KEVIPOD Interviews Eric Turner...
Best known for singing the chorus on Tinie Tempah's massive hit 'Written in the Stars', American singer-songwriter Eric Turner will soon fulfill his long-awaited dream of releasing a solo album, and not independently as some may think, but with the support of Capitol Records, house of artists like Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg, Coldplay, etc. Although Eric's album won't hit stores stateside until this summer of 2012, the first single is already picked, and was in fact sent to US radios only this week. It's a collaboration with rappers Tinie Tempah and Lupe Fiasco entitled "Angels & Stars". The song was produced by Eshraque "iSHi" Mughal who also created the beat of 'Written in the Stars' so the any resemblance is justified. "Angels & Stars" is a powerful record which blends rock, R&B and hip-hop waves, creating a unique sound. Will it smash as 'Written in the Stars'? Only time will tell! Eric also premiered earlier this year the music video for the song, which features a high-dose of 'street art'.
In this exclusive interview with us for Directlyrics.com, Eric talks about his journey to date, moving to Sweden when he was younger and discovering his passion for music there (he formed a band), producer "iSHi" discovering him, working with Tinie and Lupe, his debut single "Angels & Stars", the music video, his upcoming album, hoping to duet with Adele, among other stuff. It's an interesting read! Check it out.
FYI: This was an 'e-mail' interview so please mind any typo, upper-case word, acronym, etc, on Eric's answers...
THE INTERVIEW
1. You were born in the US, but you've been living in Sweden in the last few years, and you started a band there. Tell us a little bit about your pre-fame life and when and how did Eric Turner discover he wanted to be a musician?
First of all, I don't feel famous I guess if I walked into a high school with a sign kids would know me, but I'm not that exposed in either video I've done so I feel pretty incognito walking around. I'm sitting on a train from NYC to Boston right now and no one is checking me out.
2. Would you say your 'current' music is different to what you used to play with your band, Street Fighting Man?
I went to Sweden on an exchange program in university, I was studying biochemistry and kind of sick of it so I thought I'd travel and see some exotic country I knew nothing about. I literally picked Uppsala university's brochure off the rack cause the pics looked nice. When I got there I realized that I was on the wrong career path and that I needed to be an artist. I was always good at drawing and painting and I always had a huuuuge imagination, but the idea of doing some kind of art for a living was foreign to me for some reason. The Swedish music scene is pretty crazy, the bands and true artists that come out of Sweden are very creative and really great at delivering a super stylized approach to whatever genre they are in. A Swedish punk band will look and sound so extremely perfectly punk. The indie rock scene is flooded with awesome bands... but unfortunately the music industry side is very dysfunctional so bands struggle to make any good money. If the big labels in the states only knew....so I started a band called Street Fighting Man. We were very angry and our sound was very different and rootsy in a weird way. We were not trying to write hits and of course we had no label support and didn't expect to get any. We would take like 2 weeks of constant work to finish a song... it was a very complicated process. To this day I believe our album "The Shadow" will eventually be hailed for all the insanity we put into. I used to say it was an album that if you found it after world war 3 and listened you would understand how we got there.
3. To be honest, Eric Turner's real breakthrough was with his feature on Tinie Tempah's 'Written in the Stars' hit. How did you get on that? We read it's got something to do with you meeting producer Eshraque "iSHi" Mughal?
The music I do now is on another level another lane, another platform, car, and station. It's in one way much more meaningful cause it captures me quickly which I always missed with Street Fighting Man. These songs are written in a matter of seconds, minutes, or hours they come straight from the source and are often written and sung final take at the same time. They are also broader in scope. I never believed that I would have the ear of millions, I feel like I'm writing for everyone and it makes me want to get different ideas across, or actually the same ideas in a different way. Stylistically I would say both albums are "out there" but my new stuff is painted in the colors of urban music right now, it's meant to be that way. I am also not restricted in a way, with "Eric Turner" music I can do anything I want, no compromise. So I just vibe and I rarely have to think about it...lol until now!!!
The start of "Eric Turner" music def happened when I met Ishi. He had heard Street Fighting Man and thought I could do a collab with a Swedish rapper he was working with at the time called Lazee. He picked me up in his sweet ride and brought me to his sweet studio and soft talked the way he does the whole time. I had never met someone who seemed to have so much music power in his eyes. I call it a "playa" mentaIity. I guess if you look into Jay Z's or Dr. Dre's eyes you'd see the same thing. It affected me immediately and I instantly decided that we could make big things happen, a guy like this could put my songwriting ability in the right circles with the right sound. We got to the studio and I was supposed to sing a prewritten hook, no disrespect to me that's just the way things are often done in top 40 music. I told him to forget it and press rec, bamm Stereo Sun! the first thing that came out of my mouth. If you listen to the lyrics on Stereo Sun you can tell that there aren't any solid lyrics ...there are words and they def mean something but they were written instantly. So he starts looping it messing with it affecting it and doing his thing ...like putting it in a perspective and we listened and we*re like... this is new and great for some reason we can't really understand.
