Penny For Your Thoughts With … LALAH HATHAWAY
PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS… WITH LALAH HATHAWAY
Lalah Hathaway on the release of her fifth album “Self Portrait.” Presented by Electronic Urban Report.
Pictures may be worth a thousand words, but the music of Lalah Hathaway’s “Self Portrait” says more about soul music than a musical dictionary.
Her fifth studio album, the disc is a 12-song collection of jazz-infused R&B that she fashioned herself.
The singer, daughter of the legendary soul man Donny Hathaway, is now on the legendary label Stax Records - home to Booker T and the MGs, Sam and Dave, and Isaac Hayes.
It’s been four years since her last disc and like many artists, she’s had her share of label contracts and label contrasts, but she told EUR’s Lee Bailey that her new label home is a great fit.
“It’s about finding the right record label that will pay for you to express yourself,” she said about her sabbatical from the studio. “The industry is changing so much. [Artists] are out trying to find someplace that they feel comfortable doing their art and their craft. I hope that it will become a more frequent occurrence that I get to make records.”
And while she hasn’t ruled out going the independent distribution route in the future, Hathaway is quite pleased with working with the celebrated Stax name. She reiterated that being an artist looking for a deal is something most artists of longevity have experienced, along with bouncing from label to label.
“It’s kind of like dating,” she compared. “It’s like Match.com when you’re signed to a label. You go out with a guy and it’s all nice. First they pick you up and open the door for you, and then something goes horribly wrong. It seems that’s been my experience with record companies, until now.”
So what makes this time different? Well, in a word, “self.”
“I can honestly say - and I don’t even have to say it; you will say it once you listen to it - it is my most coherent, cohesive body of work,” she said. “I made the record from front to back in such a short period of time and I’ve never done that before….”
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