She's renowned for doing things her own way and her new album, Food, is no exception. But now that she's gone indie, is she still a diva?
Everyone remembers the first time they saw Kelis Rogers. Maybe it was with that bouncing mane of cantaloupe-coloured curls as she hauled furniture across the room, yelling "I hate you so much right now!" over the gnarly digi-funk of 1999's Caught Out There. Or maybe it was when she sucked suggestively on a straw and rapped that her "milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" in 2003. Then there was the time she looked like a futuristic Statue of Liberty, complete with spiked headband and gold septum-piercing chains, for the publicity campaign of her last album, 2010's Flesh Tone.
These days, Kelis is a lot more chilled. Her new album Food – her sixth – marks her latest transformation from David Guetta-assisted dance diva to indie-soul siren, all bouffant hair and bright vintage dresses, oozing her way across maverick producer David Sitek's bed of big brass funk, gospel, Afrobeat and Spector-esque pop. "Whatever vibe I'm in, everything morphs into that," she explains. Like method acting? "It's weird, but it's almost like that."
Her early work with the Neptunes signalled a new R&B sound, but she tells the Guardian, "I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B." As if to prove the point, Food is coming out on British indie label Ninja Tune. Her new labelmates aren't global pop stars, they're cutting-edge producers such as Machinedrum, Actress and Bonobo. Has she always felt like an indie artist at heart? "I never thought about it, but when you say it, it makes sense."
We're at the singer's favourite restaurant, Animal, in Los Angeles, and she's spent the last five minutes enthusing about the oxtail poutine ("It's like crack"). She's on a spiritual fast, which means no booze and no sweets."It's just a personal thing, where I can take some time to talk to God. It's not like a cleanse where it's like, 'If I don't lose weight I'm going to stab somebody.'" So obviously she orders a hunking great steak the size of my face. Her tone is direct, but not at all like the "difficult" reputation she appears to have acquired over the course of her 16-year career."Why didn't you say you were vegetarian?" she gasps sympathetically as my delicately arranged salad leaves arrive. "You eat dairy, though, right? You need to eat dairy for me to even want to cook for you."Reading this on mobile? Click here to view
For Kelis, you see, food and music are irrevocably intertwined. In the late noughties it took her four years to get off her then-label Jive, so she trained to be a saucier at Le Cordon Bleu cookery school.
"After Kelis Was Here I was done," she says of her 2006 album, the catalyst for the label battle. "I was like, 'I will never put out another record again, I hate this business, I hate all these people.' I was in this race that I didn't even realise that I was in. I woke up and ten years had passed. That was never my plan. My desire was never to put out albums, it was to do musical theatre!" she says with a roar.
Surrounding herself with food for a couple of years gave her an appetite for music again. "I realised that there was something else that I adored," she continues, chewing down another mouthful. "There's a point where you think, 'What else will I do if I don't do music?' It becomes your identity when it never should have been. But food ignited a fire in me and I came right back to music because it no longer felt like a job. It was a really powerful thing for me."
Is she more of a Nigella Lawson or a Gordon Ramsay? "I like to think of myself as more of a Nigella, she's dope, but I'm probably more of a Gordon. Food allows me to be right, and I love that."
Unsurprisingly, the topic of food dominates Kelis's new album. In fact, she and her 13-piece band spent so much time scoffing, it's a surprise they got any work done. "Dave's studio was, like, four minutes' drive from my house and it was filled with musicians every night," she says. "Sometimes we wouldn't even do anything, we'd just talk about food. We cooked and we'd make a melody and then eat and cook some more."
An unlikely roll call of guest artists popped up to provide backing vocals and grab a bite to eat, including Brazilian electro band CSS, singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn, members of Sitek's band TV On The Radio, and even Kelis's young son, Knight. Like Beyoncé and Jay Z's daughter Blue Ivy, he sings on a couple of tracks, including album opener Breakfast. It's actually adorable. "I thought it was cute because I was pregnant when I recorded Flesh Tone, and now he's here," Kelis agrees. "He walks around the house saying, 'Momma, play my song!'"
When did she know that she didn't want to do another dance album? "Right after I put out a dance album," she smirks. "I had a great time – but when everyone else starts doing it, it's not as much fun. I was talking to Justice and a bunch of those European producers, then I was on tour and too much time went by. That [sound] wasn't a new idea any more, so I moved on."
All Kelis's genre-hurdling has confused some people, especially the record execs. Virgin didn't "get" her second album, 2001's Neptunes-produced Wanderland.Too experimental for them, it wasn't released in the US, only Europe. Such experiences have left a bad taste in her mouth. "It's like, 'What sort of food do you cook?' I made dim sum the other night, I was frying halloumi the other day. I don't have to pick just one. My dad used to always say that every song uses the same keys, whether it's a country song or a metal song or a gospel song. Who cares what they call it? The problem with my [record] labels in the past is that they told me I'm not consistent. Of course I'm consistent, I'm using the notes that are on this piano. That's what I'm talking about on [Food's first single] Jerk Ribs."
