Sunshine Anderson - Brief Article

Interview, June, 2001 by Dimitri Ehrlich

TRUE TO HER NAME, THIS SOUL SINGER IS RADIANT AND RED HOT

Call her a diva in training. Or the artist with the hippest manager on earth. Whatever you do, don't call Sunshine Anderson an overnight sensation. Although she's now as ubiquitous as her namesake, it was nine years ago that the Charlotte, North Carolina, native signed to an indie label called Soulife Records and began honing her vocals in the recording studio. It took until this year, however, for Atlantic Records to begin distributing Soulife, and in April, the new partners released Anderson's debut, Your Woman, an innovative, celebratory set of R&B, hip-hop and soul that feels like an automatic party in your stereo. "We're one big family," Anderson says of Soulife. "A lot of us live together and we argue and we fuss and fight. We've known each other for years."

Soulife's CEO, Chris Dawley, had been a longtime friend of Macy Gray's when he introduced the Grammy-winning singer to Anderson. The two quickly became friends and soon Gray offered her services as a manager, signing Anderson to Scam Inc., a new multimedia entertainment company Gray is building. "She loved my music and she wanted to be involved," Anderson says.

"Heard it all Before," Anderson's body-thumping first single--with its sassy dressing-down of a boyfriend who comes home "smelling like a fragrance that I don't even wear"--shot to number one on urban radio playlists. The song is a 21st-century version of Aretha Franklin's "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," proving that while her name may be Sunshine, she's not afraid to shy away from the stormy side of love.

"Sunshine's music is fresh," says Gray. "It's like straight-up black music. But not gold chains and all that--it's not typical. She's like your buddy; she's totally approachable, but she's still a star. My connection to her was sort of a motherly thing. I wanted to take care of her. And we've been rolling ever since."

"A lot of people think it's a conflict of interest because she's so busy with her own career, and how will she have time?" Anderson says of her famous manager. "But when I need Macy I can get my hands on her. She gives me great advice because she's been in this business for a while, it's important to have this type of guidance. And wherever we go she's always telling people, 'Sunshine is hot! She has hits!' I feel safe with her on my side, and she looks out for me."

Dimitri Ehrlich is Interview's Music Editor at Large.

"The fact that Macy Gray manages her was what initially piqued my interest," says Dimitri Ehrlich, Interview's Music Editor at Large, of new soul sensation Sunshine Anderson. "Since then, everyone from Missy Elliott to Elton John has identified her as the singer to watch this summer." Ehrlich, who also profiled Shea Seger, another rising music star, for this issue [page 32], moonlights as a writer for the nationally syndicated entertainment TV show The Source: All Access.