Features

Eric Roberson has been behind the scenes for years penning hits for artists from 112 to Dwele to Will Downing and Jill Scott and has quietly released 3 albums of his own original material, all worthy of the radio and video rotation the benefactors of his writings have received. With a strong musical background, knowledge gained from people he has surrounded himself with (A Touch of Jazz /Osunlande), and an incredibly live stage show Erro (as pseudonym he has also recorded under) appears to be one hit record away from becoming the next singer/songwriter/producer to take over the game.

ThaFormula.Com - How did you become interested in writing and performing and when did you know it was something you really wanted to do?

Eric Roberson - I'd probably say it was just coming from a performance background. My parents put me in athletics and my sister in the arts. She was older and had to watch over me so I would have to go with her to her classes, theatre, plays or art classes, whatever she was doing at the time and eventually it just rubbed off on me. My father had a little keyboard, and he also sings so there was just music around the house all the time.

ThaFormula.Com - So you learned to play instruments early on as well?

Eric Roberson - I really never touched his guitar (laughs) but have learned to play enough to get by but I wouldn't by any means say I was a beast in any for or fashion on any instrument, I focus on my voice more than anything.

ThaFormula.Com - When did you realize sports weren't really your thing and the performing was?

Eric Roberson - Well, I won a scholarship to Howard University, I won a National pageant called "Black Teenage World" and for me to get that (a full scholarship) in doing something I love such as music and singing which was pretty much the main way I got it, it was very obvious to me that I needed to take it a little more seriously. I wanted to play football in college but immediately as soon as I got that (scholarship) it was a clear decision. Before I had become a senior in high school I kind of had already came to that decision, and my voice was just constantly changing everyday plus I was working on it constantly. I was a pretty easy decision and I missed playing football but it was an easy trade off.

ThaFormula.Com - When you were a sophomore at Howard you actually got signed to Waner Bros, were you signed as an artist or a writer initially?

Eric Roberson - I was signed as an artist. The group Shai was there and we were pretty good friends. I handed them a CD when they blew up and took off and they gave it to somebody in LA (Los Angeles) and it kind of just took off from there. I did one single and it didn't exactly work out as planned and I went back to school and finished up after that.

ThaFormula.Com - Was that deal difficult to get out of?

Eric Roberson - It was actually…Benny Medina had left the label after that single dropped and their really wasn't any direction after that. I went from one label to another and that situation didn't work out so I went back to school.

ThaFormula.Com - You're deal at Warner was as an artist, but now you have a deal over EMI, talk a little about that and exactly what kind of deal it is, a lot of our readers are interested in the different types of deals that are out there…

Eric Roberson - I have a publishing deal with EMI, it's very different than a record deal. It's more like I am being signed as a writer and it's their job to collect my royalties for me. They give you an advance and then when they collect my royalties from various albums and I recoup that advance. It's a pretty good situation, in the long run I always tell people that it's kind of like having a bank loan to a certain degree, but the deal definitely helped me out as a songwriter. The deal also allows me to spread my name out as writer more as well.

ThaFormula.Com - It must be difficult or take a certain kind of mind frame to be a writer because you have to hand off your song you've crafted for so long to someone else? What's it like to part with a song you've written and let someone else have it?

Eric Roberson - Sometimes it extremely difficult, but it depends on the song. That probably has a lot to do with why I started doing my own records because I had a lot of material that was a little too personal for me to hand over like that. A lot of these songs are practically like journals…if you decide to let it be that personal. A lot of people may not want to speak about stuff that's on their heart like that, but when you do sometimes it's hard to let someone else put that out into the world. At the same time, some of my biggest rewards have been standing in the middle of a room when Vivian Green would sing "What is Love" or Musiq Soulchild would sing "Previous Cats" and to have the crowd respond…it's almost like they don't realize I'm standing right there and just feeling their energy, so in that way it's kind of good. There are some songs that I would definitely never give away though. I've got this one song called "Be With You" that every artist in the world that's heard it has asked me for it, but it's just not gonna happen.

