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How long did it take you to record your new album "Every Woman
Dreams?"
Shanice Wilson-What I did
was the second half I recorded those songs after I had my daughter
four years ago. The first half of the album it took me like
maybe a month to record the first half. I was just in the studio
everyday just writing and recording writing and recording every
day. So it took a month or a little over a month to record the
first half.
I was looking at your website while I was preparing for the
interview and I notice that you have your own record label now
and you mentioned the constraints of a major label. As an artist
at a major label what kind of constraints did you face?
Shanice Wilson-Well for
one thing when you have your own label you see money from day
one, from your first record sales. When you are with a major
label you are constantly recouping the money that they spent
on the project. Sometimes they can spend millions of dollars
on one project. You are just constantly paying back the record
company all of the money that they spent and you don't make
money until you pay them back all of their money. That was one
thing and also I feel like having my own label I get to do things
the way I want to do it. For instance I co-wrote on this album
12 songs and I co-produced half of the album and I just had
total control over my image, the music, just everything. I just
felt like for the first time in my career I was able to be myself.
In the past I feel like some of those songs weren't me they
were the label. So…those are things I kinda had to deal with.
The imaging and the styling and everything with this project
just seems so on point. How did you go about assembling a team
for this project?
Shanice Wilson-I feel like
God just put every… everything just fell into place. I met with
a writer her name is Freckles and she has written songs for
Janet and R. Kelly just everybody and she hooked me up with
the engineer that I worked with and she hooked me up with the
stylist. The picture of me on the inside with my finger in my
mouth, she hooked me up with the stylist who worked on that
and the stylist hooked me up with the photographer. Everything
just started falling right into place.
Will you go on the road to promote this new album?
Shanice Wilson-Yeah I've
been on a promotional tour but I definitely want to go out there
and do a live tour with a band this summer.
I had your fans send in questions and although slightly different
most of them came back to the same thing. How will you manage
going onto the road and mother hood?
Shanice Wilson-I've been
thinking about that. Normally on the promo tour I'm on I'm gone
for the weekend and then I am home for the week but when I do
this tour for the summer maybe have my mom to tour with me because
my daughter is going to be out of school for the summer, I have
to have my kids with me. I can't be away from my kids.
The Dixie Chicks are taking their kids with them and they have
like 6 or 7 kids between them.
Shanice Wilson-Yeah they
will just have to roll with me I can't be away from my kids.
When Flex was working on One on One I would take the
kids down to the set so they could watch him working. I think
it's kind of cool to include them.
One of your first songs I really remember because we are
in the same age range is "I Love Your Smile." What was your
career like at that time?
Shanice Wilson-Very, very,
very busy. "I Love Your Smile" was number one is 17 countries
and it was a really big song for me. I was never home. I was
always on the road whether it be in Europe or Japan, I was just
traveling a lot. Just busy, busy, busy.
I know you told me you recorded half of the album several years
ago and half later on in between that time did you go in the
studio or do any recording work?
Shanice Wilson-Yeah I kept
writing I have a writer that I work with his name is Jamie Jazz
and he actually worked with me on the second half of the album.
Yeah I didn't just stop. I didn't like take a four year break
and just start again. I kept writing songs just to write because
I love writing.
How did you get back in such great shape after having children?
Shanice Wilson-I box twice
a day. I took a boxing class and my class is very intense. It's
a class that's an hour and a half and it's just straight boxing
for an hour and a half. The music is really, really fast and
you have to box to the beat and I mean I lost weight really
fast in that class. Laila Ali took my class once and she told
me my class was really hard and she is a professional boxer.
I'm still not where I want to be so I have some more working
out to get to where I want to be but that is how I lost the
majority of the weight. I took carbs out of my diet. I stopped
eating bread and no friend foods no fried foods. Grilled chicken,
grilled fish, vegetables you have to eat every two to three
hours to keep your metabolism going so you have to eat to keep
it up.
You've been doing this since you were a teenager and now
obviously you are an adult. What is the difference between doing
this as a teenager and now as an adult?
Shanice Wilson-Well the
difference is when I was a teenager all I wanted to do was sing.
I didn't care about the business part of it I just wanted to
be up on stage and that was it. Now that I am an adult I am
more involved on the business end. It's challenging. Back then
I didn't care about anything but singing.
Is it a challenge being a part of a celebrity couple in the
entertainment industry?
Shanice Wilson-For us no.
My husband and I before we got married and got together we were
best friends. We only officially dated for four months before
we got married. We had such a good friendship and we still have
that same friendship that we had before we got married and I
think that's important. We pray a lot together and I think prayer
is what holds any marriage together. We are in the industry
but we are not of the industry. We don't let the industry phase
us.
This is a fan submitted question I don't know if you will remember
this but they said "Ask her if the song she did with Darius
ever came into fruition from the Family Matters episode."
Shanice Wilson-Oh yeah.
No we just did it on that one show and that was it. As a matter
of fact I just saw Darius recently at a funeral and his uncle
actually wrote the song and he brought it up to me not too long
ago but we never recorded it.
Do you actually have time to write back all the fans who write
you or do you try? (fan submitted question)
Shanice Wilson-I try.
On my Myspace I actually take some of the messages and I talk
to them on camera so that I can get back to everyone.
I think I know the answer to this because I saw it on the
website. You did some acting in the 90's is this something that
you plan to pursue again?
Shanice Wilson-Yes. I've
done Broadway, television appearances actually I did a BET movie
called One Special Moment. I definitely want to do more acting.
I would love to do acting in film. When the right script comes
along I am definitely going to take the opportunity.
What was it like working with Sheila E for the remix on this
current project?
Shanice Wilson-She played
percussions on the first song and it was so exciting for me
because when I grew up I was the biggest Sheila E fan. I saw
the movie Krush Groove and I wanted my hair like her
and everything. So to have her on my album was exciting. I was
trying to act cool in front of her but once she left I called
all my friends like, "Oh my God I just worked with Sheila E."
It was exciting. She is so down to earth and she is very spiritual
and before we even started recording we prayed together and
it was just very pleasant working with her.
Do you have any plans in the future to manage or produce any
other artists?
Shanice Wilson-Well we have
our own label so I definitely want to sign other artists. I
don't know if I would have the time to manage an artist but
I would definitely like to sign them to my label.
The last question. Your first album Discovery was 19 years ago.
What have you learned being in the industry this long?
Shanice Wilson-The main
thing that I have learned is that you have gotta have and you
have got to be yourself. Don't try to be something that you
are not. I say this all the time I am just so happy that with
this project I can just be who I am. Over the years I have always
tried to please the record label there were always songs they
tried to force on me or certain looks they tried to force on
me and I think I have learned it's very important to be yourself
and back in the day I was so shy I was scared to tell them I
didn't like this song or I didn't like this look I feel like
it's important to be who you are and not be forced into something
that you don't want to do.
Related Links-http://www.shaniceonline.com/
www.myspace.com/imeshanice
 Interview
copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2005
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be
My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned
Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the
founder of Thabiz.com and
Imissthe80s.com and
writes for the Rap,
Teen, and 1980s
section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer
and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising
inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying
entertainment jobs, or general comments.
Visit Dorrie on the web at www.sparkledoll.com
or e-mail her at webmaster@thabiz.com.
May not be reprinted, copied or distributed.
Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, imissthe80s.com
2006
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