My interview with singer R&B singer, Lisa Michelle

Remember my blog entry where I met up with hip hop producer and artist, Solitair, to speak about Rated Z – T. Dot’s hottest new drink mixer?  Well, during that interview I was introduced to Lisa Michelle – a soulful, R&b songstress.

She sat in on our interview and also joined in on our “off the record” discussions.  I knew from then that she deserved an actual sit down interview.  She had a cool way about her and I severely girl crushed on her awesome hair!  (Her beautiful dreads NEED mention in this interview!)  I also wanted to blog about her music and expose her soulful voice to you.

Who is Lisa Michelle?

Lisa Michelle is a singer, songwriter and stage performer who quit her day job in advertising 4 years ago to pursue her love of singing. #YOLO.  She has performed in the musical Godspell, among other stage plays and most recently performed at the Montreal Jazz Festival.

I was fortunate enough to score a sit down with her after she returned from her luxurious vacay in Hawaii.  Do you, girl!

Here’s a bit of our convo.

Did you always know that you wanted to be a singer?  

Probably at 13 or 14 years old, my class went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat on a class trip.  That was the first musical I’ve ever seen.  Performers were dancing hard…singing hard.  I was like, “This is a job?”  It’s incredible.  From then on I knew I wanted to be on stage.  Didn’t know necessarily that I wanted to sing or act. I just knew I wanted to do that!

When did you start singing?

My first memory was singing in church.  My friend’s dad was an evangelist at the church we went to and he was a singer.  He always wanted me and his daughter to sing back up for him.  I was like, “I’m not a singer!”  My friend begged me so I started singing with her, and then to my surprise I was like, “I’m really good!”  I really didn’t know that I could sing.  It’s not something that I did.  How I learned was listening to gospel.  Gospel had the best vocals. Those singers can sang! Musical theatre was the next step.

What artists influenced you?

For gospel- everyone in Kirk Franklin’s choir and Fred Hammond.  For musical theatre- Joseph starring Donny Osmond was the first musical I ever saw and it’s what made me want to be a stage performer.   Playing Nala in The Lion King is still my dream role—until I create my own role in my own musical.  Also definitely Jill Scott. She is where I found my own voice.  She is the apex of all …She’s everything I want to be in a performer and songwriter.  If you’ve seen Jill Scott perform live….it’s sooo real.  You feel like one of her friends. 

Do you write all your songs?

I co-write all my songs.  With This Moment (latest album), when I met Solitair aka Silver, we started working together.  He is so multi-talented. A lot of the times he’ll give me a beat, I come with the melody and lyrics, and he’d make it better.  He’d make minor changes and it’s like wow! There’s a reason why you’ve been doing this for many years.  This Moment is truly a collaborative work.

What was it like performing at the Montreal Jazz Festival this summer?

Crazy!  They made me feel like a star!  We had the best sound system, awesome stage and crazy promotion.  There was around 3000 people outside.That city comes out to support the Jazz Festival. Best experience I’ve had so far as an artist. There’s something about singing on stage in front of a live audience…I feed off the live energy. 

Who are you listening to right now?

I love Beyonce’s album “4.” It’s such a good album to warm up to.  It’s my favourite Beyonce album. I still go back to older things. Still very much into Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun album.  Neo-soul is what really keeps me in the game. I like to listen to and dance to pop music, but it doesn’t inspire me to create new work.

Love your vibe and esthetic.  Do you have a stylist or did you create your own look?

Once in a while I use a stylist…she’s actually my friend –Arianne Young.  I’m one of those rare human beings that doesn’t like to shop.  The only thing I like to buy is makeup and jewelry.

What’s next for Lisa Michelle?

Doing Godspell in the fall. I’m really excited to do it because they picked up the exact same cast we had last year.  Right after that, I have another musical opportunity that I can’t discuss yet!

Also, I’ll be coming up in an episode of the comedy Satisfaction on CTV.  It should be airing in a couple of weeks.  I did an NBC pilot called Horizons – you’ll get to see it if it gets picked up.  Jason Priestly directed it.

That was the end of our recorded conversation – I foolishly took off my digital recorder when I should have kept it on. I did ask all of my questions, but all the juicy convos happen when the voice recorder comes off! Lol.  Oh wells! I had a great time meeting Lisa Michelle. Don’t forget me when you blow up!

Fave Lisa Michelle quote: “If you know what you want to do in life you have to do it.  It’s almost unfair to anyone else who doesn’t know.