We wrote Wits not long after.
4. After collaborating with a huge UK rapper like Tinie, you then recorded a track with US MC Lupe Fiasco called "Break the Chain". How was like working with Lupe? And do you know if there are still chances the song becomes a future single?
Break the Chain was a song we wrote not long after wits. we had been going back and forth with Lupe on several tracks writing over Skype. He was originally gonna do "Stereo Sun" but it got dropped with all the controversy with releasing lasers. (It actually got leaked with another rapper on it by someone who got ahold of it and was tryin to shop it around under a different rapper. We were pretty sad about that cause I think we knew that if he put it on his album they'd have to do a single cause it was so vibey. It eventually ended up on tinchy striders album, 3rd strike, but his album sort of got buried by some UK rap business politics I don't understand.) We worked on a song called "voices of fire" which was awesome and really rootsy then finally settled on "Break the Chain" It's probably one of my favorite songs I ever wrote cause it really says what I wanted it to say. I don't know if it will be a single, difficult to predict, my "hit song" center thinks they are crazy not to release it. It's a sleeper but it would def rise up the charts, like an Adele song.
5. Moving on to your debut album - which is coming out later this year on Capitol Records - is there a tentative title and release date yet?
There are tentative titles but nothing solid... I'm waiting to hear it done so I can decide. As far as release I def believe in letting the pro's do what they do best, while I sit in the studio doing what I do.
6. The first single is called "Angels & Stars", and voilá! it features none others than Tinie and Lupe. Was it easy convincing both of them to work with you again?
It was very natural to work with both of them on this there wasn't any convincing involved. Sort of a mutual respect the 4 of had for each other just makes stuff happen.
7. Did you have fun shooting the video for the song? We liked the street art inspiration.
Recording the video was an awesome experience I had a great time just performing for people ... the crew... people who walked by and stopped and stared I love performing. It's always great to see Tinie and Lupe and hang out, a couple of awesome nights.
8. Any fun anecdotes you recall from filming it?
Both Lupe and I are big into politics so we had some pretty intense discussions.
9. "Angels & Stars" sounds very similar to "Written in the Stars" - we know iSHi produced it too - is that a good, or bad thing you'd say?
Yeah it does sound similar... we wrote these two songs at the same time, all the songs we wrote then sounded like they were written at the same time. We are just flowing and changing our sound slightly as we feel it.
10. Could you name other producers, and artists (features) you've worked/collaborated for your debut album?
Ishi is producing all of the songs on the album, I have a couple co-writers and co-producers Charlie Bernardo, Ben harrison, Michel Zitron. You are gonna have to wait for the artist collabs they are supposed to be surprises and they are still going on.
11. How would you describe the overall style and sound of your album, and do you have any favourite songs already; a few you know they must be singles?
The sound of the album is very basic at its core. I write songs usually with ishi in the classic way work through all the kinks and then wait a bit... then ish and i say something like, "I want a huge hip hop beat and a symphony orchestra and a flute" or "I'm hearing a house track with cool flowing countermelodies" or "let's make this one sound like elton john" . the result is a very urban sounding album with some classic songwriting. We are really into breaking the boundaries of hip hop beats and def into what's going on in house music in sweden with SHM and avicii both friends of ours. We also decided to let some stuff just live with a classic sound that could be from any time.
12. "Angels & Stars" is now available on iTunes. Will you have any TV performance/gigs in America soon to promote the single you can tell us of?
I will be doing TV but I'm not sure at the moment if I want to let the cat out of the bag, ask me in a few weeks.
13. Moving on to other things now…What's playing on Eric Turner's iPod?
My iphone plays almost exclusively Rufus Wainwright, and the Pharcyde. Both are ridiculously good in their own way. Bizarre Ride 2 is the best rap album made and want one is perfect.
14. The last album you purchased was?
I think I bought the latest Rufus album but I haven't listened yet.
15. Your dream collaboration would be with?
Duet with Adele, Smash with Rick Ross, A whole album with avicii like a side project, I'd love to write a song with emeli Sande or Jesse j, I'd love to open up all the street fighting man stuff and remix it with rick rubin, this is actually a never ending question... hang out with springsteen or McCartney writing tunes.
16. That would be all Eric. Best of luck! Thanks for sharing a bit of your time with us. Any last thing you would like to tell/share with our readers?
Thx guys for the support, e.