RYAN LOREN: So Abiah, welcome.
ABIAH: Thank you very much.
RYAN LOREN: It's so good to have you here.
I'm really looking forward to this evening.
It's going to be great.
ABIAH: I'm excited to be here.
RYAN LOREN: Excellent.
So the first thing I wanted to talk about
is just give us a little bit of background
on how you came up and started your music career
and what your influences were growing up.
ABIAH: I started singing when I was about nine years old.
And I come from a slightly musical family.
My mother was a pianist for the late opera singer William
Warfield.
So I grew up around classical music,
and obviously, I grew up, I used to go to church,
and I started in the choir.
But when I was about nine years old,
I heard Anita Baker sing "Sweet Love,"
and I fell in love with her voice, but also with music,
at the moment.
So I started writing feverishly.
I would even fake sick to stay home and try to write songs.
And within a year, I had written a whole album of songs,
and I was writing and writing and writing.
By 12, I probably wrote 100 songs.
And so I had the bug very early.
RYAN LOREN: That's great.
When I stayed home from school, I was not doing these things.
Playing video games, and you know.
So that's great.
You got the passion from a very early age
ABIAH: Absolutely.
RYAN LOREN: So can you talk to me about your writing process?
Is it the same every time, or do you-- how does
it evolve for you?
ABIAH: Honestly, I think because I started so young,
the craft was being honed at a very young age.
Obviously went through high school,
I went to performing arts high school,
the same school that Taye Diggs attended, and Tweet the singer.
And so, I had this really wonderful process
of people around me.
But for me, writing, music comes to me pretty whole,
it's very through composed.
So when I get a song, usually the lyrics, the melody,
the whole arrangement comes at one time.
RYAN LOREN: OK.
And that leads me to my next question.
Was your album, "Life is a Ballad," from what I recall,
it was written and done and recorded
in a very short period of time.
ABIAH: Yes, I wrote the songs, majority of them,
within two weeks of the recording,
and recorded the whole record in one day.
RYAN LOREN: OK.
If you wouldn't mind, I would like
to recite a few lyrics of yours.
ABIAH: Sure.
RYAN LOREN: So here we go.
It's not the same.
Every day whispers your name.
Since you've been gone, the wind stops moving.
Now that you're gone, it's a barren place.
Since you've been gone, my heart is silent.
Life is a ballad, the saddest song.
So if I had to guess, you've been through some things,
you know.
But tell me where the title of the album came from,
and also what inspired you to write this particular song.
Because I find it gorgeous.
Like, it's hard for me to even keep a straight face
while reading that because I want to tear up.
But it's beautiful, and I just wanted to ask you about that.
ABIAH: I appreciate that.
"Life is a Ballad," the title actually came to me
about four years ago.
So even before I wrote the record,
I had the title for the record.
I knew what it was going to be called,
but I didn't have the song yet, that one particular song.
But just before Oprah Winfrey went off the network,
I was watching her show, and it was around the time
that Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter had died.
He was killed by the stingray.
And his wife and his children were on there
and they were crying.
And the wife said, ever since he left, the wind stopped moving.
And it touched me very deeply.
And the song just started pouring out of me,
and I really like 15 minutes.
I was waiting for the inspiration of the title,
and it made perfect sense at that moment.
RYAN LOREN: That's great.
So when you write, it's not only from your own experiences.
Is that true?
ABIAH: Yeah, "Life is a Ballad" is unlike my first album.
This album was really not so autobiographical.
Only two songs are my real life stories, "Foolish Heart"
and "Turn the Light On," which is, I know,
one of your favorites.
But the rest of the record was really
about me just being a storyteller
and telling stories.
I mean, when you have great friends
and you experience people's stories
through their own heart, I think, their own experiences,
it can inspire you.
And I happen to be drawn to melancholy.
Even when I'm in the happiest moments of my life,
for some reason I can always write from a very sad place.
But in the midst of that, I think there's always hope.
RYAN LOREN: Yeah, I think that's a common thread
throughout the whole album for those of you
who haven't listened to it, and I would suggest you should.
OK, so a couple of things before we wrap up.
I know you do vocal coaching--
ABIAH: I do.
RYAN LOREN: --as well.
Just real quick, what's one of the challenges
you face with that, and what's one thing you like
a lot about it, to both sides of that?
ABIAH: The first part is that people
come in a lot of times with the wrong expectation.
I think we live in a very microwave society,
and people want quick results like that.
But someone like me, people come to me because of my reputation
as a singer.
But I put years into my craft of working on it
and making sure that I'm a singer worthy of the calling.
And so, when people come in and they say,
oh, I want to sound like Beyonce.
Well, there's only one Beyonce.
And you may not have that talent,
but let's see what we can do by sculpting and working
on the craft to be the best thing that we
can be based on what God has given us.
But what I love about it is the process.
I think that if someone is patient and willing
to be vulnerable and do the homework, meaning study,
I think that it's an incredible experience to watch people.
Even the singer, Kimberly Nicole,
who's performing tonight, she's someone that I coach.
And to see her who's a bit more seasoned as a singer,
and to be able to add to what she does, is a real person.
RYAN LOREN: That's great.
I'm going to have to disagree with one thing.
I sound a lot like Beyonce.
ABIAH: Oh really?
That's your shower voice.
RYAN LOREN: Great.
So I want to play a game with you real fast.
It's called Bob Dylan or Backstreet Boys.
If you could just tell me, is this Bob Dylan
or Backstreet Boys?
OK.
If not for you, babe, I couldn't find the door.
Couldn't even see the floor.
I'd be said and blue if not for you.
Bob Dylan, or Backstreet Boys?
ABIAH: Backstreet Boys.
RYAN LOREN: Bob Dylan.
No.
It's a tough one.
I think this these very, very well.
OK.
So--
ABIAH: Yes you did.
RYAN LOREN: Tell us, levity aside, what's next for you
after Life is a Ballad?
ABIAH: So already, based on the response of "Life is a Ballad,"
I've decided to record a new record already.
So I'm going to go in the studio probably within the next four
to six weeks and knock out a new record.
Yeah, so that's what's on the plate,
and I'm really excited about it
RYAN LOREN: Great.
Well, thanks so much for being here.
ABIAH: Thank you, Ryan.
RYAN LOREN: Yeah, definitely.
Cool.
ABIAH: Thank you.