Now 34, Kelis says Food brings her "full circle", recalling Wanderland's more earnest, eclectic outlook. There's even a nod to rockabilly, on the grindhouse-y Friday Fish Fry. "I didn't want to do a period piece," she says, explaining why she hooked up with Sitek rather than a more conventional producer. "I'd rather sing a direct cover than try to do a watered-down, wack version of something spectacular." (Incidentally, she does do a direct cover, a rich and sinuous version of Labi Siffre's Bless The Telephone.) She says that it's less about paying homage and more about trying to capture the essence of those dusty old records. "You know, those records in your life that your parents played and they resonate with who you are? They make you nostalgic. I wanted to find out how to get that feeling."
Though Kelis uses the album to reflect on her turbulent past few years – "I became a runner, to escape the fame," she laments on Runner; "Is it a curse or is it my art?" she asks on Dreamer – ultimately Food feels optimistic. Her press biog suggests that the album is about "putting her life back together" following her very public breakup with rapper Nas. But Kelis doesn't see it that way.
"That's not how I feel at all," she says warmly. "I've been divorced for almost five years; it's over, I'm over it. But what I would say is that last year I was made more aware of it because my ex-husband decided to talk about stuff that I hadn't shared with the world." She bursts into laughter. "He slipped my wedding dress on to his album cover [2012's Life Is Good], so now I have to talk about it! I had no idea it was happening, I was like, 'What the…?' But it didn't affect my life. I'm not living that life now. I'm super-content and at peace."
Kelis is flippant when it comes to her musical future. "I might make another album. I might make 10 more albums. I might never make another album again. It depends on how the mood suits me." She scrunches up her napkin and levels with me. "I'm not declaring retirement but I'm just saying that I don't have any musical ambitions any more."
Instead, in the US, she's just launched the pilot episode of Cooking Channel show, Saucy And Sweet, and is about to release an eight-strong range of condiments called Feast. Hopefully she won't disappear into the kitchen for good.
*Kelis plays Metropolis Studios, W4, Mon; Food is out in the UK on 21 Apr on Ninja Tune* Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.
Everyone remembers the first time they saw Kelis Rogers. Maybe it was with that bouncing mane of cantaloupe-coloured curls as she hauled furniture across the room, yelling "I hate you so much right now!" over the gnarly digi-funk of 1999's Caught Out There. Or maybe it was when she sucked suggestively on a straw and rapped that her "milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" in 2003. Then there was the time she looked like a futuristic Statue of Liberty, complete with spiked headband and gold septum-piercing chains, for the publicity campaign of her last album, 2010's Flesh Tone.
These days, Kelis is a lot more chilled. Her new album Food – her sixth – marks her latest transformation from David Guetta-assisted dance diva to indie-soul siren, all bouffant hair and bright vintage dresses, oozing her way across maverick producer David Sitek's bed of big brass funk, gospel, Afrobeat and Spector-esque pop. "Whatever vibe I'm in, everything morphs into that," she explains. Like method acting? "It's weird, but it's almost like that."
Her early work with the Neptunes signalled a new R&B sound, but she tells the Guardian, "I was never an R&B artist. People coined me one but that's because, especially if you're in the States, if you're black and you sing, then you're R&B." As if to prove the point, Food is coming out on British indie label Ninja Tune. Her new labelmates aren't global pop stars, they're cutting-edge producers such as Machinedrum, Actress and Bonobo. Has she always felt like an indie artist at heart? "I never thought about it, but when you say it, it makes sense."
We're at the singer's favourite restaurant, Animal, in Los Angeles, and she's spent the last five minutes enthusing about the oxtail poutine ("It's like crack"). She's on a spiritual fast, which means no booze and no sweets."It's just a personal thing, where I can take some time to talk to God. It's not like a cleanse where it's like, 'If I don't lose weight I'm going to stab somebody.'" So obviously she orders a hunking great steak the size of my face. Her tone is direct, but not at all like the "difficult" reputation she appears to have acquired over the course of her 16-year career."Why didn't you say you were vegetarian?" she gasps sympathetically as my delicately arranged salad leaves arrive. "You eat dairy, though, right? You need to eat dairy for me to even want to cook for you."Reading this on mobile? Click here to view
For Kelis, you see, food and music are irrevocably intertwined. In the late noughties it took her four years to get off her then-label Jive, so she trained to be a saucier at Le Cordon Bleu cookery school.
