Seal back in the clubs with “System”
- Seal (photo Warner Music) released on November 13 2007 System, his fifth studio album.
- For this record, the 44-year old British singer replaced his longtime producer Trevor Horn by Stuart Price, the young dance specialist, who produced Madonna’s successful Confessions on a Dance Floor.
- On this club record, Seal sings a duet with his wife, German supermodel Heidi Klum. Interview.
Los Angeles.
Seal, why did you decide to go back to dance music with System, your new record?
To be quite honest, I have wanted to go back to house for about three albums. The dance culture is very volatile and precarious because in order to do a dance album with sincerity and to tell the truth, you have to live it. You have to be a part of it and go to clubs. With the success of my first album, I became further and further away from that culture. But that does not mean you can’t do it. You have to be in touch with somebody who does understand and who is still very much involved in that club culture.
You are 44 years old, married with young children, Can you still live this club culture?
I am with somebody who lives it (n.d.l.r.: Stuart Price, the producer of System and of Confessions on a Dance Floor, the last Madonna album). There are certain rules and guidelines you have to abide to. If you are not familiar with those rules because they may have changed, you have to work with somebody like Stuart Price, who is familiar with them. I have never changed in terms of the essence of who I am. I was a musician and a songwriter before I started making dance music in the early 90es. I existed before that, I just did not have a deal. This wonderful vehicle and tool came along for me. It was when dance music had exploded in England. It was extremely experimental, very progressive and democratic. A lot of people were making a lot of great music in their bedrooms with new technology and were inspired by a very powerful youth movement and a quite euphoric drug movement. After my first album, I made a slight departure because I concentrated on America. And America did not really understand that culture at the time. So now working with Stuart enables me to revisit my roots.
Does it mean you are still interested in the club scene?
I have been touring for the last four years and I have realized what the people want from me. When you start playing the uptempo songs like Get it together, Killer, Crazy, people want to dance. The trick is that I have never been interested in just doing dance music. The first song I did with Adamski was “Killer” (1990). That song was the first one from that genre to really cross over to the mainstream. It became number one in Europe for 4 weeks. The song said something that resonated with people. System is a quintessential Seal record where I took my guitar and went back to what I was doing when I wrote Crazy. It is just a Seal record that happens to something people can dance to.
You said you wanted to go back to the guitar, but you do not hear it much on the record.
When you listen to your songs, you can’t help but wonder whether they would work better in an unplugged version?
Do you think they might work better?
Yes.
I don’t think so. It is interesting that upon listening to my album, you think there is not a lot of guitar in it. But if I were to play you the songs on the guitar right now, you would go “Oh my God, they sound the same”. Every song on this album was written on a guitar except for one that was written on guitar and piano. The essence of the song is important, not the way you dress it. If you put a suit on a monkey, you get a monkey with a suit. So the important thing is the song. If you can make the song work with just the piano and the voice or guitar, then you can do anything to it.
You can also destroy the song…
It is very difficult to destroy a song if it is good because it is like building a house on a strong foundation. If the structure of the house is good, you can do a bad job on the outside but you can never destroy the foundation. The melody always remains identifiable. If you asked 20 people on the street to give you the bass line of Crazy (n.d.l.r.: one of Seal’s biggest hits), nobody would know. But they would recognize the melody. (Seal starts singing Crazy). If a song is not strong enough, you can destroy it with production.
Did you really write Wedding Day on the day you married Heidi Klum?
I did write it on the morning of my wedding. We were in Mexico. Heidi and I did the traditional thing. We have a house there. She stayed in our house the night before and I stayed in the house next door so we did not see each other. The morning of our wedding, on May 10th 2005, I was so excited. I thought: “Waow, after 40 years, this is it. This is the day I dreamt about”. I felt so amazing and I thought about what I really wanted to say to my wife. I came up with “In my heart a place / most special place / And it’s all for you / you’re my world, you’re my Angel”.
How did you come up with the idea of singing the song with your wife?
I wrote it as a duet. She always sings to the kids. So it was a natural progression for us. People expected me to have lots of songs about my family. The truth of the matter is that they all are but not in the most obvious way. Children make you look at the world differently and make you more focused. They make you look at what is more important. Above all, they make you more open. That is the most important thing as a songwriter. That is when the really good stuff comes. It helps you see clearer. It is not so much one will focus on the type of music I am making but is more about content. It is an album where I am celebrating life a lot more. I was searching before and now I found it.
Jean-Cosme Delaloye / Los Angeles
Bio
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel was born on February 19, 1963 in London.
He studied architecture in London before starting his career singing in pubs and bars.
In 1990, he released Killer with techno producer Adamski. The track reached number one in 1990 in the UK.
In 1991, Seal released his first solo album. Crazy, on of the singles of the record became a worldwide hit.
In 1994, Seal released jis second studio album. One of his songs, Kiss from a Rose, appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Batman Forever and became a huge hit.
Seal released two more albums in 1998 and 2003.
On May 10 2005, he married German supermodel Heidi Klum in Mexico. The couple has two sons, Henry Günther, 2 years old, and Johan Riley, 1 year old. Seal also adopted Helene, the 3-year old girl Heidi Klum had with formula 1 manager Flavio Briatore.
On November 13 2007, Seal released System, his fifth album.
Seal, System, Warner Music. Out now.
This is interview came out on November 16 2007 in 24heures and Tribune de Genève in Switzerland.
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