Entertainment

Name Check: Chrisette Michelle is “Better” than ever

R&B artist Chrisette Michele is back on the scene with her new album “Better” to be released in late Spring. The beautiful songstress sits down with Name Check’s Michael Riedel to discuss why she went vegan, the trials of falling in love too fast and how Michael plans to help her make her Broadway debut.

Chrisette Michele will be on tour later this month with Keisha Cole.

Transcript:

Michael Riedel: Welcome to “Name Check.” I’m Michael Riedel, and I’m delighted today to be joined by the beautiful and talented Chrisette Michele, who is a very well known R&B songstress, with a new album called “Better.” Welcome to “Name Check.”

Chrisette Michele: Thank you so much.

Michael: “Better” presumably means that you were worse before you got better. [laughs] What is the inspiration for the album, and why did you title it that?

Chrisette: Lots of juice fasting, lots of praying and meditating, lots of being still and figuring it all out, lots of healing, and then writing about that all, putting it on an album, and being super vulnerable about the ideas of what love can be.

Michael: Did you go through a rocky patch in your love life?

Chrisette: Horrible! Awful!

Michael: [laughs] You look like you’ve come out of it pretty well, I must say.

Chrisette: Yes.

Michael: Was this because of one man in particular, or were you having a lot of trouble with guys back in those days?

Chrisette: I am awful at choosing who to fall in love with. I get too happy when I meet people, I give too many people the benefit of the doubt, and I don’t listen to my mom enough.

Michael: [laughs]

Chrisette: I’ve had some rocky patches. Now I’m listening to my mom, and I’m being a little bit more choosy about who I decide to love.

Michael: There’s an old, I think it’s a Richard Rogers song. [sings] “I fall in love too easily. I fall in love too fast.”

Chrisette: It’s me.

Michael: [laughs] Are the songs about that idea of not choosing wisely, or are they about coming out of that and standing up for yourself in a relationship?

Chrisette: They’re about coming out of the broken heartedness that happens when you make a mistake, and deciding that you will be able to love again and trust again, and that love didn’t forget about you. You might be a little bit silly, but love still likes you a little bit, so don’t worry.

Michael: That’s true. You know what they say, though. The heart wants what the heart wants, and we don’t always fall in love with the person who’s right for us.

Chrisette: Yeah. I had to investigate my heart.

Michael: Exactly.

Chrisette: Because I said, “Maybe my heart needs a little fixing, because she’s a little crazy.”

Michael: Yes. Sometimes it works better if you bring the brain into it a little bit, too, so the brain gets a “woo…”

Chrisette: Yeah. Just an ounce.

Michael: [laughs] Just a little bit.

Chrisette: Just an ounce.

Michael: Now, tell me who were some of big influences in your songwriting and your singing career. Who did you grow up listening to?

Chrisette: I grew up listening to vocal jazz artists, like Billie, Ella, Sarah.

Michael: The greats.

Chrisette: Yeah, the greats. But I love American songwriting. I love the sounds and the lyrics and the styles of people like Baby Face, Billy Joel. Just really clean writing — this is a lyric changing, this is a song, this is a formula.

Michael: That’s right. Not just like a loop or a rhythm, where the words don’t mean anything.

Chrisette: That’s fun, when you like to get a little twisted, don’t really want to remember the lyrics, have a good time standing on a table and pouring out champagne. But for the songs, those are the people I love.

Michael: I was talking to a very good songwriter and performer, Barry Manilow, who was on Broadway recently. Those are great songs, too. Inspirational, “I Made It Through the Rain” and “Ready to Take a Chance Again,” those big, theatrical, juicy songs. Barry said he thought that kind of songwriting changed when you had the development of electronic music, where you could just program a loop, and then everything became about the rhythm and the loop, whereas when he was writing a song, for him, it began with at the piano with the melodic hook and the lyric hook. A good song is a story. It’s like a little play of some sort. Is that how you approach writing?

Chrisette: I went to school for vocal jazz performance.

Michael: Oh, so you know the lyrics are important.

Chrisette: I was stuck with all the elitists who thought that there was no such thing besides jazz and composition. It’s been my struggle to have the fine line between that and, [sings] “Do it in the butt.”

Michael: [laughs] Well, that’s catchy, “ba doo ba dah ba doo.” Don’t know what the lyrics mean, but, “ba doo ba dah ba doo.” [laughs]

Chrisette: But it’s a song. You’re going to dance to it, right?

