You know, that sort of stuff I'll make for myself to make myself happy at home.ĭo you think that it's the same sort of happiness that you get from music? I'll make a split pea soup or a carrot ginger soup. Speaking of: What are your comfort foods? I wanted it to be something that was honest, that feels good. This album was about wanting to capture something for myself. For me right now, this album wasn't about proving anything, because I've proved everything - I've far exceeded what I ever thought I needed to accomplish. I want people to feel like they've grown up with me. I wanted to make an album that I could sing to for a long time. They're both comforting - which is something I felt listening to the album. I don't know how directly it influenced the album, but food and music are the most nourishing things that we can, as people, create. How much did food actually influence the music? You recorded the album at Dave Sitek's house in LA, and I know you guys did some cooking during the process and that micheladas were involved. You can actually be honest with yourself. And there's nothing - there's no therapy session like a writing session. Age 17 to 34 is a vast difference, hopefully. I'm fifteen years and six albums in it now, and I can look at my body of work and be like, Wow, all of this - every single part of it - is who I am. You only get to see who an artist truly is once they've had time to have a career. Not that "Milkshake" and "Bossy" weren't, but…Įvery single record of mine is who I am at that moment. I feel really comfortable and at peace with it. The older you get, the less apologies you make for yourself - not that I was particularly great at making them before. It feels like an evolution from your past work. It's mature, but at the same time it's fun. They'll have to kill me to get the fourth.Ĭan you eat yet? I ate nothing but ice cream and applesauce for days. In the midst of this moment she's having, Kelis took a minute to talk with us - about Food and food.īut first, we chatted about not being able to eat.ĮSQUIRE.COM: You just got your wisdom teeth removed. The songs have the flare and funk of her old stuff, but they're more savory, more soulful - more grown up. On it, she sings about breakfast and ribs, biscuits and gravy, cobbler and hooch. She beautifully combined all of this into an honest, confident, brass-blasting new album, aptly named Food (out April 22). She also has a line of sauces coming out this summer, along with, potentially, a show on the Cooking Channel. In fact, Kelis is a certified chef, having graduated from Le Cordon Bleu a couple years back as a saucier. You see, while the Harlem-born daughter of a caterer has spent a lot of time making music (six albums so far), she's spent just as much making something else: food. (Yes, ten.) But you probably haven't heard about her sauce. The one that brought the boys to the yard over ten years ago. It's a pace further away from the massive hit song that, more than a decade later, refuses to go down.You've probably heard about Kelis' milkshake. Instead of playing her position and exploring with futuristic interpretations, Kelis tips her hat to the past with a palette that revels in soul, doo-wop and layered girl-group harmonies. The result is songs that we'd never have expected from the singer.
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In flipping her sound once again, she found an unlikely partnership with indie/art-rocker Dave Sitek (of TV on the Radio fame) and the 13-piece band that came with him. Whether she was screaming about how much she hates you, spearheading the shift toward a new R&B sound or diving into the world of electronic dance music, Kelis has never been one to sound subdued or stagnant.Īt 34 years old - post divorce, contract liberation and since becoming a mother - Kelis is beyond the point of trying to fit into any box that the industry has tried to squash her into, whether it was a label with misgivings or a radio station that couldn't figure out where she belonged. Since her first blip on the radar in 1999 as the hook singer on Ol' Dirty Bastard's " Got Your Money," Kelis' work has run the gamut of musical experimentation her approach has been nothing less than bombastic. For Kelis Rogers, R&B's resident provocateur, Food - her first album since 2010's dance-heavy Flesh Tone - is the embodiment of what she has always contended as an artist: that she can't be molded to fit inside one genre - one flavor, one dish, one cuisine. At base, it's sustenance, and at its most complex, like when it appears in song, it can evoke nostalgia, carnal desires and comfort. It's the connective tissue between families, communities and cultures. Kelis' new album, Food, comes out April 22.įood is life.