It's been two years since Teena Marie's final album for Motown (It Must Be Magic) was released and the ensuing legal entanglements have been fairly well (though not necessarily accurately!) chronicled in the press. The final outcome has been that Teena has officially become an Epic artiste and her debut album for her new affiliation is on the streets and awaiting your judgement.
Entitled Robbery, it is indeed an interesting amalgamation of Ms. Brockert's tried and tested R&B-based approach and a newer, more varied sound that should help her cross some commercial lines that have remained untraversed until this stage in her career.
"To me, it represents a natural growth from my last album," the softly-spoken nativa Californian begins. "What I wanted to do was stretch out, though, into even more different types of music. On the last album, It Must Be Magic, I started to branch out on such songs as 'Where's California,' and 'Revolution' -- in fact, I wrote 'Where's California' on my trip to London. And there was 'Portuguese Love,' which had a Latin feel to it."
"That was the same general direction I wanted for this album -- except that I developed a concept for this one. The basic idea is that it deals with a love affair from the beginning to the end. Honestly, I don't think I could have done this album two years ago so the two year gap has probably strengthened me. Not just in a musical sense but also personally.
"Two years ago, I simply was not ready to write this kind of material or develop this kind of a concept. In fact, all of the songs were written during this year. However, it's not all from personal experience -- although a lot of it is. I went through a lot of what I wrote for this album -- but some of it is pure fantasy. 'Ask Your Momma,' for example, deals with an interracial love affair."
Needless to say, this raised the obvious question -- is the album about Teena and Rick James, the man who discovered her and helped develop her career to the point it is today. "I'd rather not comment on that," she responds diplomatically. "Let's just say that you should listen to the album and you'll know!"
However, loosely on the same subject: "Rick taught me a great deal. He was the one who kept pushing me to produce myself when I was too afraid. He gave me the confidence to do it. I didn't think I was ready -- I don't think many people did. But he did!"
"He gave me the insight into working in the studio and to working with other musicians. He has definitely had the greatest influence on my career and life to this point -- but his has not been the only influence. I've also been helped along by inspiration from people I've never even met. People like Ghandhi and Shirley McClaine."
"However, for sheer inspiration, God and Jesus Christ come first. I feel as if I'm just a messenger who has been given a great gift and that it has to be shared with the world."
Finally, back to the subject of Mr. James, how is the "Alice in Ghettoland" project coming along? "Right now, Rick is on tour so nothing is happening with it," Teena explains. "And even when the tour is over, I think his next project is going to be his life story movie. However, we have spoken about it recently and he still intends to do it in the near future."
"We've already written some of the songs for it and I really am looking forward to it. In a way, it's important to me because it sums up my own personal life to this point."
Although Teena's four albums on Motown attained some measure of crossover, they were first and foremost accepted by the world as "R&B albums." In fact, despite her obvious roots, Teena has never had a problem getting through to Black America.
"That's always been the easiest thing for me," she smiles. "I've done many a concert where the audience was almost exclusively black and they're there just to groove to my music. And that makes me feel really good because these people obviously came to hear and see what they wanted and there was never any question about whether I was black or white."
"The new album is perhaps a little broader in its concept -- but I deliberately did tunes that would appeal to the people who bought my previous albums. Cuts such as 'Midnight Magnet' and 'Fix It,' for example. The funny thing about 'Fix It' is that it's actually my least favourite track on the whole album -- but it was the first one finished and that's why it was chosen as the first single."
"What was really important about it was that it was very much an R&B record and it was important to me that my first release be that way. I didn't want people to think that I'd switched record labels and immediately sold out, so to speak."
"Sure, I want to get more crossover -- but I don't want to lose what I have carefully built up over the last four albums. That's why 'Midnight Magnet' is going to be the next single."
Obviously, no conversation with Teena would be complete right now without bringing up the Motown situation. However, since the legal situation is still far from resolved, we respect Teena's wish to say nothing until it's all over. "What it has done is make me stronger and in future, I'll be watching people far more closely," she does admit. "I won't be as vulnerable as I've been in the past."
However, we can say that quite a lot of what has been written in the press is incorrect. A perfect example was the quote that she may have to still record an album for Motown as part of any settlement.
Being misquoted in the press is one of the least pleasant bains in the lives of most personalities. It has become so bad that, for example, Michael Jackson simply will not grant interviews because he is so paranoid about being misquoted. In that area, Blues & Soul has a sterling record -- in fact, we have never been sued (or even admonished, to my knowledge) for looking for sensationalism.
"It's a real problem," Teena states. "For example, I was quoted as saying that I would be producing the next Natalie Cole album (for Epic). Now, while it is possible and it is something that she and I have discussed, at no time have I said to anybody that it was something that was going to happen."
"In the same recent trade feature, I was quoted as saying that I was producing an album by a new group called Renegade. In principle, that's a truth -- but I told them that the group was changing its name because there is another group with that name already."
Any more projects in the offing? "It's something I'd like to get more into -- both producing and writing for other artists. I enjoyed doing the things with the group -- but I didn't end up doing the whole album because you always run the risk of ending up with them sounding like me. I want them to develop their own identity."
Is there a dream project in the back of Teena's mind? "I'd love to produce Rick -- even better, a duet album with him!" she smiles. "I guess that's something that could eventually happen one day -- but not for a long time."
"I only got to go to Europe on a promotional tour that lasted maybe two weeks -- and every day just about we were in a different city! But I enjoyed myself and I'd love to go back and do it properly and more leisurely. The people have been very receptive to my music so I'd like to play some concerts for the people there."
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