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With a career spanning some 30 years and countless albums both as a solo artist and featured vocalist, Maysa Leak stands as a hugely experienced artist within an industry in flux. Having graced recordings by Stevie Wonder and the Jean-Paul “Bluey” Maunick led outfit Incognito (among others), her majestic voice stands as an underrated gem of the highest quality. In the run-up to the forthcoming March 31st release of her fourteenth solo album Music For Your Soul, I had the chance to talk with her about the state of the industry and how she stays on top of her game producing her winning brand of soul music.
Good morning! Thank you so much for joining me so early! I know you had a show in Philadelphia last night—are you home now?
I just got back! We went to the casino and then drove back. Literally stepped through the door thirty minutes ago!
Then I definitely need to say thank you again!
I’m on my second or third or fifth wind now!
We better get going then—I’ve spoken to people recently on the cusp of releasing their debut albums and they’ve spoken about the mixed feelings around it. What feelings and memories do you have around your debut release (1995’s Maysa)?
Oh my God! Back in 1995, it was the old record company model where you were treated like a star! Everything was paid for (but I didn’t know I was paying for it eventually!). Car services and so on and the release party was at the top of the Empire State Building—it was crazy! So posh and fun. It was a great time to be a solo artist trying to make it happen.
Maysa’s new album ‘Music For Your Soul’ arrives in stores March 31st
When you sat there preparing for the release of that debut, did you dare to imagine that you’d be sitting here now with album number 14 ready to go?
That is actually mind-blowing to me that I’m here. I pray for longevity. When I was on my parent’s basement floor, wearing my headphones, I was asking God how do I get from here to there? You know, people paying to hear me sing, buying my records—how do I get there? It just came together beautifully, like magic. Every step from Stevie (Wonder) to Incognito to my solo deal was a magical moment.
So, tell me about this new album then! How excited are you? Are you ready for the onslaught that comes with it?
Absolutely! It’s a huge record and my colleagues wondered what was going on—they said nobody’s attention span can cope with 19 songs! This is going to be playing in the background of people’s parties, when people take long drives. There’s a lot of people who need a get-away and I’m here for that. My parents used to listen to albums for hours and hours! I love listening to albums. That was my thing—I didn’t do parties (my dad didn’t let me!) I had books, TV, music all there at home.
Are there any special guests we should listen out for?
Frank McComb, Noel Gourdin, Kirk Whalum, Chris Walker—oh, who else is on there?!
I’ve caught you here, haven’t I?
A lot of great musicians, producers and songwriters! One of my background singers helped me write the title track “Music For Your Soul.” I wrote the chorus and a couple of words, but I couldn’t quite figure out the rest and then she came back with the whole thing! I remember crying—it was exactly what I wanted to say. I had a little writer’s block during this thing too, as so much of my work is about being in love or heartbroken and I’m not any of those things right now!
The album is “me,” but its slightly different, I think. I kept having a dream about the expanse of the galaxy and universe and vibrating on a higher frequency. I was really overwhelmed with it all so some songs have that theme to it. But it’s a feel-good R&B album!
In preparing for our conversation, I was trying to put myself in your shoes and trying to imagine what it was like to go straight out of college to working with Stevie Wonder? How does your brain cope with that?
It was amazing! My best friend Kim Brewer was already working with Stevie and they were good friends, and I was able to speak to him on the phone. So I already had a small relationship and developed some rapport with him before any audition came along. And when the audition finally came ‘round, he was really understanding about my situation. I had a year left with my college study and I wanted to finish it, and he said to wait and come see him when it was done. A lot of people couldn’t understand the thinking—to turn Stevie down sounded crazy. But he was so gracious and sweet about it. I was just in the right place at the right time to do the Jungle Fever soundtrack with him.
You could probably talk for hours about this, but what did you learn from your time working with Stevie?