ThaFormula.Com - You're just teasin' 'em with it and then taking it away from them (laughs)…

Eric Roberson - (laughs) Yeah, I'm at the point where I don't even play it for them because I know what it will probably lead to so I would rather not even go down that road.

ThaFormula.Com - So you've actually already recorded it?

Eric Roberson - Yeah it's a very whole song that I will probably release on my next album.

ThaFormula.Com - How often is it that once you give away or sell a song that you actually get a hand in the recording of it or arranging of it, or do you rather let the artist take it and do their thing with it?

Eric Roberson - Almost 90 percent of the time I handle the majority of the whole process. I have a little studio out here at my house. The Vivian stuff and the Musiq stuff that I did was all recorded here, and I dedicated a lot of time and money to build a studio that would be competitive with others out there, one where we could create and experiment and write…so it's pretty hands on. I worked with Will Downing one time and actually never met him. Once we finished the song we just mailed it to him, he recorded it at his house and the funny thing is he live right in my area and I have still never met him. But most times I am pretty hands on and carry the song on through the creative process through recording and so on.

ThaFormula.Com - When you write, how do you hear it in your head? Do the lyrics or melodies come first and what seems to work for you?

Eric Roberson - The process is probably different every time. I'm in kind of a different place right now and I'll write when I really feel there's an inspiration for it and I'm really inspired to a certain theme or subject matter. I used to write all the time, just write, write, write, write and then once in a while I would have an overwhelming feeling and would go with them and those songs would be the special songs. I really just try to focus on those special songs rather than being a work-a-holic and just writing 50 million "cool" songs. I'd rather focus and write those personal important songs to me because those are the ones I get the most reaction from and they are the ones I probably wrote without as much as a pen a pad.

ThaFormula.Com - They some off more natural and honest…

Eric Roberson - Yeah, for me a lot of times I'll listen to my friends relationships or find an old couple and talk to them what they were going through or just listen and pay attention to people. I just kind of pick stories and put it to song. (laughs) Don't get in an argument around me or get into it...

ThaFormula.Com - (laughs) You might end up in a song on the net album!

Eric Roberson - Exactly, don't kiss on your girl too much or something, it will end up in the next song!

ThaFormula.Com - What about a song like "Change for Me" which is kind of different from most of your music, kind of a Euro-club joint, did you set out to do that or did it just kind of happen too?

Eric Roberson - You know, that song I did with the incredible Osunlande, he's a real good friend of mine and a talented artist, producer and songwriter. It's crazy because he does all kinds of music but I probably tried to convince him to do something more like the Vivian or Musiq and he was just like "let's do a house song" and I was like "I grew up on house, I'm definitely down, lets just try and write the strongest song we can and it doesn't necessarily have to be house." He actually did the beat and sent it over to me and as soon as I got I just went to work with it. It's funny, my nephew was over here and when I finished it I walked out of the studio and at this point he was really young, like three years old, I looked at him and he was just dancing around the room and I thought that I it got him movin' like that, it might be something to it. Sure enough now years and years later people just go for blood when that song comes on, it's just beautiful man. We've been talking about doing an album together but we're just takin' it one day at a time, it's not easy to get our schedules together.

ThaFormula.Com - I wanted to talk a little about the independent game and your deal with Warner and see how you compare the two ends of the spectrum…

Eric Roberson - You know for me, it's an interesting point. I had a conversation with someone today, I don't really want to say that someone should follow the routine that I did, it's what I had to do personally in my life, what I felt comfortable with. I'm just at a point where I've made money and it hasn't exactly made me happy, I just really want to follow my passion. Once I really just completely with no fear whatsoever the rewards finally started coming and paid off. The difference is that it's my own company, and I release my own records. It's difficult, I make a lot more sacrifice where it's was a team of people at a major and there is a history to it and they know how to break the records. The independent scene really has no rule book but I just really hope that artists are paying attention. I'm making waves slowly but sure and hopefully I leave some doors open behind me. I really just followed my passion and it just started working out. One thing now is that you can pretty much tour on your own because there is a lot of instrumentation in Black Music and it wasn't around 10 years ago when I was signed to Warner. But you pretty much have to be hands on and there isn't much room for error. I am my own road manager, my own everything on the road. Sometimes I'm a driver, there's no shortcuts at all on the road.