"After Kelis Was Here I was done," she says of her 2006 album, the catalyst for the label battle. "I was like, 'I will never put out another record again, I hate this business, I hate all these people.' I was in this race that I didn't even realise that I was in. I woke up and ten years had passed. That was never my plan. My desire was never to put out albums, it was to do musical theatre!" she says with a roar.
Surrounding herself with food for a couple of years gave her an appetite for music again. "I realised that there was something else that I adored," she continues, chewing down another mouthful. "There's a point where you think, 'What else will I do if I don't do music?' It becomes your identity when it never should have been. But food ignited a fire in me and I came right back to music because it no longer felt like a job. It was a really powerful thing for me."
Is she more of a Nigella Lawson or a Gordon Ramsay? "I like to think of myself as more of a Nigella, she's dope, but I'm probably more of a Gordon. Food allows me to be right, and I love that."
Unsurprisingly, the topic of food dominates Kelis's new album. In fact, she and her 13-piece band spent so much time scoffing, it's a surprise they got any work done. "Dave's studio was, like, four minutes' drive from my house and it was filled with musicians every night," she says. "Sometimes we wouldn't even do anything, we'd just talk about food. We cooked and we'd make a melody and then eat and cook some more."
An unlikely roll call of guest artists popped up to provide backing vocals and grab a bite to eat, including Brazilian electro band CSS, singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn, members of Sitek's band TV On The Radio, and even Kelis's young son, Knight. Like Beyoncé and Jay Z's daughter Blue Ivy, he sings on a couple of tracks, including album opener Breakfast. It's actually adorable. "I thought it was cute because I was pregnant when I recorded Flesh Tone, and now he's here," Kelis agrees. "He walks around the house saying, 'Momma, play my song!'"
When did she know that she didn't want to do another dance album? "Right after I put out a dance album," she smirks. "I had a great time – but when everyone else starts doing it, it's not as much fun. I was talking to Justice and a bunch of those European producers, then I was on tour and too much time went by. That [sound] wasn't a new idea any more, so I moved on."
All Kelis's genre-hurdling has confused some people, especially the record execs. Virgin didn't "get" her second album, 2001's Neptunes-produced Wanderland.Too experimental for them, it wasn't released in the US, only Europe. Such experiences have left a bad taste in her mouth. "It's like, 'What sort of food do you cook?' I made dim sum the other night, I was frying halloumi the other day. I don't have to pick just one. My dad used to always say that every song uses the same keys, whether it's a country song or a metal song or a gospel song. Who cares what they call it? The problem with my [record] labels in the past is that they told me I'm not consistent. Of course I'm consistent, I'm using the notes that are on this piano. That's what I'm talking about on [Food's first single] Jerk Ribs."
Now 34, Kelis says Food brings her "full circle", recalling Wanderland's more earnest, eclectic outlook. There's even a nod to rockabilly, on the grindhouse-y Friday Fish Fry. "I didn't want to do a period piece," she says, explaining why she hooked up with Sitek rather than a more conventional producer. "I'd rather sing a direct cover than try to do a watered-down, wack version of something spectacular." (Incidentally, she does do a direct cover, a rich and sinuous version of Labi Siffre's Bless The Telephone.) She says that it's less about paying homage and more about trying to capture the essence of those dusty old records. "You know, those records in your life that your parents played and they resonate with who you are? They make you nostalgic. I wanted to find out how to get that feeling."
Though Kelis uses the album to reflect on her turbulent past few years – "I became a runner, to escape the fame," she laments on Runner; "Is it a curse or is it my art?" she asks on Dreamer – ultimately Food feels optimistic. Her press biog suggests that the album is about "putting her life back together" following her very public breakup with rapper Nas. But Kelis doesn't see it that way.
"That's not how I feel at all," she says warmly. "I've been divorced for almost five years; it's over, I'm over it. But what I would say is that last year I was made more aware of it because my ex-husband decided to talk about stuff that I hadn't shared with the world." She bursts into laughter. "He slipped my wedding dress on to his album cover [2012's Life Is Good], so now I have to talk about it! I had no idea it was happening, I was like, 'What the…?' But it didn't affect my life. I'm not living that life now. I'm super-content and at peace."
Kelis is flippant when it comes to her musical future. "I might make another album. I might make 10 more albums. I might never make another album again. It depends on how the mood suits me." She scrunches up her napkin and levels with me. "I'm not declaring retirement but I'm just saying that I don't have any musical ambitions any more."
Instead, in the US, she's just launched the pilot episode of Cooking Channel show, Saucy And Sweet, and is about to release an eight-strong range of condiments called Feast. Hopefully she won't disappear into the kitchen for good.
*Kelis plays Metropolis Studios, W4, Mon; Food is out in the UK on 21 Apr on Ninja Tune* Reported by guardian.co.uk 6 hours ago.