Want more info on Lisa Michelle?

http://www.thisislisamichelle.com/
 

http://www.youtube.com/lisamichellemusic

www.soundcloud.com/lisamichelle

Michelle

Rated Z - Toronto's newest drink mixer

Are you down with Rated Z?

In late June I attended a private party hosted by Kardinal Offishall for the launch of a new drink mixer—Rated Z. The party took place in one of my favourite spots in the city—Harlem Underground, so you know your girl had to be there!

I arrived at the venue and the vibe was cool; not pretentious.  I saw hip hop legend Maestro bobbing his head to some classic hip hop tunes (courtesy of DJ Starting from Scratch) while Kardi emceed and kept the party people happy.

A few minutes after I reached I was able to sample the new drink.   I sipped it...liked it... and then ravenously savoured each and every rum infused drop.  It’s a smooth, island-y type of drink that evokes images of up tropical vacations, palm trees and steel pans.

As the party progressed, I happened to bump into a guy I went to high school with.  We started to talk and during our convo I told him that I was interested in writing about the event. He immediately told me to follow him and introduced me to Solitair—hip hop producer, artist, friend of Kardi and V.P. of Multi-media Relations for Rated Z.  (Thanks, Lloyd!) Solitair and I spoke for a few, and I casually asked him if I could interview him for my blog. He gave me his business card and told me to contact him.

After a series of emails, we settled on a day and time to meet at his studio. 

When I walked into his studio he was in the middle of working with R&B artist, Lisa Michelle, but he graciously asked me to take a seat and get comfy.  We all chit chatted about random things - like Kanye being Kanye and then dove right into the interview.  Check out the deets.

What is Rated Z?

It’s a drink mixer that can go with any type of alcohol. It’s very versatile. It has all natural ingredients that you can read and pronounce. 

How did Rated Z come about?

The recipe was passed down in Zamani Thomas’ family (he is the president of the company) for a few generations now. When we would have BBQs back in the day, his dad would make the syrup for us and we’d make rum punch from it.  Every single year, that would be the first drink to go.  We didn’t have a name for it, it was just rum punch.  It’s just a syrup that his dad brewed up and it smelled delicious.

Why did you decide to create a drink mixer?

One day we were sitting in Zamani’s basement and I was like, “It’s the syrup.  That’s a product that we can sell!” As a mixer, there’s no liquor in it – it’s so versatile on what you can do with it.  The flavour is so unique and so tasty.

We did our own market research.... we had it at BBQs and parties, and it just went. When we decided that we wanted to sell it, we would do tastings here and there because we wanted to make sure that we had a balanced perspective on what people thought of the flavour. So we tried to hit different demographics.

How would you describe the taste?

Some people have compared it to sorrel.  West Indian people would say to me, “C’mon bredren, it’s sorrel!”  I’m like, “Actually, no!  It’s comparable to it, but there are spicy notes.  I like to describe it as a spicy lollipop.  It’s like the Caribbean flavours in a syrup.

I saw different drinks online.  How did you come up with the different flavours?

Those have been concoctions that we’ve come up for different events. Every time we do a different event we give the client a specific drink. We’ve partnered up with some pretty diverse clients—Nella Bella, Orbit Room among others.

Where can you buy Rated Z?

We’re working on increasing our manufacturing capacity.  For now we are giving Harlem restaurant the exclusive. It’s also in two restaurants in Miami. 

You can order it from the website- www.ratezonline.com.  We take credit cards and you can pay by PayPal.

Besides Rate Z, what other projects are working on?

I’ve been working since January on this project called The City T.O., which is an idea that me and Zamani Thomas came up with to bring together talented artists from Toronto to work on one cohesive project about Toronto. It’s more a matter of the artists from the city getting together in the spirit of collaboration.  There are artists from the current crop of young artists representing the city—Rich Kidd, Lotus, May Marcourt, Adria Kain among others. Lisa Michelle is on the project as well. 

I have a single out right now. It’s called “Can’t Break My Stride" featuring Rich Kidd, Lotus and May Marcourt. I also recently produced an EP for Lisa Michelle called “This Moment” which is out now!

I also want to mention that the newest single “City Love” featuring Adria Kain and Dwayne Morgan was also released (the singles were released on soundcloud.com/solitairmusic).

After that last question we got a little off topic and started talking about the Canadian music industry (very interesting convo!), Rihanna on Twitter and the necessity of social media.  I had sooo much fun talking to Solitair. Our interview was brief, but it was definitely time well spent. Thanks, Solitair!

You can find more info on Rated Z at:

 www.ratedzonline.com

You can find Solitair’s music at:

www.soundcloud.com/solitairmusic

www.solitairmusic.com

Michelle