photo by John Tsiavis.
A musical rocking good time is expected as singer
Melissa Etheridge begins her tour to debut her new album entitled “This is M.E.” with eleven brand new songs. At present her hit single is called “A Little
Bit of Me” and it’s simply a coincidence.
I interviewed Melissa getting some inside details.
“It’s funny, I didn’t put that together until after
I was calling it ‘This Is M.E.’ {regarding the single}. Then we decided to use the photos of my fans
as the album cover. If you look closely
you can see that my portrait is a makeup of digital photos of thousands of
fans.” ‘A Little Bit of Me’, keeps
repeating, “There’s a little bit of me, in a little bit of you”. Melissa points out “There is an activist part
of me that believes that we realize that our diversity and uniqueness come
together in one beautiful family.” In
the case of the photo, it is also a little bit of the fans in a little bit of
her.
“I just finished my solo tour and it was a
blast. Now, I’m going out with my full
band in support of this record. Actually, most of my backing band is from New
York City. Jerry ‘Wonda’ Duplessis, who
has an incredible studio, Platinum Sound, in the Theatre District, was a bass
player for the Fugees and having done an amazing amount of stuff. I talked him into going on the road with me as
well as doing a couple of songs for me on the record, such as Monster and Do It
Again. I kept my drummer Blair
Sinta.” The rest is Wonda’s Platinum
Sound consisting of: guitarist, Brandyn Porter; Arden Altino on the keys; and
backup singers Angela Hunte and Ashley Loren. “This is the first time having
background singers and I’m so crazy excited about it.”
“My brand new tour is full of insanely moving
music. I will be doing ten of the eleven
songs since they have gotten such great reactions from my fans saying things
like ‘This could be my possibly favorite album of yours.’ These fans go back 20
years and give me confidence to perform them.”
Asking about as to whether she wrote all of the
songs on the album, Melissa said that she collaborated somewhat with the
musicians but wrote all of the lyrics accept for “Do It Again” and “Ain’t That
Bad” co-writing with Angela Hunte, a hip-hop artist. “’Ain’t That Bad’ is more of a hip-hop-rock
tune”, Melissa remarked. For the song “Take
My Number”, the original single, she said that she was trying to think which
song should first be released before the album itself. “Feedback was that it sounded more like an
older song of mine that I would have done in the 90’s. A comfort song. It’s a sweet song with a story that I solo
with my acoustic guitar. “It’s a grown
up ‘call me, baby’ song of how we’re going to date after a divorce.”
What is behind each song that she composes? “It starts with an inspiration whether
musical or an event going on giving me that feel of ‘I want to sing about
this’. Each song on this album was
driven by my own personal idea”.
“’Who Are You Waiting For’, the only ballad on the
record, was written for my wife, Linda, for our wedding. I actually sang that
to her during our vows. It was a
wonderful moment. She is an amazing woman and we both cried.” The lyrics seem
to point to Linda’s asking who Melissa was waiting for. They had been friends for several years prior
to their marriage this year. “I’m not
going to do that song as it is intimate and this show is pushing out! I’m going
to keep that song for a while.”
Melissa also commented on her health being “just
fine”. “Ten years this October of being
cancer free” and feeling that her food regiment is what keeps it that way.
Melissa Etheridge will be performing at Town Hall in
Manhattan on Wednesday, November 5th. Check out her website: www.melissaetheridge.com
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