London and NYC Club and Concert Listings
|
Feature: Soulmates - Lizz Fields and Eric Roberson
Interviewer/Photographer: Lucy Whitehead
Eric Roberson is an established songwriter whose past writing credits include tracks for Musiq Soulchild, Dwele, Vivian
Greene and Carl Thomas. His posession of buttery smooth vocals meant he was destined to record his own material as well -
incredibly the forthcoming CD Vault 1.5 (out now on Steel Petal) is only the second official album to come from this
Jersey native who appeared on Jazzy Jeff’s compilation album of last year The Magnificent (BBE Records), and lead the
vocals on Osunlade’s Don’t Change For Me.
Lizz Fields began selling CDRs of her bydaybynight album from her
day job in a Brooklyn furniture store and, before she knew it, was filling out orders for distributors all over the world.
A critically acclaimed new Philly singer, Lizz Fields’ style has been described as Ella meets Portishead meets Sade. She
currently has several singles under the remix knife by DJ Spinna, Yam Who and London MC TY.
Know The Ledge caught up with them the day before their double bill show at Manhattan’s Joe’s Pub, during rehearsal in a
midtown studio.
Whilst the band takes a break, we find out what’s new with Eric and Lizz, share thoughts on life as an
independent artist, inspirations, favorite current contemporaries, and what the future holds for these two highly talented
vocalists.
Is This the first show that you guys have done together?
Lizz Fields: Yes it is. The first official show. But he’s always jumping up on stage when I’m doing shows.
Eric Roberson: First of all she exaggerates a lot. She’s performed at one of my Sol Village events.
LF: I didn’t! You just called me up on stage!
ER: Oh you’re right – yeah this is our first show together.
And you seem like you’ve known each other a long time.
LF: We have.
ER: Not at all! Hah ha! No - we met last year in London at the Jazz Café. I was like “you’re like a sister or something”.
LF: And I was like “you’re like an annoying brother”! And we were like “lets do a show”.
ER: Months later...
So you haven’t recorded yet together?
ER: Well actually we did. She recorded in my studio the other day.
LF: Right that was last week. But we have yet to write and sing a song together. I think he’s scared.
ER: No I will sing with her. Any day.
LF: Ok. Tomorrow.
When can we get hold of Vault 1.5?
ER: It’ll be in stores in the US on the 24 Feb, and it’s in the UK already. It’s independent so it’s through separate
distributors, but if you can’t get it that way you can get through our website which is
www.ericroberson.com.
People are calling for you to re-release Esoteric Movement (Eric’s first album). It’s really hard to get hold of,
right?
ER: It’s extremely hard to get hold of because I didn’t think that that many people were interested when I did that record.
And now, the funny thing is that I did the Vault, In all honesty to keep the people interested who were asking about
Esoteric Movement, ‘cause I knew had to be changed about it. But I’ll probably release it within the month. Its done now,
musically, but it just needs the artwork to be boosted up a little bit. That record will be very hard to find - its best to
find it through me.
So you still have it at least.
ER: Actually you know what, the original joint - I had three copies in my studio and people stole them out of my studio.
But the re-issue version will be almost identical but with slightly different artwork...with almost the same songs - I
added one song.
Lizz, I heard an interesting story about how your album came out. Can you remind me of that?
LF: I wonder if it’s the same story? The one when tooth fairy came to my house...
ER: Stop it!
LF: OK. I was working in a furniture store while I was recording in Philly, and I would come back to Brooklyn to where I
worked and I would pop in my CD and people would hear it while they were buying furniture and they would ask me about it.
I was like I don’t have a record deal, I’m not doing anything with it. But then one day I just thought to myself, "hmm,
wonder if I can compile all the music I have so far and see if I can sell it", literally burn it to CD-R, print out my own
artwork. So I burned two, and I sold two the following day. Then the next day I burned four and sold those, and it just
kept getting bigger and bigger. The next thing I know I’m filling in orders for independent retailers throughout the US and then it trickled over to the UK and other parts of Europe, and Japan. It became an album. Initially I just considered it just maybe songs for a demo, just trying like everyone else to get a record deal. But then I saw that just putting it out myself, people were really receptive to it, enjoyed it, and it just became an album. Is that the same story you heard?
Yes! I really like your sound. Its very unique. I wanted to know if it was a conscious thing, or did it come naturally,
to sound so unique.
ER: [leaning into the mike] Do you sound like an alien on purpose?!