ThaFormula.Com - You have to have a hand on everything…

Eric Roberson - Yeah, another thing is the album is pretty much timeless and you can focus on working say the Tri-State area and whenever I want to get to Florida I can go there and it will still be fresh and brand new to them. If you can do material that will stand that test of time then you can eventually break through. In a year I can still be working this record because there will be people somewhere that have never heard it, it will always be new to somebody. Say you know a record on a major label they're like "its better do something in yadda yadda amount of months." But I have no problem with trying to earn my bid and earning every single sale. Let's go into every single city let it be a known one, or unknown and give me a crowd a mic and some speakers and we're gonna show out and hopefully win people over in every city we go to.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, I think a lot of artists are recognizing that, even ones that have been on major labels and have had huge hits, like Shai you mentioned earlier and Boyz II Men who just dropped an album on KOCH records.

Eric Roberson - Yeah, a big part of it, at least for me is that I don't have to compromise my creative aspects, I can do what I feel. Some people may want to be huge, but I really want to do music for people who want to feel the music who feel what I'm doing. I wouldn't say that I'm a great artist, or I'm trying to get people crunk. I'm trying to get that cat over there to pay attention, I more like "this is what I do and if anyone appreciate it, come and check it out." Before you know it there will be a big crowd over there because what we are doing is relatable, its life you know? It just needs to be seen and heard.

ThaFormula.Com - That's something I got from your music and the songs you have given others is that it's relatable. It's not your typical "I wanna sex you" songs, it's talking about the good times and bad times in relationships and it's relatable.

Eric Roberson - I think when it comes down to it, I look back at my songs and I listen to them like everyone else. Sometimes I feel like I didn't write them, like they were given to me more than I actually sit down and write em. It's real interesting with the tours and stuff because when I meet people a lot of times guys and girls want to talk about their relationships, like "I just want to let you know I can relate to that song, or this song when I heard that it made me see that I could love again or realize the relationship I was in was not a good one." I feel responsible you know, when I walk into a studio there can't be no lollygagging'.

ThaFormula.Com - You've released 3 albums independently and your first album "Esoteric Movement" which you pressed up 5000 copies of is gone, sold out. What's it like to put something out yourself and be able to be successful and move those kinds of numbers?

Eric Roberson - It's interesting, I probably could have pressed up more. But it ("Esoteric Movement") will be re-released very, very soon. The tour has slowed everything up but by the time you put this interview up, it should be ready go. It's just beautiful because with that record I didn't really know what I was doing, I had got out of a real bad relationship and was doing my own personal form of rehab through music and I had no idea that it would be selling all over the world and be getting talked about all over. That's how the new record really came about. I did "The Vault Vol. 1" first and I had sold a lot of the songs and it was just really something to because I had so many people calling me about "Esoteric" and I really didn't have it prepared to re-release it. A lot of the mixes were bad because I was just learning so I was like "I've got these new songs, let me just send it to whoever's interested," and I had no idea that so many people would buy that record. So I had sold some songs of "Vol. 1" so that's why I released "1.5" now and added some new songs. It's just been rockin' since then.

ThaFormula.Com - Talk a little about the Internet and its part in the success and promotion of your albums…

Eric Roberson - I'll tell you, it does amazing wonders. I mean to be able to sell records to Japan! My post office, I walk in there almost everyday sending off packages and we're sending them off to Japan and Europe. I get emails and messages from South Africa and just to know that someone out there has heard your music or even knows about it is just mind boggling. You know with "Esoteric" being that it was so hard to find that it's been like a big commercial. You know, I've been bootlegged and a lot of people have just copied it and passed it along and that's my airplay, that's my video. I don't really have them but my video and airplay has been the burns, and the internet usage and people sharing the stuff. When I got to Cali, I had no idea that people were that educated on my music. Just to see people singing along I was just like "wow, you people really know this stuff?" It's a blessing and it makes it a lot easier to reach out and really advertise because of the Internet.

ThaFormula.Com - You mentioned selling a lot of your songs, some went to Dwele or to Vivian Greene but what was the hardest song to give up to someone else that you have written?

