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ThaFormula.com - Did you ever feel that when the Groove Theory track "Tell Me" got really big that you might end up being looked at as a 1 hit wonder type group?

Amel Larrieux - No I think I was more concerned that I wouldn’t be able to do any other kind of music besides that song.  A lot of people didn’t realize that the album was not all like that song and that that was never my intention or Bryce’s intention either, but when you get a hit song regardless of who you are people expect you to repeat the performance and for people who bought the album as opposed to buying the single. That’s why I’m against the sale of singles, especially for black artists. It’s that people would buy the single and then maybe not buy the album and then they don’t know your body of work and then only expect that of you.  So for me I was more concerned with being pigeonholed as a straight R&B artist instead of being allowed the room to attempt to do music that didn’t have to be put in one category.  I was influenced by Prince and Stevie Wonder, those kinds of people.  So that was my concern but I also knew that I was not gonna stay in that group forever so I kind of knew that there would be a chance to express my own vision without having to share the stage with somebody who’s vision might be a little different. After doing that when I went on and did my own album then it was kind of more clear I guess to more people what my intentions were.

ThaFormula.com - Were you happy with how big "Tell Me" was getting though?

Amel Larrieux - I definitely was happy because it meant that we were making money. Bryce had been in the industry a lot longer then me with Mantronix and even thought the song wasn’t my favorite song on the album it was still something I had written so I was grateful that I was having success from my own material.  I was grateful that that meant that I could do shows because that’s what started happening.  I think I do my best work in live performances.  The only thing that was concerning me was that my label started expecting all the stuff to be like “Tell Me” but I was so happy to have any kind of success I was also probably trying to set a precedent with my own exterior presentation.  I didn’t want to look like anybody else or follow those trends and I was told many times that you know “you have to be sexier, you have to have choreography,” and I just kept saying “no that’s not where I’m coming from,” and the artists I like and feel are successful didn’t do all those things per se.  So when I was able to have success with Groove Theory that was the beginning for me of acceptance by my audience and that almost contradicted everything the label was telling me.

ThaFormula.com - Seeing that you have been on both sides, how does it feel to have a radio audience who only goes to a show because they heard you on the radio compared to what you have now?

Amel Larrieux - You know, I experienced the difference while I was in Groove Theory.  What happened was the album went gold and the single went gold so I really had like this 50/50 thing where I would have some audiences that wanted the album that were open to the other stuff, and then I would have an audience that was completely trend driven and it was so wild because I felt like I had to sometimes you know change my performance depending on the audience which is something that you should be able to stretch as a performer.  If you have people that are sitting down in a club with tables and candles you’re not gonna do the same show that you do for 2000 kids in a civic center somewhere so that was good ‘cause it showed me that I had to not be selfish and I had to be versatile but I wasn’t willing to compromise my own integrity and I didn’t wanna get off the path that I had originally taken and that was letting myself develop. So since I had experienced that in the early days and if you talk to any artist you all go through some kind of rejection and the hardest kind is when you’re on the stage and somebody is not feelin’ what you’re doing.  That's why I like the whole idea of selling an album instead of a single cause then the people have to take you as a whole piece of work.

ThaFormula.com - So financially the Groove Theory situation was good?

Amel Larrieux - Yeah, it was great.  That was the beginning of my road to making this choice where I am now.

ThaFormula.com - So you were one of the smart ones who saved you’re dough to be able to do what you are doing now independently?

Amel Larrieux - Personally I wouldn’t have done it.  It was my husband who is my producer, and manager and he is the reason I’m still here today ‘cause I don’t know anything about business.  Everything I know about business I basically picked up from him from asking questions and watching him.  He’s able to be an artist and do that stuff as well. So yeah we did a lot of stuff. We built a studio; we purchased property and things like that.  He made a lot of smart choices so that we could be free to say no to things or you know not depend on other things.

ThaFormula.com - When you left Groove theory were you worried at all about leaving and going solo?

Amel Larrieux - At that point we both were getting frustrated working together so it was more of a relief to leave ‘cause we had very different goals at that point for music so it was nice to take a break.  I think that was a big incentive for both of us.  We had other things we wanted to do and we both went right ahead and did it.  I think I was more concerned at that point at how my label was gonna accept me as an artist.  Bryce left the label but the label kept me and I’ve been there since that time.  I just left in the last year and that was a concern for me that they would be able to see me as an artist outside of Groove Theory.  I was less concerned with the audience.  I feel like I’ve had a good relationship with my audience cause I really like to be on the road.  

ThaFormula.com - Now during that time you hooked up with Sweetback, how did that collabo come about?

Amel Larrieux - I had met Stuart and his wife when I was in my last months of pregnancy with my first child and we all had become friends and she got pregnant after that and we even had our kids playing together in the beginning.  They lived in New York and we had met each other through a label function ‘cause we were both at Epic and we became friends.  Four years later when they decided to do the Sweetback album he approached me more like we knew each other already.  So when I did those 2 songs with them it was just like “hear listen to these tracks and do whatever you want.”  It was a lot of fun.

ThaFormula.com - Will you guys be working on anything again?

Amel Larrieux - I think if they asked me and the situation was right I would probably do it but its always timing.

ThaFormula.com - I've always wondered if the track you did on the TV show New York Undercover ever come out on anything?

Amel Larrieux - Not that I know of.  I don’t even have a copy of that.  There are many things that I am still trying to get my hands on.  I have no idea how to get that though.  That show has been defunct for a while so I don’t know.

ThaFormula.com - Do you listen to a lot of the music that’s out now?

