It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed Yewande’s debut EP Evolution and luckily things are really developing in the right direction for her with live gigs, lecture-performance at universities and more and more people getting to know her. Actually that means she hadn’t found the time to answer the jazz-not-jazz interview so far. But with things slowing down around Christmas she finally got into details answering my questions. So learn more about Yewande, her strengths, her journey so far, how she met Peter Lord and V. Jeffrey Smith from The Family Stand and much more in this edition of the jazz-not-jazz interview:
Q: Although you’re not signed to a major label and you don’t have an album released yet you have made such an impression in the world of music. How do you feel about this?
Yewande: I’m incredibly blessed. There’s no text book explanation that I can give you for any of my successes. Most of us have that one thing in life that we dream of being. Ever since I was a child, I always had a very strong connection to music and was even more fascinated by how it affected people. I guess you could say that I was led to it. And no matter how hard I ever tried to ignore it or how much people discouraged me from pursuing it, once I surrendered to that “calling” I knew that I couldn’t turn back. But I also quickly realized that the only way I even had a chance to survive was creating a sound plan. I was just fortunate that my plan worked.
Q: Regarding your success so far, do you think it was the right decision to become an independent artist who is of full control of her music, image, promotion etc.? And what do you think of your future as an musician? One of the advantages of being with a major label may be a little more money and a world-wide distribution of your music. The question is, would this be worth to lose control of your artistry in some ways? I’ve read that once an A&R manager told you to change your name because Yewande sounds too ethnic…I find it hard to believe that there’s still a lot of racism in the music industry.
Yewande:
There’s no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice becoming an independent artist. Believe me, it’s not the path that I dreamed of, but if I’d waited around for some man in a suit to “accept” me and my music…well, I’d still be waiting. Like most artists, I thought that having a different style and strong voice was enough to get me the record deal of my dreams and I’d live happily ever after, but my strengths wound up creating the biggest obstacles (how ironic). Actually, my very first meeting with a record label resulted in an immediate offer, but even with their long history in the jazz world I was afraid that like so many jazz artists I admired that my music would never reach the masses. More labels came calling, but they all wanted the same thing…for me to be just like everyone else. Yes, an executive representing two HUGE R&B/Hip-Hop acts approached me, but after questioning whether I could dance (that’s a critical requirement after all), suggested that I change my birth name because it was “too ethnic”. After the initial shock wore off, I explained how the NAME he wanted to change represented everything that I was as an artist (it means “reincarnation of Grandmother” in Yoruba). THEN I went home and bawled my eyes out. Is THIS what I’d have to do to be successful? Seduce all of my listeners with some sexy pole dance, change my name to Brittany and ignore every virtue that I treasured?
Of course world-wide success was the goal, but at what cost? I would sign to a major label in a heartbeat if I knew that they would honor the story that I want to tell with my music. But lately it seems like you’ve got to be a clone of someone else to succeed in this business and I learned early on that I just didn’t “fit” that mold…and I didn’t want to. I never wanted to be the manager, the publicist, the promoter, the producer and everything else that goes along with running a record label, but I knew that I had a gift that deserved a chance and it was obvious that no one could do it but me. Fortunately, my mother, who is also an entrepreneur, encouraged me to study business in college along with my classical voice and piano studies. And growing up around her company, I was doubly blessed to witness the sacrifices that she made for her business to succeed. So with 18 hour work days and a lot of prayer, in 2003 I launched Lotus Records and first international tour.
Shortly after that, B. E. T. gave me the chance to perform on “106th & Park”, I won a national competition with Steve Madden Shoes, who presented me at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and put me on tour with everyone from the Black Eyed Peas to Enrique Iglesias. Since that time, I released my debut EP, “Evolution” (with support in part by Steve Madden Shoes), distributed music in over 13 countries, performed in over 200 cities around the world, voted “Best Solo Artist” in the national college market, and am now up for an MTV reality series featuring the top indie artists in the country. The independent road has definitely been a struggle, but I’m playing the game on my own terms…I can’t turn back now.
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