Eric Roberson - Oooh wow, that's a great question, lets see…

ThaFormula.Com - Is there one that when you hear someone else sing it you just say to yourself "aw man, I remember writing that, or why did I give that up?!"

Eric Roberson - (laughs) You know what to be honest, "Rebound" on Carl Thomas' record. I'm a big fan of Carl Thomas and that session was one of the easiest sessions I've ever done. He's such a great singer and a study of character that he finished the song in just minutes, we blinked and it was done, we were just like "ok, now where we gonna eat at?" (laughs) When I met with him to play him some songs I had just did "Rebound" and was going to put it on my record and I though to myself "should I put this on this disc, because when he hears this he's gonna want it, I know he's gonna want it" but I really loved the song. Sure enough when I played it for him, I had put a lot of heat on that disc I gave him and he was just going through it like skip, skip, skip and I thought to myself "okay I though he would like that one." There was a lot of heat on there he passed. "Rock With You" was on there, "Hold On" was on there, he skipped over thing and then "Rebound" came on and like 10 seconds into the song he started calling his manager and in the back of my mind I was like "noooo!" (laughs) It was probably like 8 months later, I was at the gym and the song came on in my Ipod and that's when it really hit me like "I sold this song?" To this day I still can't even believe I sold that song but I'm happy I have it to him.

ThaFormula.Com - On the other end of the spectrum, what song did you give to someone and were glad about it because they really just did it right and took it somewhere other than where you may have?

Eric Roberson - "Rebound" is probably like that, but another one is probably "Mary Go Round" for Musiq just because of how much an impact it made. Also "Previouscats," I'm probably most proud of both songs I did for Musiq. Because those are the two songs that outside of my songs that I sing, I'm most known for. With "Previouscats" it was just so important, one of the most important songs I have ever penned and one of my biggest regrets is just that I hate that that song wasn't a single. Not because I'm sure I would have made a lot more money or anything of that nature, but it was just a song that the entire world should have heard. I think if everyone heard it…it's just a conversation piece. Being at his shows and seeing the crowd sing along to those songs is incomparable.

ThaFormula.Com - How important do you think touring is and do you enjoy as much as you do writing the music?

Eric Roberson - For me it is extremely necessary and mandatory to let the world know about my talent and my music. I can't just sit around and wait for people to find me because it just won't happen. It's a necessity for any artist I can't even imagine why someone wouldn't tour (if you could) if you had the ability and the talent. When I'm in the studio I perform, it's all some level of performing. When I'm in the studio at 3:00 in the morning behind the microphone I'm performing then. It's mandatory and rewarding.

ThaFormula.Com - I think the fans feel that, you have a way of involving the crowd in almost kind of a conversation friendly kid of way that makes them feel like they are a part of the show…

Eric Roberson - For me it is that way, at one point I was trying to be the sexy big shot and blow all the women away and make sure I have all these little tricks and stuff like that, but you know, I just have to be me and do whatever I feel, and from the moment I decided to really do that, I had to just step back and say "I have to be me." I'm not that cat that does well with trying to be someone else. I don't know if everyone can get on stage and try and be themselves, but it works for me. I try and make it like a family reunion with all my cousins and brother and sisters and aunts and uncles. All my sayings and all the little talks that I do during shows have just kind of been created on the road, something funny will happen or I'll think of something and I'll just be like "yeah, I'll have to put that in the next performance" I just try and let loose and have some fun and when you do that it becomes real easy and dissolves the pressure.

ThaFormula.Com - Yeah, like when you performed "Please Don't Leave Me" I had just kind of listened to it but never really "heard it" and once you kind of broke it down for everyone on stage it was just like "wow, I had never thought of it that way," and little things like that really make the crowd feel involved in the show…

Eric Roberson - Yeah, that's a perfect example of a song being "given" to me, because I wrote the song sure, but I didn't know what it really meant myself until way later. We're clearly evolving from that stage where we are just in love with the hunt of pulling in women that we're so caught up in this new girl that you don't even really look at today and then are asking yourself "why aren't I interested in this girl anymore?" the next week. I can't even count how many times I have done that before. So the one day when it just hit me, I was dumbfounded. The same thing happened with "Couldn't Hear Me over the Music" and a few others, I kind of just try to stay out of the way and figure it out later.

