The Hot Seat: Electrik Red
When I first heard of Electrik Red I was intrigued to say the least, reading a little bit of this and a little bit of that, asking myself “Are they really a new version of The Pussycat Dolls?” Wanting to know more I started my research and found that unlike the ‘Dolls’ – Electrik Red is self made and “industry” savvy; with their performing arts background and many years of touring the world with other famous artists as dancers, they knew where they wanted to go, what they wanted to do and went and achieved it.
Electrik Red’s Lesley, Binkie, Naomi and Sarah make up the sizzlin’ sexy quartet and their debut album “How to be a Lady” (Island Def Jam) is set to release on April 21st, 2009. With the release of “Drank in My Cup” and “So Good” along with the music videos is indication of their range. “Drank in My Cup” had mixed reviews (I don’t know about you, but I like the raw, in your face nature of the video – but that may be because I think these females are hot) while “So Good”, was just that, so incredibly good – I am happy to see a new R&B and/or “urban world” girl group back on scene, and I believe they will only get better.
Their talent along with their bold, sexy confidence is sure to get your attention. In their own words, they describe what their journey was like and what it’s like to be in their shoes right now.
ADESINA (Def Jam Publicity): Hi – you’re on with the girls – girls this is Ann Frohoff with Musiqtone.com
ELECTRIK RED: Hey’ya!Ann: Hi – How’s it goin’ today?
ER: Good, ya’know movin’ and shakin’
A: This is very exciting! Thanks for taking the time today to speak with me! It’s also exciting to have a “girl group” back on scene! Sexy at that too, I was listening to your music and it’s very sexy, I like that brave sexiness.
ER: We like that though, you know we think, we feel that there is a void of women’s voices like that.
A: Absolutely, it breathes new life. It’s confidence. So , I know you’re busy, so I have just have a handful of questions – as far as “the group” goes – Electrik Red - the one thing that I’ve found is that there is a misnomer out there about you girls being “put together” – manufactured. I’d like to clear that up for people.
ER: Oh, we’d love to clear that up. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’re actually friends. We didn’t audition to be together, no manager threw us together, we’re just actually good ol’ gals. (laugh) This is Sarah. Naomi and I knew each other since we were children in Toronto. We went to a performing arts school together. Lesley and Binkie know each other from going to Laguradia, which is a famous high school in New York. After high school all of us pursued professional careers as dancers and met in the field working together in music videos and touring. Binkie and Lesley approached me to join the group and I couldn’t refuse, then I invited Naomi along to join the group, every one met and that was about 6 years ago. It’s been 6 years since we’ve been working on the music, getting it right. It’s been a whole year since we’ve been signed. It’s nothing manufactures, we all choice to be here and we are very excited to here.
A: What inspired you to go in this direction? Was it a natural progression?
ER: I think that’s naturally what we’ve known, we’ve all been performing working on our craft vocally, dance wise, acting, visual arts since the age of 7. This has always been the path we wanted to take in arts. So it happened naturally that dancing and the music industry was our first step to actually get our foot in the door. The ultimate plan was ultimately, organically imbedded in us to take our talents to the forefront. I think too, as artists, and being professional dancers we’ve reached a certain level of success and there is only so far you can go, so after seeing with world; traveling with some of the top artists in the world, being in music videos. As artists you naturally feel what else can I do that inspires me to be more creative. Choosing the musical path gives you more power, more creativity to do what you want, it’s your own thing, there’s way more control. We’re the bosses.
A: How does this compare to what you were doing in the past? Is this what you thought it would be?
ER: This is way more than what we thought it would be, it’s unbelievable. I think that in the past you your training, and getting really good at your craft, your performing for everybody, your dancing and working really hard at your rehearsals; but really you’re not making any major decisions. You decide if you’re going to the auditions, and decide if you’re going to take the job and from that decision you’re working, and kinda under the rules of someone else or how the project’s going. But right now, the way things are, we make all the decisions, we have an extreme amount of creative control. From what we wear to who we get to choreograph, we know gang of choreographers who are good, to who does our makeup, to who is our stylist, to who what our image should be, to how our music should feel, to how our stage show should be done. We have all the control, so now it makes a huge difference. We are not in the background for anyone anymore; we’re actually the (driver’s seat).
A: Share with us what it was like when you got word that Def Jam wanted to sign you, what were you doing, where were you at?
ER: Actually, we were at Def Jam. Um, we were freaking out. There’s a huge long story to it, and I don’t tell it the best, I’m gonna let Naomi tell the story. NAOMI – There is so much information girl. We were hungry, okay, we know some people in this industry, a hundred million people cause we’ve done everything we can do in our won profession; and one of the people we knew was Shakir Stewart, and we were lookin’ for a bite to eat to be honest, I’m gonna be honest…..we called him, he said “I’m actually at the office, why don’t you come by”; and this was on February 22nd, and we came by. He asked what we were doing. We said we were working on the music, but that wasn’t the focus, the focus was dinner….he didn’t believe us, so we pushed the tables aside just to give him the razzle dazzle (we said to him) “You will believe us, we have been working, don’t say we haven’t been working”. So….he was impressed, and then the next day….within 12 hours, they literally locked the doors to Def Jam and said you’re signing today. We want you to do the performance you did last night, whatever that was, we want you to do that for the entire building. So there you go, literally on the spot we’re dancing up a storm, signing; and Mr. Chairman, Elliot Reed walked by the office and peaked in, and was like ‘What’s all the commotion about?’. It hit us like, this is now or never, that was the moment that changed our lives.
A: Now, onto something just as exciting; you’ve hooked up with some heavy hitters – The Dream and Tricky Stewart – share what it was like going into the studio with them.
ER: This is Binkie, working with them was like a dream come true. We’ve got to work with a lot of different producers in our past and every body’s got their own little way of doing things which is amazing to see different people creating in different ways; but to be with Dream and Tricky while they were creating our first album, I still cannot fathom, you know, how we got here, how we could be so lucky to work with (these) masterminds, they, this was really a treat. We busted down the album in, we recorded in what? Two and a half weeks. They wrote it in just like, a night, which is unheard of and I think that everybody was really focused. Once Dream and Tricky got it, I mean they nailed it exactly to a T, like who we are. So I don’t think anybody else could have done it, and I don’t think it coulda went (with) any other girl group. Those are our songs, they belong to us.
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1 comment:
You ladies Rock!! :)
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