What I learned the most was how to work with people who are at a certain level. He’s not a “diva” or difficult to work with. I had a lot of fun, but he’s a serious, hard-working man too. I was able to live in that world for a while. We toured the TV shows at the time—Oprah, Letterman, Johnny Carson. We did all of them. It was a great experience being in Wonderlove and being the “newbie.” I had to take a little ribbing from the older members, so that was part of growing up in the environment.
You spoke about praying for longevity on your parent’s basement floor—when did you begin to sing? And when did you begin to think about singing as what you could and should do with your life?
According to my mom, I started singing when I was two years old. Whenever anyone came to the front door, I would run to it and start singing and dancing. Anybody at all! When I was 6 years old, my mom took me to see the play Purlie starring Melba Moore and I remember so vividly sitting in the seat, with my feet barely touching the floor, and the lights going down. And when the lights came back up, the colors, the setting, the costumes, dancers and music just overwhelmed me. It made me feel so good and even at the age of 6, I knew I wanted to make people feel that way too. That is what I wanted to do.
I didn’t develop into being a singer until I maybe got to middle school when I would do talent shows and stuff. People would compliment my voice and that’s when I started realizing that maybe I had something. I did a bit of pop stuff, but then when I was at Morgan State University and we were on a tour bus, I was singing an Anita Baker song and people said I sounded just like her! But I didn’t want to sound like Anita, I wanted to sound like me! So that’s when I started to develop my sound by listening to a lot of jazz music and instrumental music.
Where did that early singing come from? Were your parents musical?
My mother was a singer, but she didn’t get any support when she was a teenager so she stopped. But she had a beautiful voice. My father was a mechanic, but he had a beautiful baritone voice. Our house was filled with music all day and all night.
What were the first things you remember listening to?
Parliament-Funkadelic! Everything Motown. My mother was a big funk and R&B fan. The Spinners, The Whispers, The Bar-Kays—anything like that.
So straight from working with Stevie, you had a phone audition for Incognito, is that right?
I did. The audition for Stevie was in person. He had come to the university to sing for a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration and Kim asked if I could audition for him. So we went to Stevie’s hotel and he had this conference room set up with keyboards etc. The audition was very difficult.
Do you remember what you had to do for him?
He had me sing all these scales. In different keys. Different patterns. He’d play something and I had to sing it back to him. It was intense!
So back to Incognito!
Yeah, Stevie had gone on tour to Brazil and taken all the older people with him, so I had to get a job. I worked at several stores and such, and then one of Stevie’s singers, Bridget Bryan, put my name forward for a producer named Stephen Harvey who was working on some music and wanted a jazzy sounding singer.
So we began a working relationship and then he said one of his best friends in England was looking for a new featured vocalist for his band (Incognito). And I was clueless—there was no Google back in the day! I went to the record store and found the “Always There” single and that worked for me.
Then one day, Bluey called me after work and he said he wanted to get to know me and so we had a long conversation about music and stuff. He asked me to sing “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” and then asked me to change the key and do it again. Then he said he’d have his manager call me to set up contracts, et cetera. Next morning, his manager called me and said, “Maysa, I don’t know what you sang to Bluey, but you got the gig!”
So I flew to London a couple of weeks later. It was just after Christmas time and I moved to London.
And how was that? I mean, we share a language but…
It was a culture shock! I mean, I didn’t know what to eat! Shepherd’s Pie?!? They’d say let’s get Indian food and I couldn’t stand it! Something as simple as that was tough and being away from my whole family was scary. I was alone. Twenty-four years old and alone. I was fearless though and the world seemed more trusting then. I didn’t know anyone, but I knew I had a round-trip ticket so if it didn’t work out for me, I could get home. I trusted Bluey though, so thought it would be ok.
What makes Bluey such a good person to work with?
Oh my gosh. Bluey brings out the best in everybody he works with. He has this knack for finding your core essence. He’s great at finding you and he knows how to bring out your talent. He challenges you in a good way and he’s so musical—he’s a genius. He doesn’t get anywhere near the recognition he deserves. He is Quincy Jones in his own right. He’s proven it time and time again. He’s very intuitive and he likes to tell stories! He’s a poet, an author—so many things. It’s amazing to work with him.
