Good music can be both cathartic and therapeutic. Great music can convey emotions and even create them. Exceptional music does all of the above, and more. Maria’s debut album, the aptly titled My Soul, is everything exceptional music should be: sonically ambitious, lyrically honest and completely fresh.
The singer/songwriter’s story starts in Europe. Born in Denmark – her parents are from Denmark and Guyana – she shuttled around Europe (Denmark, London, Holland and Spain) throughout her childhood. Her love affair with entertainment began early on.
“I remember going with my parents to see some flamenco dancers when I was five and living in Spain,” she says. “Somehow, I ended up onstage performing with them!”
Though Maria was bitten by the performance bug at so young an age, her parents thought she was destined for the courtroom, not the recording studio. “They really thought I was going to go to law school,” Maria confirms. “I don’t come from a musical family, so they were really unsure about the decisions I was making.”
But Maria was determined. And at just 15, her fate was sealed, when she met Soulshock, one half of the famed production duo Soulshock and Karlin. He signed her to his label, Soulpower, an imprint of EMI Denmark. By the age of 16, she’d left school, and while writing and recording, she used gospel choirs and a girl group as her training ground.
“The people I’ve worked with have been extremely instrumental to my career,” says Maria. “Sometimes, a label will think short-term and cut corners, but Soulshock took his time with me. We’ve been working together in some capacity for almost 10 years, and he’s always had a vision for me.” (This vision was shared by DreamWorks Records principal Michael Ostin, who signed Maria to DreamWorks.)
Known for their work with Brandy, Whitney Houston, Monica, Jennifer Lopez and Usher, Soulshock and Karlin have long been considered unparalleled in the production and songwriting arenas. Moreover, Maria discovered several other notable songwriters, who further enhanced her project, including newcomer Alex Cantrall. “Alex and I really pushed each other with our lyrics,” Maria explains. “I tend towards melancholy and the darker side of things. He helped me find balance.”
My Soul, for which Maria herself served as executive producer, segues seamlessly from rock and R&B to soul and pop. Maria says of stylistic categorization: “Sometimes people want you to fit into a box. But eventually, you realize, as an artist, you have to go with what works for you. When I let my influences inspire me – everyone from Tracy Chapman, Sade and Massive Attack to Sting, Mary J. Blige and Bob Marley – it all just fell into place.”
Her love of these diverse artists also helped Maria understand why she was singing. “If you don’t feel this album, then I did something wrong,” she says. “We get so caught up in ‘Does this song work?’ Sometimes we do too much analysis. So I have to remember that I am not going to change the world; I am only going to change the journey I am on. I used to sit in the car and bond with my friends over Mary J. Blige’s albums. I would love someone to feel that way when they listen to My Soul.”
In fact, My Soul (due Sept. 30, 2003, on DreamWorks Records) is a timeless work that conjures endless summers, passionate love affairs, intense breakups, fast friendships and all the transitions that accompany them.
The first radio track off the album is the mellow, mid-tempo “I Give, You Take.” Maria’s voice is naked and vulnerable. There are elements of Aaliyah’s ethereal tonalities, coupled with the intensity of Sade. “Moody has always been my sound,” Maria reiterates. “But I also love the bombastic sound of hip-hop married to live guitars and strings.”
With the song “You, Me And She,” Maria relates the story of a woman both scorned and confused. “The older you get, the more baggage people come with,” she says. “You have to take responsibility for leaving the door open in certain relationships.”
“Coffee In Bed” is a flirtatious missive with a double meaning. The staccato rhythm and naughty lyrics are fun and playful. But at a time when oversexed content is the rule of the day, the refreshing is-she-or-isn’t-she nature of “Coffee In Bed” makes it something special.
Ultimately, My Soul is the soundtrack to a life lived to the fullest every day. It’s about loving someone always, “no matter what,” as Maria reveals on “Always.” But it’s also about realizing that love can be painful and poisonous, as expressed on “Hate To Love You” and “My Soul.” And it’s about the sheer joy being in love can bring, captured with aching beauty on “Intoxicated.”
The album’s unique production is exemplified by the twinkling keyboards and lush violins of “Weakness” and the sweeping, cinematic rendering of “Simplified” and “Miss You.”
“There’s an intuition about creating music that’s very similar to the way a painter chooses colors and strokes,” Maria says. “That’s the way I approach music. I have to go where it takes me.”
My Soul takes listeners away to a private place. And as in real life, there are dreams here, and there are demons.
“I’m a young girl,” Maria confides. “I’m trying to make sense of my dreams and confront my demons every day; I’m trying to fulfill the dreams and tame the demons. My album has helped me articulate and deal with both. This is what I was always supposed to do.”
Source: http://www.mariamysoul.com