Bobby Valentino – Interview

Bobby Valentino is an up and coming R&B star and we talk to him!

We need to learn a little about you… how did you get signed?

I used to be in a group called Mista and we had a song called “Blackberry Molasses.” I got out of the deal I was in and had two or three albums worth of material that I’ve been working on and I got it to Poon Daddy and Ludacris and its history from there.

Before Mista how long had you been at making music?

Along time. I’ve been doing it all my life—probably ten or eleven years now.

It’s funny because people probably think you came from no where.

People don’t realize how long it takes or how hard the struggle is. This business is so competitive now and it’s a long, hard struggle. It’s worth it at the end of the day.

Do you see American Idol as the easy way?

Really, American Idol is not easy. You have all those people trying to do it and they only pick one. It’s hard to get to know you and know their talents. It’s not really the easy way because in this game today there is no easy way. You just have to keep going forward and don’t give it up.

You’ve been at it for ten years and at any point you could have gave up but you didn’t.

Well I just graduated from college.

Congrats.

Thanks. I wanted to have some things to fall back on. I didn’t know whether or not this was going to work for me. I didn’t know if I was going to get another deal or another chance. That’s why I called the album Give Me A Chance because I’m getting a second chance.

Music is one place where it’s nearly impossible to get a first chance and even harder to have a second chance.

Exactly. That is really what the album concept is about.

What did you study?

I got a degree in Mass Communications. I was originally in Music but I decided to learn radio and TV production—how to edit and shoot and do storyboards. I actually wrote the treatment for my first video.

Did you get out of the music major because it’s more western classical style music and not popular?

Yeah. It was more operatic. I was learning a lot of that and it was cool, I studied it for a year and a half, but that was enough.

I know what you mean. You don’t learn anything that’s happened in the last hundred or so years.

Right, you learn about Bach and Beethoven. It’s great to know about because you need to learn your history.

Was music natural?

Yeah, I started out on the trumpet which was good because I got to learn about the notes and different harmonies. When I got in middle school I would sing on the school bus and everyone who could sing would sing on the bus. And the girls would be like “ooh Bobby you can sing” and after that I tried to learn as much as I could.

When did singing go from being merely fun to something you’d do for a living?

When I was in middle school and I was singing and this dude was going to high school, he’d be on our bus because it was a performance art school, so I met this dude and he introduced me to someone that wanted me in his group. That’s how we formed Mista. That’s when I realized. I used to perform and being in plays and my dad had me in acting schools when I was little.

How long have you been working on the solo album?

Since 2000.

How much has the music changed since then?

Really, I think I’ve got with better producers who are before their time because I know good music and listen to older music. When I started working on my solo album, a few songs made the albums from 2002, and that lets me know they are timeless records.

What timeless artists do you love?

Anita Baker, the Isley Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Prince. Those are timeless artists to me. I forgot Jodeci. I tried to put a feel on my album like those artists with my own Valentino twists. You’ll hear a lot of things on the album that sound familiar but are new.

Did you write all the songs?

I wrote on every record. I had to make sure I put my two cents in so I came across how I wanted to.

Would it have worked if you had to sing someone else’s words?

It is hard for me to sing something someone else wrote because it’s not me. I felt like I had to come up with a lot of concepts so it felt like me and when I perform it is me.

When you were on the bus back in school who did you like to perform as?

Boyz II Men. We also liked to sing Shai and Jodeci.

I remember when “Motown Philly” came out and no one heard anything like that.

That was when R&B was real. There was no rap in it and people were really feeling it. I wanted to be one of those artists that bring back R&B.

Shai did it a cappella.

Yeah. We used to perform their songs at talent shows.

I miss that. I want to hear it again.

Oh you’re going to hear it because Valentino’s bringing it back (We both laugh)

+ Charlie Craine