5 Magazine Interview with Andy Caldwell

Always restless, always innovative, Andy Caldwell (website, label, facebook, myspace, twitter, discogs) is on the verge of reinventing himself again. His latest album, Obsession, debuts in October and represents yet another shift in a zig-zag evolution that's passed through Deep House, the funky West Coast House sound and now into something wholly different.

"My sound has been changing over the last few years," he says. "I got more into the electronic sound with the European House scene and wanted to express that in an album. I was really feeling stagnant creatively and broke out of the soulful House shackles about a year ago."

Many are characterizing the sound as some cocktail of progressive and electro, but what's undeniable is that behind the gloss is a core of polished hooks and songs that qualify Caldwell as one of the best songwriters in dance music today.

Andy first came to prominence as a member of Soulstice, the live House band with a sound at least a decade ahead of its time. By chance, I'd just recently picked up Soulstice's Mixed Illusions album again for the first time in years. The voice of Gina Rene is unmistakable and I was surprised to hear it again on "Fear My Pride" - easily my favorite track on Obsession. Which was our point of departure...

Soulstice in my opinion was way ahead of its time, and seemed to be on the verge of really breaking through just before the demise. I'm glad to hear you back at least for one track with Gina Rene! Do you ever think about reforming the group?

We had a lot of momentum going, and in some ways I really do miss that creative energy, but ten years later, I think everyone's in a different place. We still work together, though. Gina did a few tracks on my last album, Universal Truth, as well. The song on Obsession with her vocal, "Fear My Pride", was also co-produced with Gabriel Rene [of Soulstice].

You're featuring a few vocalists on here, as well as singing yourself. Can you tell me about some of them?

Well the first single is "It's Guud" featuring Mr. V. We met in Miami - he was MCing at Opium, I think, and we just got to talking about working together one day. "It's Guud" came out of that. I sent the music to him and he completely worked out the vocal in New York and sent it right back, and it just worked right away. We're releasing Part 2 of the remixes in October, which includes the instrumental and a remix from Andy Callister.

I performed lead vocals for several of the songs, which is a big difference from Universal Truth or in the past when I was acting primarily as a producer, musician, songwriter and so on.

"Black Diamond Sky" has vocals by Storm Lee, "What Do You Feel" features Femke and Alexander Sky is the vocalist on two tracks, "Don't Go Home Tonight" and "Time After Time".

He sounds almost like Robert Smith of The Cure on "Don't Go Home Tonight"; the second is just straight-up soulful. And when I first heard his stuff with the Groove Junkies and your track "I Believe in Dreams" with his voice, I actually thought he was a girl!

Yeah, Alexander's amazing in that sense. He can emulate just about any style that a producer could want. If you hear him sing on record and he sounds a certain way, it's probably because that's how they wanted him to sound!

Universal Truth was released on OM. What label is Obsession coming out on?

It's coming out on Uno Recordings, my label which I recently re-launched. I signed a distribution deal with Tommy Boy. Distribution can be really time consuming these days with both physical CDs and distribution to all of the online shops that have popped up, so it's good to have someone to help take care of that.

I noticed you're giving away a free copy of the first single, "It's Guud" featuring Mr. V.

Yeah, and in some ways I've been giving away so much music these days that I'm surprised anyone buys anything anymore! [laughs] But I noticed something on the road, and that's that the more music I give away [on andycaldwell.com], the better the turnout when I play. I've definitely seen the correlation between the two.

I think things are wide open with the way the industry is today. There are so many opportunities now that weren't there years ago. I'm still testing what works and what doesn't but I haven't been unhappy. The only thing that really gets to me is that some people don't even wait until a song comes out to share it. I know other people have said this before, but it's true: if nobody pays for this, nobody will make it.

I mean, it's funny to think of now but when I first got into music, I didn't even care if I sold a single record. Then you get into the songwriting and all the work you put into it and then your income is based on selling records. It's hard not to take that personally sometimes. But generally I try to keep a good attitude towards it.

Obsession is out now and available everywhere; watch for part 2 of the "It's Guud" remixes, followed by remixes of "Black Diamond Sky" and "Scream". For more info, check out andycaldwell.com and unorecordings.com.

Original Press Article: 5 Magazine Interview with Andy Caldwell