Amel Larrieux - I try to listen to everything. To be a well-rounded person if you cut your self from any one thing then you are lessening your chances of really having a kind of intelligent and well-rounded view of the world.  I’d like to be able to be knowledgeable about as much as the stuff in my area and my field as possible and I’m also curious. It doesn’t mean that I like everything that I hear but it doesn’t mean that I dislike it.  I just like to be exposed to it.  I’m more interested in having it all co-exist and having more of a balance. People have always said music is so terrible.  Things constantly repeat themselves and are always being recycled whatever it may be, all areas of entertainment definitely.  So I think this is just the way the world works.  There is always something lasting and meaningful in the midst of what seems to be a trend, but on the other side is somebody that might really happen to love what the trendy thing is and just because I don’t like it doesn’t make it no good.  I think it’s important to not criticize and be judgmental of something just because the industry has made it become popular.  That may have never been that artist’s intention for it to be a fad or a trend.  That’s really nobodies fault though.

ThaFormula.com - And if they keep doing it over and over…

Amel Larrieux - I think the bad part is when the other stuff is not equally represented.  It's not the artists’ fault.  It’s the fault of the media and labels for not doing both.  But you have to look at it from every aspect.  You know record labels are supposed to be making money.  It’s not necessarily their business to develop artists.  That’s not why record labels were formed.  I did do well, I saw commercial success and again its relative, I think I’m having success in the way that I’m doing this.  I’m not following anyone’s formula.  I’m defying everything that people told me I needed to follow to be successful and yet I feel that my success is relative to me right now, so if you think of it in those terms of Groove Theory with “Tell Me” that’s a song I wrote for another artist.  The label said “hey this is gonna be a commercial success, don’t give this song to the other artist, record it yourself.” I didn’t wanna do it. They were right, I recorded it and got a lot of commercial success and then was afforded a lot of luxuries that I may not have been if I hadn’t done the song.  I also made the conscious choice not to do things that would have propelled me to commercial success.  I purposely did not do those things cause it didn’t feel right to me so I made that choice and I think that you’re given that choice.  It’s like my husband has this great saying, “if you dance with the devil, he’s not gonna change his steps,” so its not like I could go in there and just say, “okay lets change everything.” I would have to start my own label and have lots and lots of money and buy radio time and that’s the only way that you can create that kind of a force to reckon with what’s already established, so that’s why I say I have no problem with those artists doing that.  Everyone should be able to express themselves but I do believe that there isn’t an equal platform.

ThaFormula.com - So do you feel that independent is the best way to go now in order to do things your way?

Amel Larrieux - That’s what I think it’s coming to.  The problem is that there is so much propaganda against independent stuff but that’s put out by the big people.  If you talk to someone independently, they are very happy unless in the back of their minds they’ve really been so influenced by the world of big companies and corporate everything that they really are planning just to get to this point and forsake their whole independent thing.  I think most people you speak to who have done things independently are so much happier.  It’s just like when people say black youth are depicted in the news in a very negative way.  How come we don’t see all the other aspects of black youth?  It’s now the same with the independent world of music.  You don’t see very much of it.  If you do its usually white alternative bands and you don’t realize that there is all these other people doing stuff independently.  If in your mind you equate success with being on a major label then that’s going to be your downfall, ‘cause if your gonna spend your life being on a major label, it takes you forever. And maybe you don’t do it? Then you give up then that’s just uh, you’ve gotta be able to be open to the fact that there are so many other ways to make music as there are to make art. 

ThaFormula.com - Did your first solo LP “Infinite Possibilities” go as you expected it to, and do you feel it was received like you had hoped?

Amel Larrieux - Again I had no expectations.  With my music I never know what to think.  I’m always expecting nothing.  There was a time when I might have expected the worst.  I’ve been teaching myself not to do that thought cause its just silly.  I was happy with the album.  In terms of me as an artist and a person who’s involved with more then just my own writing and singing you know I look at every aspect of the thing that I just completed and may wanna change things but that comes with the territory for me. The way I judge it at the end is when I got to do shows if anybody shows up I feel I’ve done the right thing.  If there is nobody there then I’m worried.  This is some advice for anyone who’s trying to break into the world of entertainment.  If you let this industry dictate your emotions then you become a puppet to them and you just lose your sense of self and then you’ve lost it all.  So I try to stay aware of what I feel I can handle when I can.  There are moments when I’m ready to handle how many sales I’ve had in the past or to know who’s gonna put me on their show and who’s not and be okay with it, and there are other times when I know I can’t deal with it so I don’t want to know about it.

ThaFormula.com - What did the label want you to do for your first album?

Amel Larrieux - They had a more commercial idea of how I should do things and again that’s how big labels things work and I was cool with that.  I wanted them to understand that that wasn’t my path.  But it’s really up to the individual and no ones right or wrong.

ThaFormula.com - So you were kind of in the same situation as you were with Groove Theory?

Amel Larrieux - Kind of, but the difference was there was a whole new regime put in place when I had finished the “Infinite Possibilities” album so there was like no staff there at my label for a while. So we had no marketing person and this is what happens at some record labels where one-person leaves, like a person at the top and they take everyone with them and there is nobody there.  So like that was a different thing.  Somebody new came in and they had to get acquainted with it and these are all very integral to the success of an album to have people behind it.  These are the people that make it happen, make it work, that make it get out there to the folks that are gonna buy it hopefully.  So that was a big difference.  But they responded differently ‘cause I didn’t do that single.  Like with the group I recorded the song thinking “this is my first time out, it is my own writing and its their expertise so its not gonna kill me to do this song,” and it didn’t kill me.  I just didn’t necessarily repeat that exact thing.  I have nothing against doing a song that becomes commercially successful but I’m not programmed to continually write the same kind of song.

ThaFormula.com - So what's the deal with the new album?

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