ThaFormula.Com - It just kind of comes as an Epiphany like "I wrote that, wow…"

Eric Roberson - Yeah, a lot of times I'll be like "wow, that's what the songs says" and people will look at me like I'm crazy and I just didn't know.

ThaFormula.Com - Once you invest yourself in what you write and have something you're happy with how do you find the music that will serve the song right?

Eric Roberson - It works in different ways. I think because of my success as a writer I get a lot of mail and CD's in the mail all the time with different producer's music. That's a blessing in itself, to have the opportunity to h ear so much music but it ranges. If you take a song like "Rebound" I sat down at a piano and I pretty much just came up with the whole song right there. Sometimes I'll do the music, sometimes I'll let others do the music. More times than not I'll have other people do the music because I want my music to sound different. Because if I sit a piano all day all my songs will sound the same so I try and spread it out. A lot of the songs on "The Vault 1.5" were created from just vibin', we all got together and just played music until something sounded good and we just kind of leaned on that and just fin tuned it until it sounded right. "Find a Way" is a perfect example. My band came over and plugged up everything and we hit record and just played all night. At one point we just found a groove that we all liked and it just worked out amazing. Even the mix on that one as far as the levels and everything from the first time recorded it I never changed it, it just sounded right. It's just a different process every singe time. I'm a student of every single process and I love it.

ThaFormula.Com - On both versions of "The Vault" you have some collaborations with A Touch of Jazz (ATOJ) and some of the Hidden Beach artists, what were those collaboration like because their sessions have been championed by so many…

Eric Roberson - Oh yeah man, I honed my skills for years over at ATOJ, they get a lot of credit towards my personal development as well. Dre and Vidal, Carl and Ivan, Darren, all the producers that were there when I was there…for I don't know how many years, maybe like five years we just stayed down in those basements and just grinded and did song after song. I had the pleasure of being there when Jill (Scott) first walked in and when Musiq first walked in and saw those albums be constructed and put together. It was just beautiful. I can honestly say that Jeff (Townes aka DJ Jazzy Jeff) is very responsible as well as the Roots for where black music is now. He definitely gave me and a lot of others an outlet to experiment. We spent certain nights just hanging microphones form the ceiling seeing how it sounded it sounded if I recorded it in this corner, or over here. It wasn't like a hit factory like Bad Boy where Puff would be like "yo we gotta get hits!" It was just, lets do something hot. Sooner or later it just happened that everyone kind of peaked and developed at just the right time when we did Jill and Musiq's album, everyone was just on top of their game.

ThaFormula.Com - Now that you mention Jill, I was listening to your album the other day, particularly "Obstacles" and there's little riff on there where it kind of sounds like you're singing Jill's "Getting in the Way" a song that you sang background vocals for. Was that a song you had ideas for for yourself or were you just kind of paying homage to it?

Eric Roberson - Yeah it was sort of paying homage to it. I was in there just acting a fool in the studio and when the part came up it just seemed like it would fit and it sounded good so we kept it.

ThaFormula.Com - We were talked about producers a little bit and I wanted to touch on it a little more, who are some producers you haven't worked with that you would be interested in working with?

Eric Roberson - It's a long list. One of my college friends…we've never actually released anything we've done is Rich Harrison who's kind of known for his stuff with Amerie and Beyonce. He has a soul side to him that's just crazy. He's one of the most talented producers I know hands down. I'd really like to do some more stuff with him and get it out there. Uhh, the Neptunes, I think they have a lot of incredible music and I would love to work with Raphael Saadiq as well.

ThaFormula.Com - Another producer I've read about that you're interested in working with is JayDee out of Detroit…

Eric Roberson - Yeah, actually it's funny you mention him and I didn't mention him before because he's probably at the top of my list, at least in my top 3 favorite producers, I'd definitely like to work with him.

ThaFormula.Com - What other Hip-Hop producers or artists are you feeling and how has Hip-Hop influenced you?

