michael ashanti

Michael Ashanti

Interview 26 February 2007

New York City

R&B/Soul, Pop

I was born in a suburban town in New York called Poughkeepsie which is about 90 minutes north of New York City. My parents were born in Jamaica and came to the United States a few years before I was born. I have two younger brothers, Jeffery and Lamont, who were born in Poughkeepsie and Germany, respectively.

I spent only the first 6 years of my life in Poughkeepsie because my father joined the armed forces. Right before I turned 7, we were sent to Panama. After this, we were moving about every 1 to 3 years to different locations around the world. After finishing high school, I attended university in Florida for 4 years and then went on for graduate studies in Pennsylvania. It was not until I graduated from college that I based myself in my current home of New York City.

I have grown at a very fast pace living in New York City because it is a city where you must live with purpose and inspiration. You can easily get caught up in all of the flash and constant movement in New York and not achieve anything. I have always been involved with music from my earliest memories, so it was clear that I was clear that New York was the place I needed to be in order make greater strides in my craft.

This is why I am very proud of having just completed my debut CD project that I have entitled "All Of Me". It took me a while to fully commit to this project because of the conflict of messages, both spoken and unspoken, I have either received or made myself believe about a career in music. However, I had made up my mind that if I decide to relocate to another city, I do not want to leave New York City without having something to show for all of the pushing and struggling. So I am very pleased to announce that "All Of Me" is now available for purchase on iTunes and CDBaby as well as select music stores in New York and Toronto.

"All Of Me" is a fusion of diverse soulful sounds. I have been referring to the genre of this project as 'soul fusion' because soul and R&B is the foundation of my personal style and I just laced it with acoustic, funk, house, gospel and jazz. In many ways, I feel that the CD project wrote itself. But the diversity of sounds on this project seems very appropriate to the person I am simply because of my varied experiences.

I wrote or co-wrote all of the tracks except one which is a cover version of "With You I'm Born Again" (written by David Shire and Carol Connor). "With You I'm Born Again" is the leading track for the album because it is a successful fusion between R&B and Caribbean rhythms. I have just completed a music video for the single and I have recently received an award from the 6 ^th Edition Canary Islands International Song Contest for my interpretation of the same single.

I am going to have a hard time choosing a follow-up single because different markets like different styles. R&B music lovers are really loving the singles "Cry" and "Father's Anthem" while house/dance music fans are showing support for the single "Hold On". Also, the acoustic-soul rendering of "Stranger (You Never Know)" is also receiving some feedback from those who appreciate the "less-is-more" craft of soulful vocal harmonies meet acoustic guitar.

I'm very proud to have co-produced and/or co-written with some accomplished folks such as Philip Clark, Shannon Davis and Cleveland Allen "aka Donald Wood". Also, there are cameo appearances by other independent artists on the project such as rap/reggaeton artist SooSo, jazz songstress, Susan Giles or, the funk/soul-rock fusion musician, Myke Hemy of the group DiggDeep. All of these wonderful people have earned credits on other recordings and have lent their talents to the success of this project.

Right now, I am coordinating efforts for future live performances both here and abroad. I try to use a lot of the same folks in live performances that I work with on recording projects. For the past few months, I have been concentrating on exclusive performances for the Heart's and Voices program of LIFEBeat. LIFEBeat is a music-industry organization that advocates education and organizes performances to people living with HIV/AIDS in and around New York City. This has been very soul-fulfilling for me in terms of doing charitable work where I get to use my talents in a very personal way.

Now I am ready to go even further with the live performances and focus my efforts on becoming an international presence. The one thing that I do notice about different markets is that different sounds work and that may call for some remixes of the current tracks I have. I think that a great remix can really help in exposing music to different markets. I am very open to this considering the fact that I am beginning to generate some buzz on an international front. I have received further inquiries of my music from the U.K., Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and Puerto Rico. I am overjoyed at the attention that this project is already receiving outside of New York because it speaks to who I really am as a person ─ a global citizen.

While I am getting the band together and working out performance date details, everyone can preview music, check out the new video as well as find out about upcoming performances by checking out my official website at www.michaelashanti.com as well as my official MySpace page at www.myspace.com/michaelashanti

CDs can be purchase online either at iTunes or CDBaby

When I'm not obsessing about music, I'm spending time exercising, reading, or just spending quiet time meditating or building a special relationship with a wonderful person who just came into my life.

Outside of my own artistry, I'm really digging the sounds of others such as Eric Roberson, Rahsaan Paterson, DiggDeep, Lalah Hathaway, and Rachelle Ferrelle. Real music is on it's way back and I am so happy to see that more and more people are beginning to reject the "dumb-down" sounds that are way to prevalent on the radio right now.

A few random one word things:

Favourite artist:

Luther Vandross

Film:

Right now, "Dreamgirls"

Actor/Actress:

Morgan Freeman

Food:

West Indian food

Drink:

Mangolasee "Indian yogurt drink"

City:

Barcelona, Toronto, London

Country:

Canada, Spain, Puerto Rico

Holiday Vacation:

Puerto Rico

Sport/Team:

Is martial arts considered a sport. This is my favorite.

Anything else you'd like to say

Buy the CD!! And support independent soul music. Hell, support independent music…period. It is much better stuff out there that is not being featured on mainstream.

Good luck and thanks for your time

No. Thank you, Mike. You're the man.

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