A few weeks ago I praised Koren Washington and her debut release The Experiment. Since she doesn’t have a website yet, the infos about her were very limited…until now because she talks about herself and her music in an interview with jazz-not-jazz. And if you haven’t heard the sound snippets of Fish Out Of Water on her cdbaby site you can hear it this Friday on the jazz-not-jazz radio show in it’s full length glory. By the way one of my favourite songs on The Experiment and as Koren reveals another proof that one woman’s pain transformed into music can be another man’s pleasure.
Q: Please tell me something about yourself. Where you’re coming from musically and who or what had influenced you to pursue a career as musician?
Koren Washington: I’m a native of Denver, CO - USA; a Pisces; student of yoga; love to travel. My sole motivation as a musician is to honor my truth. To me that means expressing my true emotion and conveying honesty in my lyrics. This is essential, because I spent a great deal of time hiding what I really felt. I also want my music to be a unique reflection of my influences - which are r&b/hip-hop, jazz, and British rock. While other artists inspire me, I honestly believe that my actual pursuit of doing this is in the blood. Both of my parents are musical and were in various groups when they were younger, and my paternal grandmother was a gospel singer. As it often happens though, their dreams were dashed once the routine of adult responsibilities set in. So those seeds of desire were passed on to me, I believe. Music is what I always wanted to do. Ever since I can remember, music has been my companion. Singing, in particular, is sacred to me somehow. You are the instrument. When I got sick as a child, the way I knew that I was well again was that I could sing again.
I always dabbled in performing - plays, talent shows, weddings, guest spots in bands, but I thought that it would be much more pragmatic to take the secure and respectable route. So I focused on academics and went to college with the intention of becoming a doctor. Medicine wasn’t for me, but I stayed on the safe path for a bit. The reality, though, is that the urge for an artist to express only grows stronger the more it is ignored - and you will go mad if that part of you isn’t honored. Well, the urge nearly took me over, so I finally got to the place where I had to acknowledge that I am a singer/songwriter, as much as I am female and black. So it was that inner thing that forced me to actually pursue this as a career.
Q: The music on The Experiment is quite diverse ranging from house, soul, jazz to urban/R&B. Where do you see your musical niche and what was your motivation to record The Experiment the way you did?
Koren Washington: The diversity of genres was intentional. My comfort zone vocally is jazz and r&b and yet many styles of music inform me as an artist, so I don’t want to hover solely in one area, even though it’s all related. The record was really Tymm’s challenge to me to play outside of the box and experiment with new stuff, hence the title. As the concept became more comfortable to me, I wanted it to be a musical ride. Generally speaking, as far as a niche is concerned, if I had to give my approach a label, I’d call it “left of center soul”.
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