For our first interview feature, The House That Soul Built chatted to the cool, honey-toned singer-songwriter Angie Stone!

Ms Stone performed last night at the Roundhouse in Camden, London for AGMP’s Innervisions Festival. Read our review of the concert and our interview with Ms Stone below!

Review

Sadly, the sound quality in the venue was lamentable. Angie Stone’s music, like a lot of neo-soul and R&B, is heavily layered and often with very nuanced production choices. The sound mix rendered Ms Stone inaudible at times, and lost much of the subtlety of her music. That said, Ms Stone was in fine voice, delivering opening number ‘Pissed Off’ with plenty of spit and dejection. She also wrapped her thick, honeyed tones around the swampy ‘Green Grass Vapors’. The clear highlight, Stone brought her backing singers centre stage to deliver a heavenly rendition of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘The Makings of You’. The stripped-back introduction, sung in three-party harmony, demonstrated Stone’s precision and control. Kudos also to Incognito vocalist Tony Momrelle, joining Stone on stage with a crutch, for finessing ‘No More Rain (In This Cloud)’ with beautiful tone.

Interview

First things first, I just wanted to ask ‘what’s up?’ For your fans out there, what do you have in the pipeline at the moment, what are you looking forward to, and what is happening in 2018 for Angie Stone?

Well 2018 I’m back in the UK. I’m back over here working, doing a lot of film and television and basically working with my kids to try and get them going in the industry.

They want to follow in their mother’s footsteps?

Yeah and I’m not so sure I want them to do it. This business is treacherous. I would rather my kids have found a solid career move, rather than wanting, you know, the dream cycle of being a celebrity, when it’s not all its [cracked] up to be.

Do you feel you’re in a position to offer some wisdom as someone who has established such an incredible musical legacy?

I am a walking bible when it comes to it. If I had my way my children wouldn’t be anything other than executives in the business because as talent, you’re at the bottom of the totem pole.

Do you feel your children are talented in the musical space?

Oh, extremely!

Extremely talented but you wouldn’t encourage them to go down that path?

I think it gets worse with every generation. And I think that the substance of music has to me been so down-played.

So what would you say was the low point in your musical career?

Well I think that a low point is when you give so much of yourself to someone else and support any other artist and it’s not reciprocated. That to me is like suicide.

And on a more optimistic note then, what would you say is your defining musical achievement, your defining musical moment in this incredible career you’ve established? Mahogany Soul or is it something else?

I think it’s Mahogany Soul.

And for a few of our younger readers, can you tell us a bit more about why this is so defining and seminal for you.

Because Mahogany Soul was mostly me. It wasn’t watered down by anyone else’s help. I had some lyrical help to some degree, but I started it, somebody jumped on the bandwagon and either I finished it or we finished it. But all the concepts and subject matters came from a very, very broken… young woman, and a very headstrong woman at the same time.

And will fans be hearing any Mahogany Soul tracks tomorrow night at The Roundhouse?

Yes you will!

Fantastic. Obviously I want to be surprised too but can you give us a general sense; will there be some of the old stuff, the new stuff, maybe some covers in there?

I can’t tell you! You’ll just have to wait and see!

I’m curious, what do you think about the current soul music landscape? Do you see it as having much promise? Are there any artists at the moment you see as ‘up-and-coming’ that we should listen out for in the future.

Well I just think that music is making its way back around to goodness again with Daniel Caesar, H.E.R, and a couple of artists that are really reaching back and getting more involved with the creative process of music. And you find that when people are being creative is when you’re getting real music. When people are doing other people’s music, it’s not as authentic. It’s ‘I borrowed this from you’, so who am I really listening to?

Any Angie Stone fan knows that God plays a big part –

A major part.

–  A major part in your life. Again for some of our younger fans, can you explain a bit how you found God. Was it linked to your gospel upbringing?

Well I was always taught that he was the divine creator of all, the author and the finisher. Everything that I do I owe to him because without him I would be nothing or no one. I think that everything I’ve become and will be has everything to do with who he is. And that’s why I really don’t have time for the rubbish.

As a parting question, when is the next time we can expect new music from Ms Angie Stone?

Well I’ve just finished an album, not yet titled. But pretty incredible. So hopefully you’ll get it by the end of the year.

And any sense of the direction you’ve gone in? Have you made the effort to –

– Revisit Mahoghany Soul? Yes

And have you chosen a lead single from the album?

Not yet but one will be coming in a week or so!

(Image copyright: AGMP)