Soul Food

For a split second, I thought I was back in high school, in the throes of raging hormones, anticipating the firsts of juvenility – first kisses, first heartbreak, first prom, "first month anniversary". For a split second I was back in high school when the soundtrack of my life still included soulful ballads with lyrics that stuck like Mighty Bond to memory, when my 15-year old girlfriends whipped out the lines, "We don’t even talk anymore, we don’t say even say ‘I love you’ no more, we don’t even know what we argue about" to boyfriends they were trying to dump, when the song On Bended Knee became a generation’s anthem for the misfortune’s of love. After that split-second passed, I look around me at the Ultra football field on the eve of Valentine’s Day, the venue for R&B singer/composer Brian McKnight’s back-to-back concert with Boyz II Men, another chart-topping R&B act, where thousands have shown up to relive their own high school days, thousands probably reminiscing about that One Last Cry before taking the path to the End of the Road. I look around me and feel the goose bumps invade.

A day before the "high school reunion", I had ten minutes each with Brian McKnight and the Boyz, quizzing them on their new projects, marveling at their loose, predominantly white wardrobe, and diamond-encrusted "bling bling". The Boyz II Men, on their second consecutive V-Day performance in Manila but now minus basso profundo Michael McCarry, just finished mixing their first self-produced record, "The Throwback Album, Volume 1" (out in April), a repartition of funky remakes and retro-inspired compositions. Brian McKnight, a Manila veteran, just came out with his "U Turn", an album (his eighth) that has him pairing up with slick hip-hop acts such as Nelly, Tank, and Tyrese.

The conversations wander off the field of music, touching on fashion, extra-curricular activities, and then veering into families – Brian now has a son whose a high school basketball star, while a couple of the Boyz are now Married Men with children. I dare ask how long they’ve been in the music industry – I was trying to convince myself that End of the Road came out only a couple of years ago – and find out that the Boyz’ first album came out in 1991 (quick calculation comes up with 13 years) and that Brian has been professionally singing and composing for 16 years. And that’s when I began to feel old.

YStyle: So what have you guys been up to?

Shawn Stockman: We’ve been chillin’. No, we’ve been recording and chillin’. We’re actually in the process of releasing our first album under our very own label. We have a distribution deal with a couple of regions around the world, and one of them is here in Asia. Our record label is called MSM Music Group – Morris Stockman Morris– and our first release is a remake album called "The Throwback Album, Volume 1"…

Throwback? As in how they call retro jerseys?

Shawn: Yeah , exactly, because we’re doing retro type of music – seventies and eighties type of soul music like Hall and Oates, Teddy Pendergrast, Al Green, that type of thing.

Will this next album be another ballad anthology?

Shawn: No actually it’s a nice mixture of low funk remakes, you know what I’m saying? We have to give people ballads because that’s what we’re known for. But we tried to mix it up this time and we had fun because this is what we’ve always wanted to do. The process of doing it was a lot of fun. It was also a lot of hard work because we’ve never taken on our own label on before and we’ve never had to take on the responsibilities of CEOs, but it was good, it was fun, and it sounds great.

Does the name of your album mean anything else?

Shawn: Just like you said earlier, that’s how you used to call those old jerseys that are now very popular. These are the jerseys from the fifties, the sixties used in football, baseball, basketball and it’s picked up – in the hood – as a term that means "old school".

Nathan Morris: It originated from Philadelphia.

Shawn: Yeah, that’s right.

And you guys are Philly boys.

Shawn: Exactly. We go down there all the time, as a matter of fact. So anyway, throwback is now a term that just means "retro" and "old school". We’re singing old school songs in this new album and we’re putting in a new flavor to it.

How would you guys acquaint your music with your clothing style?

Wanya Morris: Basically we believe that our music is a comfortable sound, it’s a sound that everyone can get into. It doesn’t offend, it’s not uptight, it’s very loose, and it gets people into the mind frame of just "flowing free". That’s pretty much how we dress. We’re very casual, very laidback…

Shawn: Ultimately, we just try to exude a certain type of comfort zone. When we’re onstage and we’re dressed in a certain way, it kinda just sets the tone for how the crowd is going to react. If you’re in a suit, the crowd will be in a "suit" type of energy – reserved, they’ll watch the show and they’ll clap lightly.

Nathan: We just want them to feel free.

Shawn: We want everybody to just have fun and since we are singing love songs, love is supposed to be a good thing. It’s not supposed to be uptight; it’s supposed to be free and liberal.

Are the shades essential?

Nathan: I always wear mine.

Shawn: Yeah, that’s his MO

You never go anymore without them?

Nathan: Nope! Never leave home without it – just like American Express.

Wanya: But it depends on the outfit. Sometimes shades are required, sometimes they’re not.

And the caps?

Wanya: Yeah, every now and then, we change them but caps are essential to an outfit, just to put that cherry on top.

How long have you guys been together?

Nathan: About 14 years.

