www.musicweek.com INTERVIEWJOSS STONE
INTO THE STONE AGE
25-year-old Joss Stone’s musical evolution is marked with a new Soul Sessions LP and exciting developments at her own record label
20.07.12 MusicWeek 23
TALENT BY TINA HART
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early a decade after the release of five- million-selling album The Soul Sessions, Joss Stone has returned to the project –
with a helping hand from original producer Steve Greenberg (who was also her first label boss). This month’s follow-up, The Soul Sessions
Volume 2, is being release in conjunction with Greenberg’s imprint label S-Curve Records (licensed under Warner in the UK). Since the first instalment of the ’Sessions, the
then 15-year-old from Devon with that voice has gone on to win a Grammy and two Brits, and record a US chart No.2 (marking the highest debut ever for a female British solo artist on the Billboard charts). Stone has sold more than 11 million albums to date, and sung with the great and the good of the industry. She spoke to Music Week about her new record,
the ethos behind her imprint Stone’d Records, and what her already-lengthy time in the industry has taught her...
The first incarnation of The Soul Sessions was very successful. How did you approach it differently this time around? I approached The Soul Sessions 2 completely differently because I feel like now I actually make records rather than just sing on them. It was more enjoyable this time for sure. If I was just going to do it the same as I made the first album, it’d feel more like I was a demo singer. But this was more than that, putting the band together and figuring out themusic side was fun.
How did you choose the tracks? Steve [Greenberg] has a massive collection of
obscure soul so he presented me with a long list of tracks. I took the list in the studio and just tried them out with the band there. If you add them all up there were probably 50 songs originally then I took 20 or 25 into the studio and we pretty much did most of those.
You’ve now got your own label with Stone’d - what important lessons has the industry taught you during your time? Did it to empower you to take that step? I think there are often flaws in the way record companies work, and I suppose that is really why I wanted to start the label. If record companies are looking at it simply from
a business point of view - “this is our product, we want to sell the product, and we want to make it easy to sell and have the product work for us” – if that’s the way you’re looking at it, then surely it’d make sense to look after your product and make it feel that it wants to turn up and be sold! We as artists have to enjoy ourselves in order to
be good artists and in order to do a good job for the record label. It’s about understanding your artist. A lot of mistakes get made, which I think are very easy to fix. I could be wrong, but I guess [the team at Stone’d are] going find out! At least if I fail, I’m going to fail on my own terms, and hopefully I won’t break too many hearts along the way.
Apart from yourself, your first Stone’d-signed act is band Yes Sir Boss – what other kind of acts do you envisage joining them on the roster? They’re the only ones for now, as I want to do a really job for them. I’m trying not to be foolish and assume I’m good at everything, you’ve got to learn. I’m just trying things out. I’m trying to be sensitive to the artist, and make sure they get as much of our
ABOVE Soul sister: Ten years after the first incarnation of Soul Sessions, Joss is back with volume 2
RIGHT
Getting Stone’d: Yes Sir Boss are the only other signing on Stone’s own imprint label, for now
attention as possible. So that’s why I won’t be signing any more artists until I know I can do this job properly. Stylistically, there’s no barriers to Stone’d: if you’re
good, you’re good. I didn’t sign a ‘soul’ band in Yes Sir Boss – if you move people you move people, so if they are great then I’d like to be part of it, regardless of genres. I’m delighted with their video [for single Not Guilty], it’s so different and so them. It’s fun – they don’t take life too seriously and I think that comes across. They take the piss out of the powers-that-be and go, “You know what? Fuck you!”. But it’s so jovial and playful, I love them. Their spirit is very cool and it’s really inspiring.
COMING UP
The Soul Sessions Vol.2 is released on July 23
Almost 10 years on in the industry –what’s been the highlight for you so far? There have been many but Super Heavy [the ‘supergroup’ comprising Stone, Mick Jagger, Damian Marley, Dave Stewart and A.R. Rahman] was a real highlight, definitely. Looking around the room and seeing all those brilliant musicians, who have been brilliant for many more years than I’ve been around, it was a great shock to one’s system. I’d met Mick and Dave before, but I hadn’t met Damian, who is reggae royalty, so that was a big deal to me. The Grammy was nice, too, but I wasn’t actually able to be there to receive it so I didn’t have that moment. I gave it to my parents.
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