A Long Time
Coming
Thomas Warren, Jr. interview
By Charese McLean-Davis
reseydavis@excapethematrix.com
At
a small Hollywood venue and on a small stage, Thomas Warren, Jr. stands before a
microphone. Though the stage is not extremely large, his presence is. His
voice, husky yet smooth, booms up and out into the audience where we all watch
and listen in awe. God is definitely in this place. Through the singer’s
voice, in his lyrics, and in the atmosphere, you know that God is definitely in
this place, which is exactly where Thomas wants Him to be. Off the stage he is
a soft spoken man with a brilliant smile. On stage, however, his commanding
presence takes over. With such an ability to capture your attention with his
music, his energy, that voice, it is obvious that yes, God is using Thomas
Warren, Jr. for sure.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten to know Thomas little by little. In getting to know him, it has always been clear where his priorities fall and in what order. First and foremost, his relationship with God is at the top of his list. Secondly, he lights up whenever the words “wife” or “daughter” enters the conversation. Lastly, there is also a sparkle in his eye when music is discussed. There you have Thomas in a nutshell: God, family, music.
When I found out that Thomas was giving an L.A. listening party for his upcoming and soon to be released album, I was thrilled. I hadn’t seen him in about 2 years, and I’d also never seen him perform. We decided to talk before and after the show to gage his reactions to his performance. Just prior to the interview starting, I found out that my ETM interview is his very first ever! (Can I just say that I’m a little proud?) While the opening act sang in the background, Thomas and I took a few moments behind the scenes to catch up and discuss his feelings about music, his hopes and dreams, and of course, his upcoming album.
CMD: So let’s start out with the name of your album.
TWJ – The album is called ‘Long Time Coming,’ and that is clearly self explanatory (laughs).
CMD – Tell me what kind of feel the album has.
TWJ – Gospel soul, it has rock, R&B, the hip hop type stuff, a lot of soul stuff. I think that’s where my voice kind of fits. Some jazz…
CMD – Just all over the place.
TWJ – All over the place but, I think a lot of people will probably call me a gospel soul artist.
CMD – Did you write a lot on the album?
TWJ – Eleven out of thirteen songs.
CMD – Really? Who wrote the other ones?
TWJ – My sister wrote one and then there’s a pastor in Brooklyn who wrote the other one.
CMD – Your sister sings, too?
TWJ – My two sisters are my background singers.
CMD – Do you consider yourself a writer?
TWJ – I do.
CMD – Where do you get your inspiration from?
TWJ – I’m inspired by life, people, music...life more than anything else. I make music from life.
CMD – So where did your love and passion for music come from?
TWJ – My introduction to music was when I was a child; I was six and it ignited this interest in me.
CMD – So that’s your first memory of when music impacted you?
TWJ – Mmm
hmm…and I didn’t have a lot of singers in my life, so I knew. Then I realized
that my grandparents sang and they had groups, and my grandfather had released
an album. He actually started working with me and my little sister, and we were
forced to do things. Then my grandmother took us to church I was about seven,
and we’ve stayed in the church all of our lives. The church really cultivated a
lot of it. So music has just been a part of my life, it’s essential to my
life.
CMD – It’s like your core?
TWJ – It’s my core, it’s my essence. If I couldn’t create music by singing and writing, I don’t know what I’d be doing.
CMD – Are you like me? I always have some song in my head all the time.
TWJ – All the time…it’ll be the commercial that just went off and I’ll keep that on until something other than that comes to my mind.
CMD – So you knew you were a singer at around six or seven?
TWJ – I knew I liked music, I didn’t think I was a singer until, like, twenty-four. I was in a session with Bebe Winans and they paired it down to two singers from each section. It was that session that kind of gave me some confidence that I could actually do this.
CMD – When you were in session with Bebe Winans, then you figured it out?
TWJ – After the session I was walking to the train station like, ‘Okay, so maybe this is something that I could…’ (laughs).
CMD – So tell me who else you’ve worked with.
