Michael Bolton – One World, One Love

A staggering 53 million records, countless Grammy Awards, six American Music Awards, the title of BMI Songwriter of the Year Award, a Hit Maker Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and a coveted star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

 

This would certainly a superstar make. But it’s his humility, accessibility and—now—his versatility that has us intrigued once again.

 

Recently, The Rage Monthly had the opportunity to discuss his latest branch into the music realm, One World One Love, in which he collaborated with a number of exciting talents, including award-winning icons Lady GaGa and Ne-Yo.

Michael Bolton: While working on projects, I don’t really look at a timeline as that big a part of the process as much as I look at the body of music I’m approaching.

 

And then, I go into kind of a homework/study/research of that body of music…You will get pressure from the labels to have it in stores by a certain time, and there’s solicitation realities, doors close by this date and you have to get to retail by that date.

 

But, I’m usually already deep into the recording process and that seems to have a life of its own and a timeline of its own. So, I didn’t really plan on five years before a studio album. It went through a few different kind of manifestations beginning with a combination of major soul covers to half originals.

 

And then, when the originals starting coming I started writing with a lot of these new young artists/writer/producers, the label started getting more excited about the original material than the covers, so I started writing more.

 

So, the process then suddenly changed and the project changed. I wanted more tempo in it. I wanted it to just kind of give you the sense of something…uplifting and hopeful.

 

MB: In the last three years or so of touring, I was definitely reacting from my observation of the hardship people are all experiencing. And not just middle America where three generations of families who had businesses are having to close their doors.

 

I just felt like the world doesn’t need more serious subject matter, and part of my job and part of my gig is to make people feel good about their concert experience… the live experience… and that’s been a pleasure. It reminds me that this is my responsibility from the second I walk on stage to the second I leave.

MB: I was writing with the new hot guns in the music business, and a few of them are artists themselves. One of them being Ne-Yo, who was incredible to work with and I had already been a fan of. He started turning in these songs that felt fresh and young, but very comfortable for me vocally. So, that became the theme.

 

And then, I got a phone call from the person who was working with me on the project, Jolene Cherry, and my manager. We were working some pretty late hours and I just took off and took a break a few hours from Los Angeles.

 

They said that they have a new artist who is a great songwriter and she writes songs for other artists and she’s a big fan of yours and would like to write with you for this album. And I said, “Okay,” but I knew there was a reason that I was on the phone with them about it and it wasn’t a little e-mail communication; they wanted to get my attention on this.

 

And they knew I was taking a break as well, but this apparently had a sense of urgency to it. And it turned out that they were talking about an artist named Lady GaGa, who I hadn’t heard of at the time because her record didn’t come out for about another three or four months.

 

But, they were really excited about this news that she wanted to work with me. I asked them to send me MP3s and I went out and played some golf, got back to my room, opened up my laptop, and in my email were three songs from Lady GaGa and I thought they were amazing.

 

So I called back and I said, “What does she do? Does she write lyrics? Does she play an instrument? Does she just do music?” They said, “She does it all and she’s involved in production as well. She’s kind of pretty much in every part of it.” So I said, “Well, I’d love to write with her. When is she available?” And they said, “Tonight at 8:00.”

 

So, I drove up to L.A. and met her and really hit it off and she was singing to me, she was singing some ideas she had, she knew my range, she knew my records, so she started singing in the range that I had recorded those records.

 

And that was great because I was looking at a real artist standing in front of me, and I was looking at a young new about-to-be released artist who really could sing and really loved what she was doing.

MB: You never know with new records whether artists are created in a studio, in a laboratory environment where we have so many tools and so many kinds of different technologies, whether it’s Pro Tools or Logic.

 

We have all these digital gadgets so a lot of artists that you’re hearing can’t necessarily carry it off live. They can’t really do it live; they need the studio. In this case, I was hearing GaGa singing to me with a great voice, perfectly in tune right in front of me and I was really impressed.

 

And we just then got straight into writing. I realized she had this whole look and this kind of very provocative presence about herself and I said, “If we’re going to write something together, we’ve got to slay people with this.”

 

And she said, “Well, I like the idea because I have a title. I have an idea for the title and it’s called ‘Murder My Heart.’” And that’s how it began. And of course, three or four months later she became the biggest artist in the world. During any interview, the question would always come up, “What was GaGa wearing in the studio?” And I’m not used to that being the center of interview, but I got used to it.”

 

MB: There’ll be 110 shows that we’ll have done in 2010. That’s a demanding schedule.

 

MB: When you walk into a room and you notice that you’re definitely the oldest person in that room…and you’ve got a 25-year old and a 26-year old as your songwriting and production team…We built up tracks and sometimes they were perfect and everything made sense—finally it all fit.

 

And sometimes I would just say, “I can’t get used to this particular drum loop. I’d rather have live drums on this song,” or whatever it was. It’s a constant open dialogue and a lot of mutual respect. And that’s how we went about the project to achieve something that sounds and feels contemporary, but that is vocally for me right in my sweet spot…in a zone that is comfortable for me.

 

And that feels good for me, because it has to speak to your core audience and the people who have all of your greatest hits and every record of yours. You don’t want them scratching their heads and saying, “What’s he doing here,” or “What’s going on with his voice?” It’s got to feel good…well, feel fresh and new.