LF: Hah hah! I always had ideas about how I wanted to hear music, so in terms of vocally, that’s just my voice, probably
from things I’ve listened to, nothing that I’ve tried, sometimes its just me being very playful and kinda making fun of
myself, but people kind of gravitated towards that so I was like, “Oh, I’m gonna keep that”. But sometimes it’s just me
exaggerating or being funny and it kinda stuck. But music-wise – production – I love the music that comes out of Europe,
and I wanted to be able to fuse what I do with that. I just wanted to see how I could bring music together, and how I
heard it. It wasn’t quite contrived but I did have an idea of how I wanted to music to go.
And was a lot of it down to your producer as well?
LF: We definitely worked in tandem. I would come in with an idea of how to do things, and he just had the faculties to bring
it into fruition. That was the thing that I really appreciate about Damon.
How did you hook up the deal with Unisex?
LF: Through Adrian at the Jazz Café. He found my CD through Dusty Groove in Chicago and asked me if I would do this Philly
series which was the same series that Eric was on and Unisex were putting out the compilation that Adrian was doing the
music for. So he asked me if I would be interested in having my music on this Philly Soul compilation. I said I’d love to,
and then once they learnt that I was independent they asked if I’d like to license it through them, so that’s how it
happened.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
ER: KANYE WEST!
LF: Oh my god! I like Kanye West right now.
ER: I would say that Through The Wire definitely inspired me and I can relate to it because this man was faced with
tragedy, and the first thing he could think of was doing music. The whole rebounding from that, brought such a brilliant
concept of Through The Wire, while his mouth was wired shut. But now they re-did the tracks.
ER: And Esoteric Movement was kinda written out of my heart being broken, and I dove in and all I could think of
doing was music. Hopefully I will never slam my face against a steering wheel. But I can see how something like that
happens can inspire you.
LF: I like Jesus Walks. Just kind of battling beween what’s right and what’s human. He’s refreshing, and I think
Outkast’s refreshing, and I think its cool to see people on a big scale doing really really creative things, as opposed
to what we see mostly on a commercial level.
And people are hungry for it.
ER: Very much so. And I like Peven Everett - I’m really killing his music lately.
Anyone that we might not have heard of that you could say we should look out for?
LF: I usually say Eric Roberson, but he’s here so um...
ER: I usually say LIZZ FIELDS! Um, I would say a couple of new major signings: Raheem DeVaughn on Jive Records, I’m really
excited about what he’s about to put out, and a new artist named Algebra on Universal, that I just started working on her
album, which I m really excited about. But also you know who I like? Lewis Taylor from the UK. That’s my biggest teacher
right now.
Are you going to do any more house music? Don’t Change was so great.
ER: We are probably going to do some. I mainly do stuff with Osunlade, but I there are others - DJ Spinna and a few other
people - Masters At Work, we’re talking about doing stuff. But me and Osunlade are about to really sit down and do some
more house. He’s definitely pulled me back in there, I mean I grew up on house but it wasn’t something that I was really
following. When we do it we try to approach it from a regular songwriting aspect and people gravitate towards it.
How did Dwele get to include Hold On on his album?
ER: I actually sold it to Dwele. I did the song for him. And The Vault was not really supposed to be released, I
just had 500 copies or so to pass out, and it just kind of grew, I never really intended to sell it all over the place,
that’s why I had to do 1.5, and I took Hold On off it. I took about seven songs off The Vault and I added
about eight songs. Like Rebound was written for Carl Thomas’ new album so that’s coming off. It wasn’t really
thought out album-wise, so I had to make sure it worked.
LF: Tell her about the new songs...
ER: The new songs! Oooh...well Change For Me is on the album. We did a lot of new songs that people are really
relating to, a song called Def Ears. There’s also Find A Way...
LF: Those are my favorites.
ER: Thank-you. And She Ought To Know featuring Marsha from Floetry, and Little Money, which a friend of mine
suggested I add [nodding to Lizz].
LF: ‘Cause he had this song sitting in his ‘vault’ and I was like "you need to put that on the record", ‘cause he wasn’t
going to use it at all, you know...even his voice sounds different to his other stuff, its really raw.
ER: I think it’s a better album, I think it’s a more personal album, I think people will get a better understanding of who
I am and what I’m doing from …1.5.
Lizz, you’ve done some acting in the past, are you going to ever do more?
