![]() I collect images and objects and project thoughts / feelings / fantasy / myself into them. I like walking, I like spying and collecting. Kayla and I always say “walking down the street being a girl”. I get a lot of musical/writing inspiration from visual info. But I’ve never completed an instrumental of my own first and put words to it second everything tends to unfold simultaneously.ĭ: When you are writing music where do you find inspiration? I recently wrote words to a pre-existing piece of harp music, Pearl Chertok’s, 'Beige Nocturne’, I’d like to play with that technique more. I feel corny admitting this but it can be very zen, like I have to give the song whatever it’s asking me for at that point. If the poem feels right with the guitar a song can sort of write itself from there the poem bends to fit the music and vice versa. LC: Usually I’m working on a chord progression or riff on the guitar and I pair it with part of a poem from my stash. Alicia Keys, ‘Songs in A Minor’ and ‘Diary of Alicia Keys’, No Doubt, ‘The Singles Collection’, Beyonce, ‘Crazy in Love’, Usher, ‘Confessions’, Green Day, 'Dookie’…ĭ: Does a song start as a poem, a melody, or an instrumental? Should he risk it all? Will a potential relationship be more satiating than the one he currently has? It’s why Usher continues to be such a compelling figure: wracked by indecision, saddled with emotions he can’t control and, above all, mercurial enough as an artist to deliver it in the most seductive way possible.LIVIA CHARMAN: I’m not sure which one I bought first but mentally flipping through the kimono-print CD case I had in the early 2000s, I know the self-titled 3LW album was one of the first in there. ![]() Over a satin guitar lick and quiet storm percussion care of Jermaine Dupri and Manuel Seal, Usher is less overcome by his feelings for a woman as he is at war with them. “You Make Me Wanna…” arrived as the lead single off 1997’s “My Way,” repositioning him as a full-throated lothario who not only tussles with the hardships of romance but also acts as the progenitor of them. After his introduction as a doe-eyed R&B aspirant on his eponymous 1994 debut, he largely skated away from the sound established on that album-the tinny mid-range percussion dominating New Jack Swing at the time-for something smoother and aesthetically richer. What makes this his most optimal, most Usher song is that it perfectly embodies the Usher experience. Before he takes the biggest stage in the world, Variety takes a look back at his best singles, spanning the ballads to the bops. And Usher has the track record to show for it. ![]() With a discography that stretches across decades and timeless hits to his name, the 45-year-old has consistently proven that a legacy is only as strong as the talent and hard work behind it. Ever since debuting with his eponymous 1994 album at just 15 years old, he has repeatedly proven to be a chameleonic tour de force, whether it be traipsing genres across albums and stacking nine number-one Billboard Hot 100 hits to gracing the silver screen and building his portfolio as an entrepreneur. It makes sense, then, that Usher would play the biggest stage in the world at this point in his career-he’s done the work. After dazzling Las Vegas with his “My Way” residency for 100 shows, the singer didn’t stop to catch his breath-in fact, he braced for maximum impact, announcing the release of his ninth album “Coming Home” (his first in eight years), an upcoming North American tour and a coveted booking as the performer during the Super Bowl Halftime show, taking place on Feb. Usher has had a career filled with many sparkling moments, and yet this one feels like it outsizes them all.
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