I don’t want to embarrass you, but that feeling is mutual. I spoke to him a couple of years ago about his STR4TA project and when I asked him about singers he loves to work with, he mentioned you as his number one. I think the phrase he used was that you are “top of the pile.” For an industry often characterized as cutthroat, you’ve obviously been able to maintain a great relationship with him. Is that length of professional relationship typical of how you’ve been able to navigate the business or is that rare?
It’s so rare. This industry is so weird and difficult to navigate, but when you find allies or comrades like him, then that’s how you get through it. You find people that you can make this music with. It’s a gift we’ve been given and you have to work with people who share that view of it. It’s not something to take and try to be a superstar who can’t be touched or spoken to. It’s so weird that there is a set of people who are all about the cars and the money—I’m so glad I’m not part of that world. You find those who are about the music too and make it work.
You’ve touched on the challenges of the industry a couple of times already and you’ve just set up your record label Blue Velvet Soul. What were your motivations for doing that?
Well, I’ve been listening to Prince for a long time about ownership and masters and so on. My discography is…bananas! Its huge and I’m very proud of it. I’ve been in the trenches for a long time (32 years) and I’ve stayed professional. I’m not compromising my morals for anything. I have a lot of music out there that other people own. I’m close to getting my debut album back, but everything else is going to take a while unless I get rich somehow!
I just wanted my son and future grandchildren to have a legacy. I want my kids’ kids to go to the mailbox and get money from grandma. I don’t want them to worry about having to find college money or whatever. I want them to have something to fall back on and have it better than I had it. I also thought about my dealings with other record companies and thought If they weren’t going to move the needle on my career, then what was I doing with them? If a company says we are trying to get to a certain place or level and we don’t, then what am I doing there? And even if I do it myself and we only achieve the same level, then at least I own the masters, right?
Is it a difficult thing to do in terms of the time and expertise required? Or has working in the industry given you a certain amount of experience to tackle it?
Like I said earlier, I have a doctorate in working my ass off! That work ethic is definitely from my parents—I just keep going. If I give up today, I go again in the morning. I want to make this music for people who need it. My heartbreaks, my frustrations, my joys, my triumphs go into the music, but they’re never just for me. I have to share them.
It’s been 6 years since your last album and a lot has happened in that time out there in the world, but did setting up the label delay the record too?
I think the learning curve and financial constraints both contributed. The financial thing has been hard. My label is funded by my gigs so if I can’t perform, then nothing moves. I’ve got to pay my own bills and try to pay the record company bills too—it’s been difficult. But I love it still because its mine and one day it will pay off handsomely.
To go back to COVID for a moment, you spoke about the way things used to be when we talked about your debut album. Navigating the pandemic professionally must have been a real struggle for someone who works so hard and records and releases so much.
It was. We still managed to do a little bit—there was a song about the whole pandemic thing that we recorded at home and that was a whole learning curve, recording myself at home! I’d never done that before. I was able to survive by generosity through things like my Sunday Kitchen Karaoke (on Facebook). I’d started that before the pandemic, but it really helped during it all. We had 100,000 people per week watching before Facebook shut us down regarding the music rights of the songs I sang.
I watched a couple of those and as someone with zero vocal talent, it is exceptionally annoying (in a nice way!) that it seems to come so easily to you! That voice of yours feels effortless. Has it always felt like that or is it the result of years of hard work, dedication and training?
I know my voice has changed—there’s an ebb and flow to it. It has a lot to do with weight gain or loss. I can tell the difference in my voice if I’m losing weight again. You know, it’s your whole body that goes into the voice, so my sound has been dictated by my life and what I’m going through. When I listen to Incognito’s Positivity (1993) album, I sound so fresh and new and young and exciting! Then I listen to In Search Of Better Days (2016) and I hear a smokiness in my voice that shocked me. Where did that come from?! It’s all about timing, the weather, my body, my energy, my mind—it could be anything.
