Source: Glenn Parson / Glenn Parson
The second installment of R&B singer Maxwell’s blackSUMMER’snight will finally arrive this year!
Maxwell spoke with Essence and they got to the bottom of things,
This year marks 20 years since Urban Hang Suite. Wow!
I can’t believe that 20 years after doing something that I started when I was 21, would even mean anything, or even stand the test of time to the point where I would have an interview and it would be a mentioning point. It’s exciting for me to know that we made those choices back then, and they still kind of live in the hearts of people to this day. What’s really great about it is that I work with all of the same people, and I’m working with all of the same people on the new album that’s coming out this year. It’s always been a family type of thing, and I think that that’s what, maybe, has made it special. I never veered off and decided to go super pop and say, “Okay, I want to get on pop radio, I’m just going to go work with that producer, and I’m going to flip my style so that I can really make that big money and be everywhere on TV.” I just stayed with my crew, and here we are…We’re writing this new album. It feels, to me, even better than what we did twenty years ago.
As an artist, you’ve always been authentic and true to your musical roots.
I appreciate the sentiment. We’re a little stubborn in that regard. I look at people like Marvin Gaye, and obviously Sade, and Sam Cook, and they just live by a certain code, like a creed. They just work off of soul, and they also needed to live their experiences in order to write their experiences, as opposed to having them given to them by third party people…I’m not against working with people, or being inspired by someone else’s song, it just needs to fall in line with what I’m trying to leave behind as a legacy.
So, blackSUMMMER’snight is coming?!
I’m so hyped about the new album coming out, which is so exciting for me, because it’s fresh and it’s different, but it is what I do. It doesn’t make you feel like, oh, yeah, that’s going to come out in 1996. You’re not going to feel that. At least I hope you don’t. (Laughs.)
We’ve been patiently waiting for this album.
People are like, “Why does it take so long? Why does it take so long?” Because there’s always a part of me that’s like, “Nah.” You know? I know I started the record, but have I lived enough of what I need to live to view it with the emotion that it needs, and then release it? I can sometimes feel like it’s okay to wait. It’s like … It’s not that I just want to torture people, because I know there are a few people, like, “When’s the album coming?” They see me posting things, and living, and they’re like, “What the hell is this about? Why are you running around, flying to Africa on safari? Where’s the album?” They don’t realize that living my life is what makes what they may get what it’s going to be sounding like. They think it’s … some factory or something. It never worked like that for me.
Bout time! Feels like we’ve been waiting for an eternity lol!