Do you guys ever grow tired of spending so much time with each other?

Shawn: It’s like being in a relationship. Sometimes you need time away, sometimes you need to be by yourself, kinda recollect yourself. You need space to energize, to find out things about yourself. But then we always get back together.

What do you guys do together as a group?

Shawn: These days, since we’re older now and we have families and have other obligations, if we do get together it’d be for purposes of music. But it’s fun. We hang out and talk.

Do you guys miss being a quartet?

Shawn: Sure we do. We started out as a quartet. The beautiful thing about us is that we improvise. We have to fill up the song, fill up the harmonies. The quartet thing is something that we do miss but, you know, we do very well just the three of us.

Brian Mcknight

YStyle: How many times have you flown out to the Philippines?

Brian: Jeez, probably six or seven times.

Does it get better each time?

Yes it does get better…I mean it’s definitely different from the very first time. The first time we came, we played at this hotel near the airport; the second time I came, we played two nights at the Araneta and that was a big difference. It’s hard to know about that there are people living so far away, living ten thousand miles away, that love you this much. It can be a little overwhelming especially when you’re not as appreciated as you’d like to be back home.

Do you seriously feel that way?

Sometimes. What happens is, there are so many artists, so many actors and actresses, so many people in the United States that have that kind of fame so when they put on a show, it’s like "No problem", everybody comes out and you know, whatever. But when I’m here everyday walking down the street, no matter where I am, because people don’t see you and when they do see you, it’s like "Wow!" In America, they just get jaded because they see celebrities all the time.

Tell us about your new album. You pair-up with some of the newer faces in the industry in the industry, right?

You’re talking about "U Turn," right? Well, I work with my friends. Obviously, Nelly is huge – I worked with him on this album – but I’ve known him for four or five years. I met him and it had nothing to do with music. He plays basketball like I play basketball so we met on the basketball court. For so many years I was just doing records myself without having any guests and I said, "You know what, let me open this thing up and see what other kind of things I can come up with, with other people." So when Joe, and Tank, and Tyrese and those guys do a song kinda like Quincy Jones, and I have sort of a version like that, we’re just having fun.

Why "U Turn"?

I felt that I was a certain point in my career when I thought I was going to retire and that was going to be it. Then I decided that, instead of bowing out, I would just make a U-turn and do it all over again like I had not done before. I wanted to continue to try and write great music until nobody wants to hear it anymore.

So you won’t be retiring just yet?

Oh, it’s just another year. I still have two records in my contract – I thought I just had one more – but I don’t know.

How would you describe your personal style?

I’ve always wanted to be a chameleon. It all depends on whatever the situation is. If I’m being active, then I have a wardrobe for that. If it’s for a gala, then I have four or five tuxedos. I have everything. Like today, I’m wearing jeans, some boots, and a T-shirt with something silly on it. That’s my normal everyday sort of gear.

What’s standard concert wear for you?

It depends on the audience. In the States, when I have a show, I change about three or four times so I give them every side of my personality. I come out in jeans, some boots, and a shirt with the sleeves cut off to show off my tattoos…

How many tattoos do you have?

Three. They each mean something. I have a treble cleft over here (shows off left bicep) which symbolizes music. This one is kind of silly (shows off right bicep). I’m a Superman fan so I instead of an ‘S’, I had a ‘B’ put in. And the cross (on his right forearm) is something to remind me of the good that I’m supposed to be doing…So, in the middle of the show, I come out with something a little more dressy, either a suit or a nice shirt, slacks. In the last part, it really depends on the place and the age of the audience. In Vegas, I can do anything. But if I’m in, say New York, then I have to do something more different and suited to that audience.

Are you partial to any designer?

Dolce & Gabbana. It seems that they make their stuff particularly just to fit me. I don’t know what it is…My suits would always be Dolce and Gabbana. For jeans, I like Paper, Denim & Cloth.

Can you go really far-out funky with your clothes?

I can’t. I don’t like the clothes to wear me, I’d rather wear my clothes.

We hear you’re a big basketball fan.

Huge basketball fan.

If you weren’t singing or writing songs, would you be a basketball player?

If I had to do it all over again, I would play basketball.

Seriously?

Yup, and I would play music on the side. At that time, music came first. The NBA scouts were knocking on my door, the record companies weren’t. In 1996, I was about to go to training camp…

How long have you been in the music industry?

Sixteen years.

You must spend a lot of time working…

No, I spend a lot of time goofing around.

And how do you goof around, aside from playing basketball?

I race motorcycles, I skydive, scuba dive. Last year, I went diving with the sharks in the Bahamas, did it for the Discovery Channel. It was awesome.

Are you a risk-taker?

Yeah. My life insurance people worry about it. I’m not insured for these things that I do. If I die racing motorcycles, I’m not insured; if I die diving with the sharks, I’m not insured. I do it all on my own risk.

And if you do retire, what are you gonna do?

I’m gonna goof off some mo