India.Arie: Songs of love and hair
With a new album out, India.Arie tells Matilda Egere-Cooper why she's fascinated by relationships - and her ever-changing locks
Published: 30 June 2006
India.Arie has a tendency to be excessively optimistic. You may not know her, but it's the reason that the folk singer's spiritual musings have been favoured by a large number of soul fanatics, from Jools Holland to the talk-show mogul Oprah Winfrey, since her 2002 debut. But there comes a time when even the most devout idealist needs a reality check. "I'm like a born romantic," she sighs. "I had all these ideals about love and I thought when you love someone that much, that it would be happily ever after. But that's not the case."
Sitting in an impressive suite in New York's Bryant Park Hotel, the 12-time Grammy-nominated singer is wistfully explaining the theme of her long-awaited third album, Testimony: Vol 1, Love and Relationship. Today, Arie doesn't appear to be a woman scorned, draped in white Afrocentric threads, and modelling a coiffed afro that'd make the revolutionary Angela Davis chuffed. But when she speaks, she comes across as sweet yet direct, and maybe a little reluctant to admit she got romance all wrong.
After all, love is largely what what makes India.Arie. On her debut album, Acoustic Soul, she gushed with declarations of God-love, nature-love, sister-love, self-love, and even sang of that potential "one true love", going so far as to meticulously point out the little things she loves about this mystery man on the second record, Voyage to India. It's just a shame he couldn't stick around for album three, although heartbreak has worked wonders for her new music and her new outlook on life. The normally-reserved singer is now even letting the world get a peek of her sexual prowess. "See, with the legs, I don't do that," she says, pointing to a propped up poster of her album cover, where she's wearing a split skirt, her leg peeking out demurely. "I do rock midriff and arm sometime, but that? Uh uh. My mom's always like 'you've got the best legs in the world!' I'm like, okay. So I'm just challenging myself."
India Arie Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1975 and suffered her teenage years as a proud, albeit lonely, outcast. The daughter of an ex-basketball player and a former singer didn't have many friends who "liked what I liked", and when she moved to Georgia for university, the James Taylor fan eventually found solace in the guitar and writing songs. She went on to create an independent music collective called Earthseed and was spotted by a Motown executive at a local gig, drawn to her eloquent voice, and her uncommon use of hip-hop, neo-soul, blues and folk.
Her first commercial release, "Video", was a statement of proud individuality. With lyrics such as "Sometimes I shave my legs and sometimes I don't" and "My worth is not determined by the price of my clothes", the song worked as a rousing assertion of self-respect. As one of the few non-relationship-related tracks on the album, India's new single, "I Am Not My Hair", is along the same lines as "Video", but tackles the issue of being judged according to her hairstyle. In four years, the singer has had dreadlocks, a bald head and a wild afro and explains that a trip to Trinidad resulted in a lukewarm response from the dreadlocked residents when she turned up in braids.
Interestingly enough, she recorded a version of the mantra with the singer Pink, a long-time friend who's had her open minor quibbles with hair. "We always said we wanted to do something," she says. "And then I thought 'I Am Not My Hair' is perfect because everybody's like, well her name is Pink! She can't wear her hair blond or brown... then I said I got this song, but her manager... was getting in the way. So, you know. It'll get the light of day." Arie explains the song is more than a head-nodding novelty track which features a delightful remix featuring Akon, and has deeper connotations. "I understand how people feel your hair makes a statement or something. But when you think of humans as a race, what difference does it make? I don't feel being held down by someone's expectations."
Doesn't she find it hard being a part of the superficial mainstream music industry, then? "Someone always has something to say and I'm very intolerant of that," she admits. "More than I need to be I guess. But that's my make-up - I think I was born to be a leader so I need to learn how to be a leader and not care what people say. It's not like I don't care or you can't tell me anything, but when I say I don't care, I mean like, you're not gonna change the way I feel about me."
There's only a certain kind of artist who'd admit that. Back in 1998, it was Lauryn Hill, the Fugees member and one of the original purveyors of the US neo-soul movement that was a commercial success in the late 90s. India.Arie has been close to emulating the troubled singer's enormous success, with a double-platinum album, and friends in high places, such as the mighty Stevie Wonder. The legend invited her to duet on the title track for his most recent album, A Time to Love. Asked about her famous buddy, she smiles broadly. "I like him. I was relieved, as I hoped I'd like him."
Arie doesn't consider herself to be a star. As a Unicef ambassador, she makes time for worthy causes like many a celebrity, but she plays down her mainstream popularity and is just hopeful that more people are willing to listen to her new album. The Atlanta-native's sole purpose for her career has been to positively empower listeners, standing for a lot more than merely album sales and being the anti-Beyoncé for a legion of women who rather have brains than bootyliciousness. She doesn't drink or smoke, and the only time she courted controversy was back in 2002 when she was nominated for seven Grammies and walked away with none. Unfortunately for her, she was pitted against the younger and pop-friendly Alicia Keys, but has put that moment long behind her. "I just wanted to make music and have as many people as possible hear it - but only those who want it," she says. "I don't want to force it on Middle America if it's not for them. Whoever it's for, I want to help them. I want them to like it, and that's it. I'm not trying to be No 1."
Nowadays, with the present music scene lacking in soul, bar Gnarls Barkley and Corrine Bailey Rae, a chart-topper from India.Arie would be a godsend. And she vows that even reality won't overshadow the optimism that plays a big part in her musical mission.
"From the energy I get from people I feel like I'm on the right path," she asserts. "And I just feel like, if I keep that intention in everything that I do, to always spread love and healing and I don't think my mission will ever change."
Testimony: Vol 1, Love and Relationship' is on Motown