Eric Roberson - I was a die hard tribe fan, but Mos Def is probably my favorite at the moment. Outkast…I like what Nas is doing...Little brother & that Foreign Exchange project is brilliant and inspiring...Kanye West did a great album…But we can go back and talk about Run DMC and the ruler Slick Rick, Ice Cube, LL Cool J, I studied them all.

ThaFormula.Com - How do you feel about the merging of Hip-Hop and R&B? You mentioned Jay-Dee who I feel does it pretty well, but it seems as if a lot of it is done as a marketing tool and the R&B side is kind of suffering in creativity because of the pressure to conform to Hip-Hop which is selling…

Eric Roberson - Its funny when I meet a producer and they give me a CD of R&B beats and a CD of Hip-Hop beats I usually end up writing to the Hip-Hop beats because they are more musical. R&B has so many rules to it that it waters down the creative process a lot. Sadly when the two art forms are combined usually the watered down part of R&B is what is borrowed.

ThaFormula.Com - When it comes down to it, who do you think kids today have to look up to on the R&B side of music? Nowadays it seems as if they're interested in singing, but now they want to rhyme too…who's gonna move R&B music forward like Michael or Stevie did, and why would they want to with the extravagant image the artists and networks are portraying on TV?

Eric Roberson -. It's hard to say. I've always say the next Michael Jordan will be nothing like Jordan, probably won't even play the same position, and its that way musically. The industry is looking for the next Stevie, but we have to open our eyes and ears for whatever. I feel Lauryn was opening the world to a new direction but I don't know if she or the industry will allow it. Usher & Alisha Keys are growing and developing the same way Stevie, Marvin & Aretha did. "Songs in the Key of Life" wasn't Stevie's first album, nor the beginning of his career so who knows where Usher, or any of the young singers are headed and I believe there are plenty of talented people young and old that are pushing the envelope of R&B but just have to be heard. That's the struggle.

ThaFormula.Com - It's almost like R&B/Soul music has an underground now and the world is waiting for someone to come in and ignite a new storm of creativity…

Eric Roberson -Yeah, It's difficult because it's completely off the radar, and we have a chance at really building something if we're just smart and stay true to the music. It's tough to say that when that contract is presented to you whether or not you will take or push forward, I mean I can't even say I would push forward. But right now I feel like Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin in my dorm room pressing joints up. That's where we're at right now. It can sink or swim and it's all in our hands and what we're going to do with it. It isn't a culture like Hip-Hop was, but it's an opportunity like Hip-Hop was.

ThaFormula.Com - So who is out there now that you are feeling and you've been listening too?

Eric Roberson - Wow, I listen to everybody really. I mean for me I listen to as much rock and Hip-Hop as I listen to R&B or Soul music. But on the soul side I still probably go back a little bit. D'Angelo, Lewis Taylor from London, I'm a big Omar fan from London. I'm always searching for that new undiscovered music, there's a new girl also from London named Amy Winehouse that's incredible. Peven Everett, everything he touches I have to buy…even Dwele. I loved his old album "Rise." Lizz Fields…I'm just constantly grabbin' and listening and trying just pull energy from it.

ThaFormula.Com - It seems like if you look hard enough, the good music is out there, but it's just not nearly as accessible as it should be.

Eric Roberson - Yeah, it's definitely out there. A lot of old records out there didn't get the just they deserved. I mean let's be real, Black music has never really gotten the support it should get, you know in comparison the push and promotion that a lot of other art forms get. A lot of times we have plenty of great albums that go unnoticed and I love finding them. My company is called "Lost Art," and my production name is "Raiders of the Lost Art," so we're tryin' to find that lost stuff, not only in he way that we produce music, but you know finding that album was done in the 70's by that cat that didn't get his props, like the Shuggie Otis' and stuff like that who did incredible music and never got heard.

ThaFormula.Com - I also wanted to talk about some of the song you have written and given to other artists. One of them is Jonnell who had a nice buzz going for a while but has been getting the run around on her release, how much did you write for her and do you know what is going on with that project?