TWJ - Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Cece Winans…my fourteen year tenure with Hezekiah Walker has afforded me a lot of privileges, just traveling with the choir. Um…Will Smith and most recently Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey.
CMD – You make me sick! (laughs) What has this entire journey been like for you?
TWJ – It’s been about six years. I wrote the first song six years ago, which is also the first single. It’s amazing how I’ve grown musically and as an individual and artist. I mean, it’s been a long journey. Days seem like years sometimes, and then very quickly, years can seem like days. The album’s title kind of speaks the journey because it’s definitely been coming but it’s been a long time.
CMD – And this is what you’re trying to do permanently?
TWJ – Oh, permanently! Hopefully this CD will allow me entrance into the music industry as an artist full time.
CMD – Because you are a Christian artist, do you have any difficulty knowing that the music world primarily speaks to the secular world? I mean, secular is a modern day term now.
TWJ – I don’t have a problem with being a gospel artist. I honestly do believe that my ministry is not geared towards the church. I believe that God has given me a message, a consciousness, an encouragement and energy to the people who the church typically overlooks. I honestly believe that that’s where my message is going and that’s who I’m going to try to reach. I’m not concerned about the title of my music or where people are going to put me. It’s all good either way. If you like it, buy it.
CMD – I know you’re married and have 2 little girls. How does the whole profession affect them or bring them into what you’re doing?
TWJ – Very deliberately, in fact. I’m very conscious of my
family in wanting
them to be very much a part of what I do but also separate from what I do. I
don’t want this lifestyle to engulf them and change who they need to be for
themselves. God has given me this ministry, but at the same time I know that to
include them on certain levels is a way of support so we still feel like we’re
still a family. My wife sometimes thinks that I forget but I remember.
CMD – Does your wife sing?
TWJ – She actually sang background for me on this album. I did a live portion of the album and she was one of my vocalists. I guess that’s one of the ways that I can kind of include her in on some of the stuff. She’s really a dancer, she started her own dance school and so she’s doing her thing. She studied with Ailey when she was younger. That’s another reason why I want things to be really deliberate, because I don’t want what God has given to me to really be what God has given us, but for her to still be an individual and be able to birth the ministries that are inside of her.
CMD – And what about your girls, do they sing?
TWJ - My daughter, Sade, is probably going to be a singer. At five, her ear is ridiculous. I’m kind of cultivating it. We have our warm-up songs and she’s working on her vibrato and phrasing, she’s adorable!
CMD – Don’t you love that? So who did you grow up listening to? Who influenced you?
TWJ – Well, initially, I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music, so it was all the gospel artists; Vanessa Bell Armstrong, all the Clark Sisters stuff, the Winans and Commissioned.
CMD – Sangin’ folks!
TWJ – Just singers! That was another reason that kind of made me think twice about being a singer because I didn’t sound like them, and as much as I tried I couldn’t really match what they were doing. Right around college I was introduced to Lalah Hathaway and she became this huge influence in my music, and eventually I realized who I was as a singer and what I needed to do.
CMD – So who do you listen to now?
TWJ – Everything! Today I was listening to Norman Brown and John Coltrane, and a lot of musicians who could seed into my life musically; of course Lalah, Frank McComb, Eric Roberson, Rahsaan Patterson, Ledisi, these guys that are really attached to their music as musicians and not necessarily just as singers.
CMD – Who do you look forward to working with? You’ve worked with all kinds of craziness. I mean who’s left, except Lalah, maybe? (laughs)
TWJ – (laughs) But you know, I’ve worked with them but not as an individual. I’ve worked with them through the choir as a background singer, so collaboratively as an artist, I’m very much looking forward to working with Lalah on some level, even if I’m the background singer. Chuckii Booker, Frank McComb, PJ Morton, Eric Roberson…these guys have to be on my next album. I don’t know how I’m going to get the budget for it but I need those guys. I’m looking forward to being introduced to a lot of people as an artist and as a musician to see which personalities and musical styles I gel with. I’m open to anybody.
