Feature
Sam Bostic: Staying Power
While a modern take on the Sixties retro-R&B sound may currently be conquering airwaves and charts worldwide to become today’s surprise pop-sound-of-the day, Californian singer/songwriter/ producer Sam Bostic has instead opted to tap into the Seventies sweet-soul vibe for his widely-acclaimed debut album ‘Soul Supreme’.
Primarily written, produced and performed by multi-instrumentalist Sam at his own House Of Soul recording studios (with a little help from friends Raphael Saadiq and John ‘Jubu’ Smith), the appropriately-titled ‘Soul Supreme’ sees Bostic cleverly updating the sophistication and haunting melodies of the aforementioned sweet-soul era - frequently with tougher, contemporary beats - on cuts ranging from the lilting, tuneful ‘Zodiac Sign’ and a respectful cover of The Stylistics’ stately 1973 ballad ‘Break Up To Make Up’; to the cinematic ghetto-hustler-going-straight tale of ‘Get Away’ and the gliding, horns-and-guitar-laced ‘Still Missing U’. As an articulate and polite Sam (who’s actually the nephew of Earl Bostic, the saxophonist who inspired the legendary John Coltrane) discusses with ‘B&S’ from his West Coast home.
“With this album I wanted to really combine the melody and textures of organic, true soul music, and make that clash and melt with today’s hard drum sounds to give it a little more of a street edge”, he begins enthusiastically: “Essentially, I wanted to make it attractive to both an older AND a younger crowd. You know, what usually moves the younger crowd is the beat - the harshness of the drum and the bass. So, to bring them to the party too, I had to make the bottom-end KNOCK a little bit harder.”
“And lyrically most of it was based on real experiences that we all go through”, he continues: “You know, I’m really picky about my lyrics - sometimes a little OVER-picky. But that’s because I think, back in the day, a lotta those great soul singers challenged your INTELLECT a little bit more. They had something to SAY! Also, if they were singing a love song, they really did pour their heart into it and really did draw you in. Whereas to me a lot of more recent music is very surface-y, and doesn’t really go deep. So, in contrast to that, I like to try and make my songs similar to an audio movie. When you put on a record of mine, I don’t only want you to be able to HEAR it, but to SEE what I’m talking about as well!”
Interestingly, Sam’s singing on ‘Soul Supreme’ sees the return to prominence of the falsetto male vocal - a sound which has all but disappeared from soul music since its heyday in the early Seventies, with acts like The Stylistics, Eddie Kendricks and Blue Magic: “Yeah, I agree with you. There’s definitely a void of falsetto singers today”, acknowledges Sam, before revealing how he first came to sing in falsetto as lead vocalist in late-Nineties R&B male trio Art’N’Soul (with whom he enjoyed US Top 20 success on Atlantic Records): “While I sang most of the Art’N’Soul album in my natural tenor voice, there was one track that I wrote called ‘Goin’ On’ where I did the whole song in falsetto. And the fact that everybody seemed to dig that song - we got a lotta requests for it at our shows - made me realise that a lotta people liked me singing in that high register. So for this solo album it just kinda naturally fell into place, where a lotta the stuff was written with that type of singing in mind. You know, while I was writing and recording I was listening to a lotta old falsetto singers - Curtis Mayfield, Stylistics - and that in turn just inspired me to go in that Seventies direction. I’d listen to their records, look at their artwork, and grab a bunch of Seventies movies like ‘Superfly’ and ‘Willie Dynamite’... I basically kinda travelled back in time, and just tried to recapture the whole vibe of that era. Even my STUDIO was decked-out like that too! So it all became a bit like a Seventies circus here!”
Initially growing up in a drug-and-crime-riddled neighbourhood of Richmond, California (the part of The Bay Area that inspired the Seventies blaxploitation movie ‘The Mack’), Sam first got into music through watching his father play: “Yeah, my dad was a musician. He had a band called The Western Union Band. They’d rehearse at my grandmother’s garage, then go out and do shows and travel for weeks on end. So, as a young kid, I’d go in and check them out, ‘cause I was always fascinated by watching them play their instruments. Then, when they’d leave, I’d ask my grandmother if I could go in there and play the instruments myself! And she’d be like ‘OK, as long as you don’t break anything!’. So, as soon as they’d finish rehearsing, I’d creep in there, start messing around - and eventually I just kinda taught myself how to play.”
“Then at one rehearsal they were having - I was all juiced-up, because by that point I knew I had something to show people - I kept begging my dad to let me get on the mic for a minute!”, continues Sam: “So - though at first he was like ‘Don’t bother me! I’m rehearsing! - eventually he let me. And, because from that I guess he’d seen that I really could do it, he put me on this little TV show he and his band were doing. And I’ll never forget going back to elementary school after I’d performed on that show! It was CRAZY! All the girls kept running up to me like ‘Oh, seen you on TV!’... And I was like ‘OK, you know what? I kinda DIG this!’!”
Despite his new album showcasing his unquestionable talents as a soul singer/songwriter, it was nevertheless as a West Coast hip hop producer that Bostic earned his first Gold and Platinum plaques; via his contributions to big-selling mid-Nineties albums from local Bay Area rappers E-40 and - more significantly - the since-deceased, now-iconic 2Pac Shakur: “Oh, that was CRAZY, man!”, he relates with pride: “My first encounter with 2Pac happened when E-40 featured him as a guest on his (million-selling ‘In A Major Way’) album, on a song called ‘Dusted And Disgusted’. He came in, he did his verse - and he was just so quick, so fast and so deep, it was like INCREDIBLE! I was like ‘Wow! This dude’s killing EVERYBODY in terms of his work ethic! He’s so full of ideas it’s UNBELIEVABLE!’! Then, after 2Pac listened to the track, he fell in love with the production and eventually ended up calling me back to work on his (Platinum-selling breakthrough) ‘Me Against The World’ album. So he brought me to LA, and we recorded a bunch of songs that ended up on that record... So yeah, working with 2Pac was a great experience. He truly was amazing.”
The album 'Soul Supreme' will be released September 29. The digital single 'Break Up 2 Make Up' is out now, both through Soul Jones Presents/Expansion
Words PETE LEWIS