Eric Roberson - I did a song on her album that was slated for Def Jam and I don't know if it was because of the change of the guards there or whatever the situation is that's going on over there, but she ended up getting dropped and it's very interesting that that album never came out, which is unfortunate. I can't stress to you how often that happens in this business. There's an artist "V" that's on ATOJ and V was there before music, before me and before Jill and the record that he did was on Elektra. Man that album…is still one of my favorite albums of all time. It's a major, major travesty that album never came out, but it happens.

ThaFormula.Com - Another artist we mentioned earlier is "Dwele," who you wrote "Hold On" for. You had actually recorded a version of that and I hear people arguing about who's version was better to this day…but how did you hook up with him and how did that collaboration come about?

Eric Roberson - Osunlande came by my crib and said "oh my god, you have to hear this record by this kid he's got an independent album out. He gave me "Rise" and I was head over heels in love with that record and was like "who is heck is this cat I have to find him." He was on Virgin later on and I was actually approached by Virgin to do some stuff on his album because he was changing some stuff up so I was like "sure, I would love to do something on there." Hopefully that's the first of many records from us. You know I wish that was his first single, because it caught a lot of buzz and I would have loved to see a video for it or heard Kanye rhyme over it before he got so hot.

ThaFormula.Com - We also talked about your work with Vivian Green who really took off and won a handful of awards. "Emotional Rollercoaster" which you wrote was an incredible record…how did you hook up with her and how did she come to choose that song?

Eric Roberson - Well Viv is like my little sis. We spent years together just developing and her just singing in my studio. She's a very great singer, writer and artist. If I ever had an artist under my own company I would measure her up to Viv from a vocal standpoint, from a looks standpoint from all standpoints. She pretty much has it all. Actually "Emotional Rollercoaster," she wrote a majority of that record and then I hooked up with Osunlande and the rest is just history, we came up with some beautiful stuff. The majority of the album we co-wrote together. But we had a lot of records done and I wish more them made the record but I was just really happy that someone I worked with so closely for so long just really got out there and did well. I'm proud of her.

ThaFormula.Com - You wrote a song for the movie "Prison Song," that really captured the whole mood of the movie which is pretty unusual these days seeing as how most soundtracks are basically compilations that have nothing to do with the film they appear in. How did that song come about and how were you able to capture the movies theme so well?

Eric Roberson - I would love to do more of that. It's interesting because the director came to my house because the producer of that song knew the director and they needed a song for the closing of the album. So they came over and brought the movie over and I pretty much said "take her out to lunch and let me just write and hopefully by the time you guys get back I may have a song." As I was watching the movie I just kind of started writing to it and by the time the movie finished I was finished and it all just kind of worked and developed. But I would love to do more of that because I kind of watch people and life as they were a movie anyways and I write about it. But then the movie never really came out but it came out on BET and it's funny because I'll always know when the movies on because all my friends jump on the phone call like :you're on BET!"

ThaFormula.Com - Hey man, you gotta get on there some how if they aren't gonna play your videos right! (laughs)

Eric Roberson - I know that's right! (laughs)

ThaFormula.Com - We touched on at ATOJ collaboration, tell me a little more about how the connection was initially made with them.

Eric Roberson - I had heard their music some years ago back when I heard V's album and from that point on I wanted to find some way to get into that studio. I was living in Atlanta when I met Keith from ATOJ who had a brother Phil Brown that worked for ASCAP. He put us together. I literally drive into to work for one trip and never left. I went and picked up my stuff from Atlanta and just started grindin'.

ThaFormula.Com - What do you have on the horizon now? "Esoteric Movement" has just been re-released (www.ericrobersonmusic.com) and I know you're always writing but what else is on deck?

Eric Roberson - I'm workin' on a few different projects, and who knows what will be solid, but I hope to work with Dwele and a couple other projects but right now I'm just tourin' and doing music, we'll see where the music goes and who uses it, but I'm just trying to go for blood as much as I can on each project.  

Be  sure to join the over 500,000 Industry Heads that have signed up to our exclusive mailing list!!  Click here to join and receive exclusive interviews only available to members. Leave contact info ( name & email address) at info@thaformula.com and we will contact you to confirm your membership.