The new album seems ready to drop in early April. From what i heard she sounds incredible.
Christina Tells All Part 1
MTV: Alright we're here with Christina Aguilera. It's good to have you here. How are you feeling?
CA: Amazing.
MTV: Pretty good.
CA: Very happy.
MTV: I think you can tell. We saw the Grammy performance, and you can tell that you are in a good place right now.
CA: Ah, such a good place.
MTV: I'm excited to sit down with you and talk about this upcoming album because there have been a lot of rumors about what the album is going to sound like, and everyone kind of making speculations about this whole thing. So this is cool to sit down and get right from you. This is your album so this is going to be good.
CA: Absolutely. Yes. Yes.
MTV: What is the title and what is the vibe?
CA: We're still making a definite, definite decision. But, flirting with the title Back to Basics [song plays] Going back to basics, where it all began . . . Back to Basics is a collection of songs and writing material that's very influenced by the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, which I'm very inspired by.
MTV: That's what I've been hearing about this thing, Yeah.
CA: The look of that era, the sounds of that era, so much and . . .
MTV: It's a very romantic era.
CA: Very romantic.
MTV: Even with music too. Like music was very romantic in that time.
CA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have been inspired somewhat with what's going on in my life.
MTV: Well, you're married now.
CA: I am married now.
MTV: And that's the biggest thing about being happy.
CA: Yeah, I did fall in love. And I was with Jordan for about 3.5 years, and then he popped the big question at this time last year. And I'd just begun diving in to this record, right?
MTV: Right.
CA: So it was pretty crazy to try and balance planning my dream wedding . . .
MTV: Right and then getting . . .
CA: And also at the same time, yeah, trying . . .
MTV: Right, focusing on career . . .
CA: Focusing on my record. Because . . .
MTV: It's almost been like a lightening bolt. Was it a launching pad for this album?
CA: You know, sometimes people get scared whenever they go and fall in love and things are actually happy because some people's creativity kind of suffers. But for me, I really made sure I didn't corn it out, you know. That I kept with making it an authentic . . .
MTV: And you got to be happy at some point
CA: Yeah, yeah. It is very a happy time right now. And I think it just comes across on the record as very feel good and upbeat, just positive in an inspirational way.
MTV: How did you get interested, actually, in this 1920s and 30s music? I mean you're 25 years old.
CA: Whenever my parents separated, when I was around 7 years old, my mom and I and my sister, we moved in with my grandma, and we used to go into the city. And we used to just go to this, it was like an old record store, just filled with just records and records and records and vinyls. And we would just sift through there because since I was this big [motions child height off floor], soul music was where, what I really was inspired by. Even at that . . . That's where I connected. Like I would call it my fun music, as a little kid. I was just like, it just felt good. It just . . . And blues and soul and jazz, that's why going Back to Basics, being the title of the record, really makes since because I'm going back to what I love and what I'm inspired by.
Christina Tells All Part 2
MTV: This one is about being in charge of your own career, your autonomy in the business now. And when you first started you were a very packaged pop star. And then you came out and you did Stripped. And there was a clear departure from the packaged pop star, like we said before. How did that come about?
CA: Well, when you sell, when you . . . I successfully sold as many records as I did on the first one. I could kind of like make my own rules.
MTV: Right. You could do your own thing.
CA: Yeah, yeah. I had to kind of get my foot in the door, and I love that first record for it, and I think God for that first record.
MTV: Right. It's the business
CA: For that opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, you got to pay your dues at little bit. So and I definitely did and by the time for the second one, I was like, guys, I gotta do my thing.
CA: Got a management in there that really went to bat for me. And made sure that I got to do my thing. And . . .
MTV: That's great.
CA: Yeah. Thank God for my manager, Irving. He just really, like, made sure I was able to go into there and was given the freedom to do what I wanted as an artist, which is so important.
MTV: You're seen as an artist very concerned with pushing the boundaries and getting people talking as much as, you know, maybe you don't like how much people talk.