Michael: [laughs]

Chrisette: It’s a fine line between that and that.

Michael: Exactly. Now, you’re very, very lovely. Have you thought about branching out into acting at all? I know you’ve done a few TV bits here and there.

Chrisette: Do you have to be lovely to act? Is that it?

Michael: It doesn’t hurt.

Chrisette: I’m not sure Hollywood…

Michael: Although, that said, I act, and I don’t qualify [laughs] in the lovely category by any stretch of the imagination.

Chrisette: I lost 30 pounds, and then I called my friend Tasha Smith and Niecy Nash, and I said, “Do you think I’m skinny enough now?”

Michael: [laughs]

Chrisette: They’re like, “You don’t have to get skinny.” I’m like, “Yes, I do.” I think that was their way of saying, “Lose 30 more.”

Michael: [laughs] No.

Chrisette: I’m going to lose 30 more and see what happens in Hollywood.

Michael: Really? Are you on a strict regimen right now?

Chrisette: I am vegan, and that is a recent commitment. I lost 30 pounds of actual physical weight, and spiritual weight, that way. It really cleaned me out, and it feels good. If it continues to allow me to shed weight, then that’s fine with me.

Michael: [laughs] Well, there is a production coming to Broadway, I think, next year, of “The Bodyguard,” the Whitney Houston…

Chrisette: Really? I saw pictures for it when I was in London.

Michael: Yes, Heather Headley, who’s an old friend of mine. Wonderful, wonderful actress, too. If it’s successful here, Heather will probably do it for a while, but they are always going to be looking for someone to go and act…

Chrisette: [sings] “And I..”

Michael: [laughs]

Chrisette: I’d love to get on Broadway.

Michael: You’d be great on Broadway. Then, before we go, tell me about your Web series that’s about the release of this new album.

Chrisette: I have a Web series. It’s called “Journey to Better,” and you’re taking a sneak peek into my life. The first episode, I’m riding my bike to the tattoo parlor to get a tattoo in Williamsburg.

Michael: I see you’ve got a little tattoo in the back there.

Chrisette: Little something going on.

Michael: [laughs]

Chrisette: It’s just an inside scoop to why I’m finally comfortable sharing my heart. Then, at the end of each series, I sing one of my songs a cappella with vocalists or acoustic. It’s a fun way of me just sharing my life.

Michael: Excellent. We will look for that. Also, I’ll see what I can do to get you on Broadway. I’ll pull a few strings with my Broadway producer friend. “And I Will Always Love You,” isn’t that the big song from “The Bodyguard?”

Chrisette: That’s the big song, although the song I’d choose to sing of Whitney’s is “I Want to Dance With Somebody,” just by the way…

Michael: I like that song.

Chrisette: Because no one sings like Whitney.

Michael: Yeah, I know.

Chrisette: I’m just saying.

Michael: I was talking to a friend of mine, Clive Davis, who discovered Whitney long ago, and I think it’s good that you are cleansing yourself out, because, God love poor Whitney, she was never able to do that. I did ask Clive. I said, “Clive, can you tell me what went wrong with her?”

Chrisette: It’s so easy.

Michael: He said, “Drugs, my dear boy.”

Chrisette: It’s so easy. I lived in so many different places in these short eight years that I’ve been doing this, and it is so easy. I always joke and I tell my friends, “As soon as you get into the studio, usually they offer you something green.” For the first time in my career, they offered me something green when I walked into the studio, and it wasn’t what it always is.

Michael: Money.

Chrisette: It was a green juice!

Michael: [laughs]

Chrisette: That was the beginning of my cleansing journey two years ago.

Michael: [laughs] Green juice.

Chrisette: Whoever heard of that? It was like, “Give me more carrots! I need more celery!” I was like, “Whoa, this is crazy.”

Michael: Exactly. “I Want to Dance With Somebody,” there’s your audition song.

Chrisette: I love that song.

Michael: [sings] “Oh, I want to dance with somebody…”

Chrisette: [sings] “I want to feel the heat with somebody. Yeah, I want to dance with somebody…” You know the next part? [sings] “Dance with somebody who loves me.”

Michael: Broadway! This girl’s got to be on Broadway. [laughs] Chrisette Michele. New album is called “Better.” You’re a delightful interview. Thank you for being my guest on Name Check.

Chrisette: Thank you so much for having me.

Michael: We will see you next time on Name Check. I’m Michael Riedel.

Chrisette: And I’m Chrisette Michele.

Michael: [laughs]

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