Post by FastNFancy on May 7, 2002 20:14:31 GMT -5
TALKING WITH DAVID SEA... BF: Going back to the very start, you started out on a promising solo career at the start of the eighties with High Tide Records and you brought out 'Angel' and 'Destiny'.
DS: That's right, it's been a long time.
BF: The product was good but the record company was small...
DS: Very small. There were distribution problems. They couldn't get it around even a third of good enough but it did do well in the overseas market.
BF: You then left and went to Crown Limited Records... DS: Right! BF: ...and you recorded at Muscle Shoals? DS: That's right, with Roscoe Robinson. I did one of his cover tunes, 'Do It Right Now'.
BF: Your first album was for Magic City with Mickey Stevenson.
DS: Mickey Stevenson did most of the production and I did maybe two or three songs that he wrote and arranged. The album was remixed a couple of times. We thought it was a little too soulful and we were trying to bring it up from that point. We didn't want just a soul mood so we took it to California and Mickey did what he thought he liked. We got it back to Birmingham and thought .no it's still not right so we went to Willie Mitchell in Memphis and did another mix there. We did another in California, so it ended as a conglomeration of all of them.
BF: On the second album you did a version of 'I Wish It Would Rain'.
DS: Yes and Dennis [Edwards] and Eddie [Kendricks] accompanied me on that one. It was a high point for me just to have those two phenomenal voices on an album of mine. If it didn't do anything, it gave me a lot. BF: Do you realise that at the end of the eighties and start of the nineties, ninety/ninety-one, you were a big insider tip in Britain? Everybody thought you were going to be a big, big star.
DS: Is that right?
BF: Did you ever get the feeling you were born ten years too late because it was difficult, wasn't it?
DS: Yes it was very difficult doing anything at that time. But, you know, the way I look at it is that everything isn't meant to be at the time that you think it is. I think that good music is good music and it is going to cut through somewhere down the line. Even the first song I did, 'Angel', it will end up coming back to the surface, somewhere down the line. Because it was good clean music. It¹s a different kind of variation in music now, a different kind of language and everything. I can't identify with it, it doesn't fit me. We had a run where we had to do the music as we thought fit and I guess a generation is coming up now that has to do their thing too but sooner or later they may mature enough... They've got to come back to their roots. There's no way out.
BF: You always wanted to join the Temptations. You were asked in 1989, weren't you?
DS: Yes. I was asked but I don't know whether I would have been comfortable with that group. It's always good to have different kinds of experiences. The Temptations to me was one of the phenomenal groups of that era and I don't think there will ever be another group with that kind of success and that kind of talent. There's no staying power today and they don't write that kind of music any more. Those guys had that kind of a talent too but it was just a blessing to me to have been able to get with Dennis and Eddie and David Ruffin. It was a blessing because I learned a lot from each one of them and, believe me, they all had a different kind of thing going and it just did so much for me and my morale and my staying power in this business. Because I've always been an observer and I kind of like got a lot off each one. And I'm still learning from Dennis because Dennis is a terrific singer. I just love to hear him sing. Just being in his presence kind of helps my whole morale so that all the things I've missed I don't feel like I've missed [them]. I'm very happy right now.
BF: So the solo career is on hold at the moment?
DS: No, I still do my own thing in the time I have to spend on a solo career because that will always be close to my heart. I've always wanted a solo career but everything does not always work out the way you want at the time. The thing of it is that I can always do this, they'll still hear David Sea. I'd also like to produce... some young artists that I could produce the way that I think they should be produced. That would be in a clean, admirable way so that everybody could enjoy the music.
DS: That's right, it's been a long time.
BF: The product was good but the record company was small...
DS: Very small. There were distribution problems. They couldn't get it around even a third of good enough but it did do well in the overseas market.
BF: You then left and went to Crown Limited Records... DS: Right! BF: ...and you recorded at Muscle Shoals? DS: That's right, with Roscoe Robinson. I did one of his cover tunes, 'Do It Right Now'.
BF: Your first album was for Magic City with Mickey Stevenson.
DS: Mickey Stevenson did most of the production and I did maybe two or three songs that he wrote and arranged. The album was remixed a couple of times. We thought it was a little too soulful and we were trying to bring it up from that point. We didn't want just a soul mood so we took it to California and Mickey did what he thought he liked. We got it back to Birmingham and thought .no it's still not right so we went to Willie Mitchell in Memphis and did another mix there. We did another in California, so it ended as a conglomeration of all of them.
BF: On the second album you did a version of 'I Wish It Would Rain'.
DS: Yes and Dennis [Edwards] and Eddie [Kendricks] accompanied me on that one. It was a high point for me just to have those two phenomenal voices on an album of mine. If it didn't do anything, it gave me a lot. BF: Do you realise that at the end of the eighties and start of the nineties, ninety/ninety-one, you were a big insider tip in Britain? Everybody thought you were going to be a big, big star.
DS: Is that right?
BF: Did you ever get the feeling you were born ten years too late because it was difficult, wasn't it?
DS: Yes it was very difficult doing anything at that time. But, you know, the way I look at it is that everything isn't meant to be at the time that you think it is. I think that good music is good music and it is going to cut through somewhere down the line. Even the first song I did, 'Angel', it will end up coming back to the surface, somewhere down the line. Because it was good clean music. It¹s a different kind of variation in music now, a different kind of language and everything. I can't identify with it, it doesn't fit me. We had a run where we had to do the music as we thought fit and I guess a generation is coming up now that has to do their thing too but sooner or later they may mature enough... They've got to come back to their roots. There's no way out.
BF: You always wanted to join the Temptations. You were asked in 1989, weren't you?
DS: Yes. I was asked but I don't know whether I would have been comfortable with that group. It's always good to have different kinds of experiences. The Temptations to me was one of the phenomenal groups of that era and I don't think there will ever be another group with that kind of success and that kind of talent. There's no staying power today and they don't write that kind of music any more. Those guys had that kind of a talent too but it was just a blessing to me to have been able to get with Dennis and Eddie and David Ruffin. It was a blessing because I learned a lot from each one of them and, believe me, they all had a different kind of thing going and it just did so much for me and my morale and my staying power in this business. Because I've always been an observer and I kind of like got a lot off each one. And I'm still learning from Dennis because Dennis is a terrific singer. I just love to hear him sing. Just being in his presence kind of helps my whole morale so that all the things I've missed I don't feel like I've missed [them]. I'm very happy right now.
BF: So the solo career is on hold at the moment?
DS: No, I still do my own thing in the time I have to spend on a solo career because that will always be close to my heart. I've always wanted a solo career but everything does not always work out the way you want at the time. The thing of it is that I can always do this, they'll still hear David Sea. I'd also like to produce... some young artists that I could produce the way that I think they should be produced. That would be in a clean, admirable way so that everybody could enjoy the music.