CA: [Laughs]
MTV: It's good when people talk, but it gets to a point where it's like you're talking too much. But, do you feel that you set out to challenge people and their idea of what Christina Aguilera should do next? Did you feel like you wanted to challenge that sensibility?
CA: Well, it's just in me, first of all, to constantly grow and change myself and kind of what I'm doing and my image and what not.
MTV: Very Madonna-esque.
CA: Well and also I was going to say, the artist that I admire are people that push boundaries and that make, you know, that have no limits and really kind of like are visionaries in what they want to accomplish and go there. And regardless of what people say or any negativity are able to express themselves, regardless of what people say and how they talk. And then even though they might be talking in the moment, years from now after your whole body of work is laid out, people respect that.
CA: I just think that so many people, they're so afraid. And they're so fearful to try something new because of what people might say or what people might . . . But the real true ground breakers and innovators and people that I admire are the people that set out to take risks and be bold and have no regrets about it. Every mistake they even, if it is a mistake, anything that you do or anything you look back and cringe at, those are the things that build your character. Those are the things in life that . . . No regrets, you know what I mean. Cause it takes you from one step to the other. There's a lesson in everything. You learn something from everything that you do, whether good or bad. So experiencing, so much, is what I'm about.
Christina Tells All Part 3
MTV: This must have been the most challenging record for you, or was it?
CA: You know what? It was because you have to get the right people around you to get your vision. Like when you go in with, in attempting to make your record in a certain era, in a certain vein. Cause I didn't just go in and collect a bunch of tracks that sounded good and sang some songs. Like I really dove whole-heartedly with my heart and soul into this era and researching into so much music. Otis Reading and even on the jazz side Cold Train and Miles Davis and all that stuff. Just really going in there head first and getting the right people aboard who would get it. It was hard for people to kind of like fully go there and make it sound right still at the same time. I couldn't just gather a bunch of tracks, and some tracks I heard were really good and really nice, but I had a vision for the record, and I had to stick to it because there's a whole thing I was trying to accomplish here.
MTV: It's very organic. It sounds very you.
CA: Thank you.
CA: It's very cool what I've been able to do musically working with say DJ Premier and what we were able to accomplish and pull off in going back in time. And him taking pieces and samples from artists that I love and adore. Let me play you just a snippet of something because it kind of represents what the record is about.
MTV: This is a bonus.
CA: [Laughs] [Starts playing song] Do your thing honey! Ain't no other man can stand up next to you. Ain't no other man . . . It's almost like the modern day version of what kind of that would be. If like some of my old, favorite soul singers of the past came back and were to make a modern day soul record. So that's the ground I covered with him. [Song ends] Ain't no other man but you!
MTV: Wow! That's amazing.
CA: Linda Perry went in and completely just took it there to that place. Like, you know, Premier's stuff is more modern day, but me and Linda went there into that set . . .
MTV: To that era.
CA: Into that era.
CA: I mean, we've got just amazing pieces where one song in particular actually sounds like I recorded it in that era.
MTV: How did you do that?
CA: We took one of her old microphones, covered it with like just a ratty cloth, and it made for that muffed effect. And even at first someone asked me, that's your voice, at first? Because it really sounds like one of these old . . .
MTV: Like Etta James or . . .
CA: Old singers almost at first. Well yeah, because of the sound of the mic, because everything is so clean, and you have such massive, advanced technology now. But to just get that gritty, old, juicy sound, I just love. So that within itself is one of the pieces that really takes it there authentically, and it really sounds like it goes there.
MTV: What track is that by the way? The one where you use the . . .
CA: That's called trouble.
MTV: Oh, ok.
CA: [Talks like she's singing] I'm trouble, trouble, trouble.
MTV: Great. Well you've totally reinvented yourself, and . . .
CA: Thank you.
MTV: Congratulations on it. It sounds great. Best of luck.
CA: Thank you so much. [Shakes his hand]
Linear Mode
