Choklate: ‘Life writes the best songs. Not people.’
Soul/r&b singer-songwriter sensation Choklate has taken the underground scene by storm since her excellent debut album Volume 1 was released nearly four years ago. The Seattle native took some time out recently to answer a few questions for us at Catch a Vibe.
Catch a Vibe: This month you played a couple of dates in the UK, London and Birmingham. It was your second solo gig over here. Anything in particular you appreciate about the British audience?
Choklate: I think more than anything I appreciate that they are a picky audience and the fact that not EVERYTHING flies. I appreciate their honesty and I appreciate that if something I do or say or sing is whack, that they’ll probably make me very aware of it.
CAV: Your two albums, Volume 1 and To Whom it May Concern are quite distinct in sound, your debut being more soul and funk oriented with the second being more r&b/club jam heavy. Did you find the creative process different on the second album to the first?
Choklate: No, the creative process was pretty much the same. I chose beats/music that I was extremely attracted to and wrote about whatever scenario the music seemed to call, same as last time I would say. I would say I was in a different place as a woman/businesswoman though. I had a wealth of experiences between the first and second record. I just lived life next to my friends and family and wrote about all of our experiences. That’s my process. To live life. Observe it. Write about it.
CAV: Do you have any weird or wonderful anecdotes from the stage you would like to share?
Choklate: I got to open for Bilal once and it was my first time sharing the stage with someone I am a huge and complete fan of. He’s a genius. Anyway, I’d taken the stage and I was doing an acoustic set at Highline Ballroom in NYC no less. Huge venue to lil’ ol me anyway. I started to sing and I was very vulnerable because the audience was massive and it was just myself and the guitar player; nothing or no one to hide behind or turn to for relief of the jitters. I was halfway through the second song or so when I finally opened my eyes cause they were aching from them being squeezed shut and noticed the entire room, Bilal’s band, B himself, waiters, bouncers, ticket people, the bartenders and even a few cooks (could see their top hats) had all stopped moving and were silent, watching. I’d never seen a room that big, that full, that quiet. I really got nervous then. I was sweating and everything. One of my favourite performance moments. I’ll never forget that. Someone captured a piece of it and posted it on YouTube.
CAV: You’ve done a lot of good work with producers Vitamin D and Jake One; your compositions show great craft- melodies, lyrics and production converging together like a dream. How do you go about the songwriting process? Any specific creative rituals?
Choklate: That’s the most immeasurable process that I have… Sometimes song ideas come on the freeway, on the toilet, at the breakfast table, in a meeting, in the middle of a phone conversation…. Whenever they come, I write them down and they almost always hit me with a specific beat, that I already have, that needs a song written to it, attached. It’s like “I’m here for beat #16 on Vita beat CD #2…write me down…NOW” and I won’t be able to carry on with whatever until I’ve noted it somewhere or else it’s lost forever. Lately however, they may leave me and return… It’s never been like that before so that’s kinda new.
CAV: There’s a candid and vulnerable quality to your lyrics, with you getting even more personal on To Whom… than before. Do you ever have any trepidation about being so open in your songs?
Choklate: Sometimes. But then again I think I’m living my life for the sake of the music too. For the sake of those who need to hear about whatever I’m experiencing and whatever my friends and family are experiencing. I try not to be too blatant when talking about others situations or talking about other people. I remember being in church once and the preacher saying something like “You think you’re going through what you are for YOU? NO. It’s for the next person who will need encouragement, advice, a shoulder to cry on… It’s for the next person who will experience the exact same thing and will need to know they aren’t the only one going through it.” It’s been years since…I wasn’t even doing music when I heard that but it stuck with me and I guess it’s just the kind of artist I am. Life writes the best songs. Not people.
CAV: God and Faith are recurring themes in your music; do you mind telling us a little bit more about that?
Choklate: I’m the baby of seven kids and was raised by a single mother who was strict, God fearing and dedicated to spirituality and church. The story pretty much begins and ends there. She instilled a healthy fear of God and God consciousness in me and it’s just my foundation. I’ve always been a spiritual person. I’ve always leaned on God for guidance. I don’t know any other way. Even when I’m completely wrong and screwing up, the way I was raised and the things I was taught are lurking around in the back of my mind. I’m never off track or far off from God for too long. Everyone makes mistakes. I’m a huge mistaker but I also try to bounce back quickly, feeding spiritual being as well as my physical, mental and emotional beings.
CAV: Name three albums that have impacted or changed your artistic outlook in any way…:
Choklate: The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Superfly: Curtis Mayfield, Brotha Lynch Hung: Loaded.
CAV: Finally, what are your musical plans for 2010? Any chance you’ll be releasing new material sometime this year?
Choklate: Musical plans for 2010? Make Music, lots of it! Hopefully a record will surface by the end of the year. I’m 23 songs deep now so I think we may be able to make that happen. If the songs keep coming like they do perhaps we’ll even drop two (laughs).
Pictures courtesy of Jerry Barnett
