RYAN LOREN: All right, everybody.
We're here to welcome Gordon Chambers.
I'm so happy to have you here.
It's been a long time coming.
And Gordon, for those of you who don't know,
is probably one of the best writers in existence.
That's just one man's opinion, but that's mine.
And so I'm going to talk to you a little bit about your writing
process and all of that.
But first, can you take us back to the beginnings
and how you got started?
I know you've had quite a background,
and just take us back.
GORDON CHAMBERS: It began-- it was all a dream.
I used to read "Word Up" magazines.
Give love to Brooklyn and Biggie Smalls, y'all.
Brooklyn in the house?
AUDIENCE: Brooklyn!
GORDON CHAMBERS: But I have lived
in Brooklyn for the last 15 years or so.
But I was born in the Bronx, but raised
in a wonderful community called Teaneck, NJ.
And I think some Teaneck people are here.
And I'm grateful for my town, because it
was a town where there were just a wonderful group
of supportive parents, my parents, and music teachers.
And when I was in sixth grade, I was writing songs.
I was given an assignment to write a short story
about the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull."
And being the Libra creative person that I am,
I said well, instead of writing a short story, I wrote a song.
And I showed the teacher the song.
And she said, well, that's a really good song.
She said, why don't we teach this to all the sixth graders?
And so she taught to all the sixth graders.
And it was performed in a sixth grade
assembly for all the kids.
And then later on in high school,
I continued writing songs.
And one of my best friends in high school
was murdered by her boyfriend.
Donyel Morton-- may she ever rest in peace.
And after she passed, I needed to do something
to process my feelings.
And I wrote a song called "Always Be There."
And once again, I showed it to some of the teachers
at the school, and they were very moved by the song.
And I shared it with her parents.
And one of the teachers was a dance choreographer
at the school, Ms. Miller-- and she
said, I'm going to choreograph something to this song,
so that this will forever live in the Teaneck Terpsichoreans
repertoire.
So she choreographed something.
And then other students came forward.
We'll do a poem.
And then we'll do something.
So the birth of that song created a whole evening
where 2,000 people came to just give
creative remembrances of Donyel.
So I really felt like God had chosen me
as a child to provide songs that could inspire
and that could heal.
And so after that, I went to college.
I went to Brown University, kept on writing.
Then I took a job at "Essence" magazine
and became the entertainment editor of "Essence."
And I served in that position for seven years.
And that was a great networking place.
And so while I was there hanging out,
I met a wonderful lady, Phyllis Hyman,
AUDIENCE: Oooh.
GORDON CHAMBERS: Who's also-- may she rest in peace.
And she took me under her wing.
And I also met Queen Latifah.
And so Queen Latifah and Phyllis Hyman
were the first two superstars who not only became friends
but mentors and had me write on some of their albums.
And then I met other people like producers Barry Eastman
and Dave Hall and then started writing
some of the songs that became number one hits and sold
millions of records.
God is good.
So some of those songs include Anita Baker's "I Apologize,"
Brown Stones' "If You Love Me, Say It,"
the theme from "Set It Off," "Missing You" by Brandy, Tamia,
Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan, as well as cuts for Whitney
Houston, Tamia, Brandy, Gladys Knight, Marc Anthony,
Patti LaBelle, Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan and 75 recording artists.
Thank you, Lord.
[APPLAUSE]
RYAN LOREN: Great.
I am curious about this.
And I ask other artists too, but can you talk about the process
you use to write and how it happens.
Is it different every time?
Do you create conditions that make it happen?
Or what do you do?
GORDON CHAMBERS: I have different writing process.
It just depends what it is.
I mean, some songs of mine, I write at the piano,
and they tend to be more ballads.
But a lot of times, collaborations
are about opposites attracting.
So a lot of my songs have been written
with producers that were quote unquote "beat guys."
But the producers that I got a chance to work with
were more than just beat people.
Stevie J and Dave Hall-- these are
guys who had real fabulous musicianship on top
of their beats.
But they had hard beats.
They knew how to knock their heads in the studio.
My glasses are falling off.
But it was like I was the man who
would come in with the melody on top,
and they would have the beat knocking.
And that's how you had that great opposites attract
of music.
So sometimes, it was a situation of being given a great track.
You know that "If You Love Me" was a track
that Dave Hall presented me.
And he gave it to me on a CD.
And one morning-- I'm Jamaican-- so
know Jamaicans are notoriously late.
I was on time today.
But Jamaicans are notoriously late.
So one day I was on my way late to my job
at "Essence" magazine, I swear to God.
It just started to pour rain as I was thinking about what
lie I could call Susan Taylor with and tell her
I was going to be late.
Because I had every lie in the book.
The cat, the grandmother died, the this, the that,
blah blah blah.
So what lie can I tell?
And I swear, God was like don't tell any more lies.
Because the rain started pouring down.
I popped Dave Hall's track into the CD player of my car.
And all I heard were those chords
and the words-- the first line of "If You Love Me" came to me.
"I don't want to rain on this parade" inspired by the rain,
as I was late to work.
So songs can come anywhere.
I've literally had songs hit me.
One day, I was getting a haircut.
I was in the barber shop.
And just this idea came to me.
And the barber scratched my head,
because I was like, I need-- I need a pen.
He's like I'm about to cut you!
And he really did cut me, with the barber thing.
But that was when the words to a song that I wrote for Brandy
called "One Voice," they came to me immediately.
So I think being a songwriter is about being open,
having something to say.
But it's also being very attuned.
It takes being a sensitive person.
You have to be in touch with your emotions.
You can't be the alpha male to be a great songwriter.
You really have to be the sensitive male.
You have to know what you feel and be able to articulate it,
because the women audience, they get it right away.
