Cox rocks - interview with singer Deborah Cox - Interview

Interview, May, 1999 by Rebecca Wallwork

With her shimmering, heart-stoppingly beautiful voice, dance-floor queen Deborah Cox has been bringing down the house - again and again

Don't call Deborah Cox a diva. It's her soul-injected four-octave voice, not grand posturing or Industry hype, that has propelled her to stardom. Cox's 1995 self-titled debut went platinum overseas, and a 1997 Hex Hector remix of "Things Just Ain't the Same" held dance clubs hostage for over a year. Still, it wasn't until the full glory of her voice was unleashed on the gospel-rooted "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" - from her 1998 sophomore album One Wish - that America started to take notice of the Toronto-born singer. The song shot to the top spot on Billboard's R&B charts and stayed there for a record-breaking fourteen weeks, a testament to Cox's star power - but what's most Important to this trend-dodging twenty-five-year-old is staying power. This month she kicks off a stadium tour supporting the king of R&B raunch, R. Kelly. We caught up with her after a club performance in Miami, where her steely determination to stay true to her musical Instincts was sweetly rewarded as the entire crowd joined her in bolting out hits.

REBECCA WALLWORK: Did you have any idea "Nobody's Supposed to Be Here" was going to be so successful?

DEBORAH COX: No. When I first heard the song, I knew it had hit potential, but it's really surpassed everything I expected.

RW: Tell me about shooting the video for the song.

DC: Whew! It was hot. We did it in Louisiana and there were bugs I'd never seen before. [laughs] We were actually on plantations where slaves had lived, so it was quite humbling. Part of the reason Darren [Grant, the director] wanted to shoot down South was because the song has such a gospel feel, so we decided we should set it where gospel originated.

RW: How did you get into singing?

DC: I was born and raised in Toronto with my two sisters. My parents are Guyanese and my mother remarried, so I grew up in a West Indian-Canadian household. Music was something that was always there. Artists like Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Tina Turner, Billie Holiday, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder were constantly on my mother's turntable. I went to Catholic school until eighth grade; then I decided I wanted to pursue music, so I went to a performing arts high school.

RW: Did you have a Fame kind of experience?

DC: [laughs] That's what I thought would happen, but it didn't work out that way. The school's focus was classical and jazz, which wasn't what I wanted to do. But it opened my eyes to classical music, and that became my foundation for vocal training.

RW: How did you land your record deal?

DC: When I was sixteen I was working with bands in Toronto and doing commercial jingles. I hooked up with a producer-songwriter-bass player named Lascelles Stephens. We had meetings with record companies and got a lot of encouragement - and a lot of rejections. But we were persistent and finally we got the tape to Clive Davis at Arista.

RW: What was that first meeting like?

Be: It was very intimidating. I changed my outfit about ten times - I didn't know what was appropriate to wear to a meeting with the CEO of a record company. [laughs] I was very nervous because I knew Clive's history and the success of the label. My whole perception of this big music mogul changed when we met because he was so down-to-earth.

RW: He also discovered Whitney Houston, right?

PC: Yeah, and because of that there were a lot of comparisons with her when the first album came out. Everyone expected me to become the next diva. [laughs] But I decided not to let that pressure me into being something I'm not. I met Whitney for the first time three years ago, and this year we met again at Clive's pre-Grammy party. He invited all of us onstage - I found myself singing with her and our friendship really opened up. We're not dueling artists.

RW: Were you a big fan?

DC: Huge fan. She inspired me because she was one of the only black artists they played in Canada in the '80s. I never heard Gladys [Knight] or Patti [La-Belle] on mainstream radio. It was Whitney Houston.

RW: You sang backup for Celine Dion before you got your deal. What did you learn from her?

DC: To be very disciplined. She doesn't talk or sing before her performances, and I try to do that, too. I take certain precautions with my voice now. And I'm building up stamina, making sure I do my vocal exercises.

RW: What do you think took One Wish to the next level?

DC: After the first album, I switched management and tightened up the business side of things. I came to understand that it is a business - it's not about friendship. That allowed me to be freer, artistically.

RW: What risks would you like to take with your music?

DC: I did a dancehall, reggae type of song with Dallas Austin for this album, but it didn't make the record. Reggae's definitely something I want to explore in the future because it's a part of my history. I heard a lot of Bob Marley growing up, as well as Miriam Makeba and Peter Tosh.

RW: Your music also reminds me of British soul.