LF: If somebody wants to place me then yes, but in terms of the whole manager, agent, audition thing, it takes so much
energy to really get into that world, and that’s how I really got focused into the music. At one point it was music and
acting, and I knew there was going to come a time when I had to chose, there will probably come a time when it will all
come together again, but right now the music has engulfed my life so much that I couldn’t see even taking a little bit of
energy off it to send out head shots or have meetings again about acting jobs. Lets say I did get a job in a big play
somewhere it would take up so much time with rehearsals and all that. But hey if someone’s gonna pay me well enough I’m
down, but I’m not putting that much energy into it.
How important is it for you to write your own material?
LF: I don’t know if it’s a matter of importance, I just found myself writing and singing music and that’s just the way it
is. I think when I was younger I probably sang other peoples’ songs, but it definitely didn’t fill me up the way that me
singing my own music and telling my own stories does. And again, even with the acting, you’re re-enacting someone else’s
stories and perspective of the world, but for us as singers, musicians and songwriters we get to be on stage and tell the
world our story and how we see the world.
ER: I discovered it almost the same time as I discovered singing, it was natural. I would actually sing another person’s
song, I don’t have a problem with that. I just create songs as fast I would get round to sing another person’s song.
Do you consciously think about it in terms of getting the money from publishing?
LF: Not really because we are independent. We’re always gonna get pretty much all of our money. It just kind of comes to me,
it just seems to me to be the most fulfilling. I would definitely sing someone else’s song if I’m moved to. As a matter of
fact I do an interpretation of Jeff Buckley’s So Real, but it’s an interpretation, I still had to put in my 2
cents-worth in it. Its not a thing that’s contrived or “this is how I’m gonna get my money” - it is the ultimate expression
I feel.
Are you doing any more work with Jazzy Jeff?
ER: Yes, actually we’re supposed to be going to Greece, and I believe we’re supposed to be working on a new record. Another
compilation record. I think it will be real nice. Jeff is brilliant.
LF: When you work with Jeff, what is it like musically?
ER: Jeff produces literally behind a drum machine. He’ll orchestrate. Jeff is kinda like a college or a fellowship, he is the producer in that whole circle. The song I did on the album Rock With You, me and Kev Brown [Touch Of Jazz producer – Ed.] actually did that track together, but it went on the Jazzy Jeff album. But Jeff brings it all together and he really develops talent and molds them into a very talented gel.
Since she asked me a question can I ask her a question? What is the direction of your new record?
LF: I want to continue in the same vein as where I was going one but I want to really bring in some heavy break beats and
scratching, you know, I’m a really big fan of that, the DJ world and culture - hip hop. Also something that you do very
well, some of those harmonies, and me ad-libbing a little bit, having some fun. The song we recorded last week was really
fun. And Eric’s idea was the cherry on top.
So whose album is that going on?
LF: Oh mine - he just hit 'record'.
ER: [Jokes] But I got the tapes...I can manipulate them and bootleg them anyway I want to!
You have you’re own studio?
ER: Yes I have a studio in New Jersey called The Blue Room.
LF: Its very very nice. His vocal booth is warm. Leather couch.
ER: Ok, ok, don’t want everybody robbing me now! No, it’s supposed to be a very comfortable setting for everybody. It’s
really a vocal studio. The stuff I’ve done for Musiq Soulchild, Vivian Greene and others, has all been done there.
What else lies ahead for you both?
LF: We’re both doing stuff for DJ Spinna. Spinna’s remixing Gotta Go, for me and that should be out by the music
conference god willing! Yam Who?, he remixed Say The Word, and TY remixed When I See Love. And that should be
out by the end of March. I have collaborations to look forward to: King Britt, Jazzy Jeff, Eric Roberson of course, that
new song we called the Piccollo Solo.
ER: For me it’s just advertising The Vault 1.5. I pretty much already have another album conceptually done in my
head. And touring and promoting, writing songs for other people.
LF: That’s his day job.
ER: Yeah that’s what keeps the light on.
LF: That’s what keeps him in this nice suede!
RELATED LINKS:
Lizz Fields - official site.
Eric Roberson - official site
(Note: was not accessible at time of publication)
Buy Lizz Fields' By Day By Night at Amazon
UK
(CD)
| US (CD)
Buy Eric Roberson's The Vault 1.5 at Amazon
UK
(CD)
| US (CD)
Buy Eric Roberson's The Vault at Amazon
US
(CD)
Buy Eric Roberson's The Esoteric Movement at Amazon
US
(CD)
PUBLISHED: Thursday 1 April 2004
More Features
EMAIL UPDATES! Do you want to receive Know The Ledge update emails?
Click here to sign up!
|
::: RELATED LINKS
Lizz Fields - official site.
Eric Roberson - official site
More Features
|