But it's interesting, since I've become a performer and not
just a songwriter, I have found that my songs now-- especially
the songs on my solo albums-- are
speaking to the men very poignantly.
A lot of the men have told me that buy my records
and they go to my concerts.
They said, thank you for saying for me
what I didn't have the emotional sensitivity
and that kind of courage to say.
So it's about being open.
RYAN LOREN: Great, thanks.
Thanks very much.
So can you talk about-- obviously,
you're not just a writer.
You're also a performer, singer, artist.
So what was the critical point where you decided all right,
I'm going to do this.
GORDON CHAMBERS: It had been in my mind for a long time.
Because I was in the studio all the time
writing songs for other artists, people
don't realize that I sang all of those songs first.
I did the demo for "I Apologize."
I did the demo for "Missing You."
I did the demo for "If You Love Me."
So the artists who record the songs
were always listening to my voice.
I would lay the lead vocals and the background vocals.
So I always in the studios recording.
And I knew how to record and then
in my years as entertainment editor at "Essence,"
I was going to all the concerts.
I've seen everyone in concert.
And I was going backstage.
I was hanging out with the artist,
interviewing the artist.
So I was having the best artist development
that one could ever have, because I was seeing it
on the side of a journalist.
So I was really learning about the business,
but then there was the fear.
I was like afraid to step from one side to the other.
And it was something I wanted to do, but I was afraid to do it.
And then sometimes you just have to be open
and ask people for help.
And what happened was I started to-- not
get afraid of making the music, but afraid of asking
the very people around me to help me,
because I knew that I didn't have tons and tons of money,
but I wanted to make a quality project.
But the day that changed my life was I
was in the studio producing the late and great Whitney Houston.
And I was producing a song for her,
and I told her that I wanted her to hit a certain note.
Then I kept telling her to hit it higher and higher.
And then she looked me in the face,
she said, "I think you want to do what I do
and if that's what you want to do,
then that's what you need to do."
AUDIENCE: [LAUGHTER]
GORDON CHAMBERS: And I looked at her like what did she say.
She was really in my face too.
And I was like she's from Newark,
so when she's get in your face, it's
kind of-- so the Newark came on and the Brooklyn stepped back.
And I said, well, what do you mean?
She said, I think you want to sing.
And if that's what you want to do,
then that's what you should be doing.
And it was like one of those times
when an angel speaks Word into your life and you feel it.
And it penetrates your heart.
So shortly after that, I went to church, the Sunday after that,
and the minister, my minister, Pastor Trufant
in Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn,
gave a sermon about how not to wait.
Now is your time, whatever you want to do.
And he talked about how Jesus died at 36.
And many of the miracles that you read about
were done in the last three years of his life.
So he said, don't wait if there's
something you want to do.
And so after Whitney preached to me in the studio
and then Pastor Trufant preached to me, then I said it's time.
The universe is telling me.
And I called all my friends in the business.
And as I said, I think I'm ready to make a solo record.
And everyone said yes.
My producer, Troy Taylor, said come on through.
We're going to do it in my basement.
And we went to his basement.
My friend, the publicist, Gwendolyn Quinn, and these
are people I had all worked with at "Essence."
But I was afraid to ask them to help me on my own stuff.
Gwendolyn Quinn said I'll do your PR.
Everyone I reached out to said we
have been waiting for this moment.
And they all helped me.
Started booking shows, booked the very first show
at Joe's Pub.
I swear I thought 10 people were going to come.
They had to turn 200 people away.
Then the night at the album release,
we had the album release around the corner
at BB King's packed, packed, almost a sold out show.
It's just from the jump.
It's as if what the world had been waiting
for me to step into my greatness.
And sometimes that's what you have
to do is just listen to what the universe is trying to tell you
and don't be afraid to step into it.
RYAN LOREN: Perfect.
Thanks a lot.
Let's give it up for that.
Last question.
So about the music.
Talk to us about what the last album meant to you.
That was your third album "Sincere" and then what's next?
GORDON CHAMBERS: Every albums gets more and more personal.
The first album was called "Introducing Gordon Chambers,"
which featured collaborations with friends.
Roy Hargrove, Mike Phillips, Carl Thomas is on that album.
So the first album had a slightly different
jazzy feeling to it.
"Love Stories" featured a duet with Ledisi--
"To Love Again" which became a big hit
record on a lot of radio stations.
Then the third album, "Sincere," which is the most recent album.
I just wanted to make an album that I
thought was very, very personal.
And I wanted to make an album this time
from the perspective of being a live performer.
The first two levels were more from the perspective
of a songwriter that's writing and also sings.
This one started from the perspective of a performer.
And I want to give people lyrically a backstage, up close
and personal emotional look at what my life is.
I want to be more as vulnerable as I could be with the lyrics.
And that's why the first song of the album
is called "I'm In The Band," because it
was being written from that perspective.
I'm in the process of making another album called
"Conversations with God." and it's
going to be an inspirational album.
But it's going to have a spiritual tonality.
But I'm also talking about relationships.
I'm talking about life.
And I'm just getting more and more
vulnerable with each album.
I feel that the R&B male tradition
has been taken over by the sexuality.
And I want to provide more of the sensitivity
and the sensuality into the lyrical landscape.
RYAN LOREN: Amen to that.
So yeah.
[APPLAUSE]
RYAN LOREN: Thanks for being here.
Everybody, I've learned a lot from Gordon in my life.
We've known each other a few years.
You're a role model to many people,
GORDON CHAMBERS: Thank you.
RYAN LOREN: Thanks so much for being here.
GORDON CHAMBERS: Thank you for doing this-- for us here.
Thank you.
RYAN LOREN: Of course.
Thank you.
GORDON CHAMBERS: See you all later!