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Music
Spotlight On Remy Shand
by Madblast
"Fresh"
is an overused (and usually exaggerated) description of a lot of new music,
but sometimes, once in a while, it actually applies. Well, fresh is definitely
one way to describe Remy Shand's Motown debut album, The Way I Feel. Remy,
23, recalls the masters of soul with an uncanny authenticity that sometimes
sounds as if he’d actually collaborated with the icons of his childhood:
in the lush, jazzy Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye-influenced flow of the title
track; in his loving evocation of Memphis R&B in “The Colour of the
Day” and “I Met Your Mercy,” and in the literate neo-classic
soul vibe of “The Mind’s Eye” and “Looking Back on Vanity.”
As a songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist and self-producer, his work
is at once accomplished and, yes, fresh; deeply rooted, yet original. Here’s
an artist who attacks the boundaries of R&B, pop and alternative with
his own timeless fusion, undeniable, as it is unconventional.
“Everyone
who’s fusing that old soul back into songwriting -- D’Angelo, Erykah
Badu, Maxwell, Shelby Lynne, Macy Gray -- that’s who I relate to,”
Remy says. But his musical relations, so to speak, go a good deal further
back, and to call him “self-taught” is almost the whole truth. He
credits his musical education, in his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada, to a crate
of classic albums salvaged by his dad from a club his construction crew was
remodeling. Here, My Dear, Marvin Gaye’s searingly honest chronicle of
his divorce, became Remy’s favorite album and a musical Bible: “I
look at it as being taught by the masters -- the geniuses will take you all
the way.” Albums like Ann Peebles’ I Can’t Stand the Rain;
the Isley Brothers’ 3+3; Marvin Gaye’s I Want You, Stevie Wonder’s
Songs in the Key of Life and the works of Rufus, Sly Stone and Steely Dan,
among others, all became Remy’s sources as a musician, songwriter and
producer.
Remy started
writing the songs that became The Way I Feel at 19. “I was playing in
experimental rock bands but no one else in Winnipeg wanted to sing my kind
of music.” Album tracks like the Isleys-influenced “Everlasting,”
the irresistible first single“ Take a Message” and the loping, coulda-been-an-Al-Green-hit
“Rocksteady” were among his first completed songs. “I wanted
to get some feedback, so I put some songs on a tape and a friend sent the
tape to his brother, a manager in Toronto.” Out of the blue, Steve Warden,
now Remy’s manager, called to assure him that he could be signed to an
artist deal in a year. “I said, ‘Yeah, right.’” But in
just three months, two labels had offered development deals. Remy took a deep
breath and declined, choosing to press his luck and insist on a contract to
make a full album. Soon there were several labels offering multi-album deals.
Universal prevailed, signed Remy as an album artist, and gave him all the
time he needed to complete work himself. In total, Remy worked on his album
for four years recording and mixing his album entirely at home in Winnipeg.
Remy only learned
that Motown was a part of Universal after he got his deal, and when his album
was circulated at a company meeting in spring of 2001, he was stunned and
delighted to learn that Motown president/CEO Kedar Massenburg was the first
on the scene to pick up the album for the U.S. market -- not only because
of his deep identification with the classic Motown, but because of the new
era of the company, as well. “He’s done such amazing things, totally
against the grain, on behalf of his artists right now. I’d been afraid
to come out in the current market, because this isn’t a hip-hop album,
and I was wondering: Who’s gonna help me do this? Then, it just clicked.
This is what Kedar does -- with Erykah Badu, with India.Arie. I’m feeling
confident about that now.”
Visit the official
Remy Shand website
for more information and to preview the new album.
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