Simply Joss

From the time the English songstress Joss Stone emerged on the music scene at age 16, she has always displayed a strength and intensity, despite being so young. Four years later Stone releases her new album, Introducing Joss Stone.

You began writing the album in Aprill last year in Barbados. What brought you to Barbados?

It's beautiful and it's so hot. And there was a wonderful house, where I could have everybody stay. There was this big house and it had six bedrooms. So whoever came to write with me could just stay over. It was so cool and I had my dogs with me. It was so important to me because they are my family.

You wrote about 60 songs...

I am always inspired and I'm never lost for words. When I have something I think is good, I say 'wicked, nice. Now let's do another one'.

My goal really was to write 100 songs. Then I'd be really sure that I'm making the best album as I can possibly make but I only got to 60.

How did you narrow it down to 14 songs? What are your criteria?

I don't know, just what songs I was feeling most. I kept writing different list of what I like and the list would change, even in the last couple of days it changed. (Laughs) I've taken a couple of songs off already. It's just important that the energy of the album is pure.

How do you collaborate with other songwriters?

It really depends who you're writing with. I'm a chameleon. I can change to however they work but I don't have a specific way that I want to do things. It's not like, I have to start with a title or I have to start with a melody and you know, whatever it works at the time, just go with it. That's what I do.

You collaborated with Lauryn Hill on the new album. How did the idea for the song come about?

Basically we all go through life looking for love. No matter how old, no matter what country we're from, no matter what. This unconditional fairy tale like, unbreakable, untouchable love, that we've all been reading about, listening to songs about, watching movies about the whole lives. So we have this idea of how love should be.

However, for me, where I found unconditional love was not in human beings but in my music.

If I could make my music my boyfriend and marry it, I would. So I wrote the song as if it was my boyfriend. We base the song on The Mask from The Score, the second album from Fugees, Lauryn's former hip hop band. And then I just thought, I've got to have Lauryn. It's got to be Lauryn Hill, can't be anybody else. The rest is history.

You made the front cover of magazines like Elle and Vanity Fair as well as performing at the Super Bowl. What was that like?

You know, take away hair and make up, you just see a tiny little girl. I like working hard. A lot of people waste their lives being scared or being tired or not being bothered. I don't want to waste my time. I could die tomorrow. I could die right now.

Have I left a mark? Am I proud of it? Yes, cause I worked really hard. If I have a passion, I just try and go for it. I just have to get it out. I have to do it the best I can, otherwise I'm not going to be proud of myself and is going to be waste of my time.

Why did you choose the title Introducing Joss Stone instead of simply Joss Stone and what's the meaning behind it?

The two albums that I did previously weren't exactly me. They had parts of me on them but this one, through and through, every single note, every single word. It's me.

The former albums weren't made for me but for others and thank God, quite a lot people liked it. I feel like this is my first real introduction. This is like putting my hand out and saying 'Nice to meet you, I'm Joss'.

You took some time off before working on the new album. What was on your mind then?

I didn't really have much time off. I really just went into writing it but … there's kind of time off … I was just thinking about what would make me happy. I ask myself a lot of questions like: 'Are you happy right now doing what you're doing' and the answer was 'No'.

So I went to the head of my record company and I said, 'I don't feel like I want to do any more music with this label unless I can go and make it and you guys leave me alone. I don't want anybody I don't want coming into my studio. Let me just make it. Trust me'.

And I'm smiling now. I'm happy and love it! The whole point of life is to find the happiness and I'm glad I recognised it.

What music do you listen to?

Actually when I was writing and recording, I didn't really listen to any contemporary music. I tried not to turn on a radio. But a lot of people have inspired me.

My mother and close friends inspired me the most.

However, the contemporary music that I do listen to now, is an album called Back to Black by Amy Winehouse. She inspires me cause she's so honest and real and I love that.

In love with music

Knowing she needed to write the album alone, Joss Stone decamped to the Caribbean island of Barbados to come up with lyrics. There, amid the sandy beaches and warm tropical breezes, she had an epiphany.

"I'm driving along in my car and I'm thinking, 'Why am I going looking for unconditional love from a human being, when it's music that's unconditional?'" she says. "It's always there for me. It's the love of my life. I've found it."

That simple realisation became a major theme, both lyrical and musical, on Stone's new album and it explains the album's electrifying mix of warm vintage soul, '70s-style R&B and jazzy grooves performed by a live band conducted by Stone's main musical collaborator and producer Raphael Saadiq (known for his work with The Roots, and Macy Gray).

"Raphael [who plays bass on the album] is the most mind-blowing musician I've ever met in my whole life,"says Stone.

Stone and Saadiq spent two months recording in the Bahamas, and then mixed the album at the legendary Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

Pure talent

Joss Stone has sold more than 7.5 million albums worldwide. She has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and appeared on stage with music heavyweights such as the late James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Patti Labelle, Mavis Staples, Donna Summer, and Smokey Robinson.

Stone has also appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and performed for more than 200,000 people at the 2005 Live 8 Concert in London — all before reaching the ripe old age of 19.

Yet, only now, on her third album, Introducing Joss Stone, does the British soul singer and songwriter feel she is expressing her true musical vision.

"This is the first album I've made that is truly me," she says. "That's why I'm calling it Introducing Joss Stone. These are my words, and this is who I am as an artist."

In 2003, Stone released The Soul Sessions, an album of covers of obscure soul tracks, hit the road for a year, then recorded 2004's Mind, Body & Soul, her first album of original material. Of that album, Newsweek noted: "Stone can croon it sad, deep, and throaty, belt it out juke-joint style, or get down and funky for the bump-and-grind crowd". Interview heralded her "gutsy voice, which can sting like aged bourbon, or melt like strap molasses."