How do you view the state of the industry at the moment as we settle into a “new normal?” I saw something on your Facebook page about the price of concert tickets that had angered you.
I think it’s just another bastardization of our industry—it’s just greed. There is no reason to charge $1000 for a ticket. For what? I guess if people are paying for it…but it seems so wrong. I’ve got no aversion to being rich, but I don’t think that’s the way to go. With my label, when I get to the point where I can sign other artists, I want to be so different. I want to make the record with them, get them out there, showcase them and make a fair profit, of course, but after that I’m going to hand these people’s albums to them. They aren’t going to wait 33 years or anything like that. I want to inspire them about ownership! We will show you how to do this and then you’re going to own it. We’ll make some money together, but you will still own it, your kids will own it and your grandkids will own it. That’s what life should be about—loving each other and helping each other get through this. Why people are so gripped by greed and ego—ugh!
There’s a piece in one of the newspapers here today that talks about the homogeneity of gigs if only rich people can attend them. That’s not good for the industry or sustainable.
That’s people compromising themselves and doing things the wrong way. It’s not what music is supposed to be about.
A sense of community seems to me to be the only way to grow an industry like this.
At this point, you can do it all yourself too. Social Media is big. Really big. I had a single from the album called “Whatever” and I did do a video even though it was a big expense, but I thought to myself I need to do something on TikTok. I did a little thing and that got 58,000 views! That’s way more than plays on the radio. It’s the way to reach people. Radio has an importance, but we need to make sure we have all the bases covered.
Is performing live and connecting with people still the primary motor for your career—not just in terms of your enjoyment, but also the necessity of that revenue stream?
It’s a continuation of my dream as a little kid, really. The biggest thing during the pandemic was that I couldn’t go out there and hug people. There was no comfort to give anyone. Years ago, there was this lady, she was around 70, and she came up to me at Blues Alley in DC (Washington) and she said “Maysa, I just want you to know that ‘A Shade Of Blue’ helped me not to kill my husband.” I just burst out laughing, thinking she was joking and she said, “No! I’m serious. I was so angry with him one night and he hurt me so bad that I listened to the song over and over till the feeling went away. Thank you so much.”
Wow!
That just blew me away! That’s deep. That’s where the motivation comes from—connecting with people. People will say I got married to this song or I played this at my mom’s funeral—that’s the blessing in all of this. I was chosen in some way to be a part of that, a help and support.
Hearing those things, does it make you feel more responsibility?
It really does. I feel like I’m an empath and have been since I was young child. My mom said I was full of compassion and she always said I should never change that.
To still feel like that having gone through life is an achievement in itself—it’s easy to become embittered or hardened.
My childhood was amazing. I had two parents who were so full of love and so many people loved them. I was taught to love people and to love God, even though we weren’t church or Bible people. Even those who didn’t love us, to kind of love them back regardless. You can love people from afar, if need be. Music is my way to give love to people.
You’ve talked about loving albums and so do we at Albumism, so I’m going to ask you the final question we put to everyone we speak to: what are your five favorite albums of all time?
Oooh. Well, the first one is Stomping at the Savoy by Rufus and Chaka Khan. Miles Davis’ Tutu. Anything by Millie Jackson! How about Live And Uncensored. Bluey’s album, the recent one…this is what happens when you stay up all night! Tinted Sky! One more…you know what, I was obsessed with Lewis Taylor! That record, Lewis Taylor, can I tell you how many times I listened to that on the Incognito tour bus?! I would put my headphones on and lie in my bunk, and be there for hours! It’s crazy that it’s not recognized anywhere near enough.
That’s such a broad range, but I’m really interested in the Miles Davis one. I bet if you asked his fans, 99% would not have Tutu in their list of favorites. Why do you love it so much?
I think part of it is the sequencing—that’s really important to me. It’s also just the whole sound of his horn—it was real experience for me. You know most of these albums are things I listened to with Incognito. Learning from them and listening to them talk about it helped me discover so much.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited from the original transcript for length and clarity.
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