CMD – If anybody is left!
TWJ (laughs)
CMD – What is your primary goal as an artist?
TWJ – To make music with integrity, to encourage people and influence their life to know God, to let them know God loves them for who they are, where they are. God loves you and that’s really a part of who I am. I want people to know that and enjoy that from me.
CMD – You’re on the east coast, so you’re going to work on getting your music all over the place. How?
TWJ – Yeah, that’s why I’m here. I’m trying to start a buzz, so I’m doing listening parties and trying to introduce different places to my music. I’m also going to release a single called “Good Love” in the next couple of months to the radio, which will help, and I’ll do some radio promotion. We’re going to do a video and everything. I’m ‘bout to be broke so buy the album. (laughs)
CMD
– So where can people get the album?
TWJ – When it’s out, you’ll know. It’ll be on iTunes, it’ll be on my myspace page and website. It’ll be in the stores because I’m actually working for national distribution now.
CMD – And your myspace page is?
TWJ – myspace/thomaswarrenjr.
CMD – Well, we’ve hit everything…until after the show. Then you can tell me how you feel!
TWJ – You got it.
After the show, the vibe is one of happiness and excitement. Thomas is beaming with pride and completeness. I tell him that he should be incredibly proud of himself because his show was far above the norm. He smiles that warm smile of his and thanks me. He is humble even when it’s obvious that he’s blown everyone away. I decide to walk around and listen to people’s comments. I find myself beaming with pride as well when I hear how impressed the audience was. I understood why they felt closer to God while Thomas performed. I realize that it is an honor, as one background singer told me, to sing behind him. A friend of mine said she really felt that she wanted to go to church. Thomas’ performance was so incredibly powerful that I was on a high for several days afterwards. I couldn’t get the songs out of my head. A few nights later, we’re on the phone catching up.
CMD – So you’re home now and done with your show. How do you feel?
TWJ - I really feel proud. I’m happy I was able to do it on my own terms and not be caught up about everything. I mean, I promoted it myself, I was my own street team and I financed it. It was so well worth it. I mean everyone’s feedback was great, including people who matter greatly to me.
CMD – I got a fantastic response. That show was crazy! I knew that I was going to be impressed but it was so much more than that. There was just this presence there that you couldn’t deny, and it was pure.
TWJ – Exactly. I’m really happy that everyone got it. There’s a fear bringing the music to people who’ve never really heard you and experienced you. Your intentions are that they would receive it and kind of get it but you never know. You give it your all, you make it do what it does and then that’s it. The musicians learned that music the night before at rehearsal. This is, of course, not the band that I’m used to working with, so I didn’t feel as free with the music as I wanted to.
CMD – REALLY?
TWJ – No, I didn’t. I think that the chemistry between my band and my singers that I have here is just so crazy. We can do so much because we’ve been working together for so long that they know where I’m going, they follow, they can beat me to the punch sometimes. With those guys, I needed to give an extra layer of direction and instruction for them, so it kind of took me away from being free just to move it. But I was very pleased, I have no complaints.
CMD – I thought you guys had done this a few times. That band and those singers really pulled it together and made it work.
TWJ – Didn’t they? I mean, they did their thing!
CMD - And here’s what was killing me… I had a feeling of connection with every song right away. One of our mutual friends said that he couldn’t wait to get in his car, roll his windows down and play your CD. It’s just has that easy, breezy feel.
TWJ –I was telling my producer that I couldn’t believe the feedback. And you know, I guess on one level it would have been nice to have more people but I can’t look back at that. I feel like everybody who was supposed to be there was there.
CMD – And this is just beginning. I can’t wait for this album to drop so that people can hear what I’ve heard and experienced what I did.
TWJ – Yeah, I can’t either. I’m just really proud of it.
CMD – Okay, I know it’s late so I’ll let you go. We’ll be in touch, right?
TWJ – Oh, definitely. We’ll talk soon.