential Prince protégé sound.

Valente: Well, Prince knows how to make people dance. He's funky. (Laughter.)

Tavis: That's a nice way to put it -- he knows how to make us dance.

Valente: He does. He has that quality and I think that track is definitely something that brings that out. And some people have compared it to "Nasty Girl," but yeah, I would say yeah, that's how it all comes together.

Tavis: To your word choice of comparing it to "Nasty Girl --" that word, comparing, Prince, obviously here just a few minutes ago, made the point and said -- and I'm quoting him, almost -- he says, "Perhaps I spoke too soon when I compared Bria to Sade."

And he explained what he meant by that. I don't have to repeat that part; people just saw that a few minutes ago. But what do you make of the comparisons that others make between your music and whatever?

Valente: Well, actually, this record kind of has a sound of its own. It's really hard to compare to anything else. Everybody's going to take something from it based on their personal experience, so nothing really bothers me as far as comparisons are concerned.

But most people that hear it, my voice has a different tone than other people. I've been compared, as I've heard, to Chante Moore and some other artists like that, but it really does take on its own energy and it has its own feeling in it.

Tavis: Tell me about the challenge that Prince gave you to create your own sound, to create your own lane, to do something that's not being done now. He mentions that that was the challenge that he gave you if he was going to work with you. Tell me how you go about responding to that kind of a challenge.

Valente: Well, that takes a lot of introspection. You've got to kind of sit with yourself and just think about what you want to hear that you're not hearing, you know what I mean? And there's certain things that really touch me in music and it's when I hear heart and when I hear genuineness and caring and things like that.

That's something that really gets me, and music is such a powerful thing -- it can capture a moment in your life and bring you back to that spot, so it connects with you on an emotional level, on a spiritual level.

And so I really got in touch with myself in the effect of what is going to -- what would I enjoy listening to? And so I tried to write about the things that I would like to hear about. I love the positive message of love and the organic pureness of real music and I just wanted to capture that.

I just wanted to capture something very real that people could listen to and it would touch them.

Tavis: When did you know that music was what -- because you've modeled and that's part of your back story as well. When did you know that music was what you wanted to do, not just something that you enjoyed?

Valente: I think it was in school when I started doing talent shows. That's kind of when I knew that this was something I -- this is what made me happy. And it really does make you happy. When you make something from nothing, that is the biggest rewarding feeling that you can have, and I really enjoyed that.

So doing the talent shows and writing music and learning things from my father, and he played 27 instruments.

Tavis: So he's like Prince. (Laughter.)

Valente: No, I won't say that.

Tavis: But does he also do lead vocals, background vocals, engineering, mixing?

Valente: Well, you know what? Exactly, that's the key.

Tavis: If you're going to launch a project, Bria knows how to put it out there. We should all be so fortunate to have Prince put us out there as part of a three-CD set. Her name, Bria Valente. Just learn it and get used to saying it, because you're going to hear it for years to come.

Bria Valente is the name, the CD is called "Elixer," part of Prince's new three-CD set at Lotusflow3r.com. Bria, nice to have you on.

Valente: Oh, it's a pleasure to be here.

Tavis: First time -- I hope it's not the last.

Valente: I hope not. (Laughs.)

Tavis: Nice to see you.

Valente: All right.

[Vincent2Paris]

Merci. Super interview.

[Tinitir]

Merci pour cette transcription!

[Matthieu]

Génial
Merci !

[rael1800]

merci ça aide

[berny]

merci ça aide

oui comme toi, pouvoir lire le texte, ça aide à la compréhension de l'interview. Un grand merci.

sinon "The other thing is that she's really funny and she likes to laugh, and you know, Travis, I love to laugh."
On s'en doutait, il suffit d'écouter "77 Beverly Park"

:lol: :lol:

[sexymailletf]

Photo de la HD2

Tiens, j'en ai une grande comme ça :lol:



Et moi, j'adore ça !!! :lol:

[Vincent2Paris]

Bon alors c'est sa fille ou pas ?

[Cyn]

Bon alors c'est sa fille ou pas ?

J'ai pas osez la faire celle-là... :lol:

[niko67]

Merci pour la transcription !

[calhounsquare]

Bon alors c'est sa fille ou pas ?

C'est en tous cas techniquement possible.