RESTLESS SAADIQ,
Saadiq sets TV, film work aside to go on the road
It wouldn't be correct to say Raphael Saadiq is bored. The R&B singer, songwriter, producer and former member of Tony! Toni! Toné! has way too many projects in the works to have any room for boredom. This year alone he has appeared on records by En Vogue, Ne-Yo, Chromeo and Justin Timberlake. But he is a little restless. Saadiq needs the road.
“I have been working so much in film and television and on my new record, I just needed to get out there and play a little,” he said ahead of his Thursday show at Royale. “With film and TV work, there are so many people you work with, from actors to producers to directors. Singing is the freest art form so I need to get back to that every so often.”
Saadiq's return in front of the microphone on this short tour will tease the release of his new album — he will debut at least two songs on the tour. While he doesn't have a name or release date for his first solo LP since 2011's “Stone Rollin',” he says it won't share the Motown-meetsStax vibe he dug deep into the last one.
“I jumped completely away from all of that,” he said. “I just wake up, like this weird person, and go wherever the music takes me. I can say the new album will reflect the musician in me, the chameleon in me. Music can be so contrived these days.
Not because of artists, but because of the pressure of the industry, of bean counters. This album won't reflect that.”
Just a teenager in the mid-'80s, Saadiq toured the world opening up Prince concerts as the bassist in Sheila E.'s band. He quickly followed that by founding the multi-platinum '90s R&B superstars Tony! Toni! Toné! As the Tonys wound down, he began producing for and writing with, well, everyone: D'Angelo, the Bee Gees, Whitney Houston, the Roots, Mary J. Blige and more. Then Hollywood came calling — among his many credits is the 2018 Oscar-nominated song “Mighty River” from “Mudbound.”
With his talent, Saadiq could have pushed for solo stardom — he has four solo LPs in his catalog. But that never seemed right to him.
“I didn't want to drink the Kool-Aid, believe my own hype, have people wait on me beck and call,” he said, then laughing. “My career has been a thought-out process. I never wanted to fall into the full-fledged artist persona. I didn't want to be that guy, and working in film and television helped me not be that guy.
“But I still wanted to have a lot of fun,” he said. “Which I have.”
Not committing to selling himself wholly as a solo artist has made his small-butloyal cult wait a long time for the follow up to “Stone Rollin'.” But it has allowed Saadiq to jump in and out of projects and live his life. He has spent a lot of time with family and even done a few normal things over the past seven years.
“I can do stuff like walk to a Dodger's game, get there early and just hang behind the dugout,” he said. “But I can say I am almost done with the new album, so I will be out again and soon.”