When I spoke to Ms. Lalah Hathaway's representatives just prior to the interview in downtown Philadelpia on a stormy evening not too long ago, they both said the same thing. First they asked "Have you ever met her before?" When I replied in the negative, they both said "She's very funny. You are going to like her."

My first inclination was to believe that she had just done a good job of hiring her P.R. personnel. However, they were 100% accurate in that assessment. It took approximately 180 seconds from the time we were introduced for both statements to come to fruition and for me to feel comfortable in her presence. I can honestly say that I'd hang out with her. She was that cool.

It was a very difficult task to convey the mood of the exchange in print, but I let me preface it by saying that I laughed a lot. I enjoyed the experience immensely and after a few minutes, it stopped feeling like a formal "interview" and started feeling like a conversation with a genuinely pleasant, humorous, knowledgable, articulate, and last but not least, beautiful person. So with that, enjoy the interview.

HGO: What are your feelings about the Internet as far as how it has affected music?

LH: It’s been a great vehicle for me to be able to be in contact with some people that I have been trying to get to. So for that, it is great. I also spend a lot of useless time just cruising around looking at crap. Finding out “Who is Mike Jones?” I still don’t know.

HGO: You can go to whoismikejones.com.

LH: Ohhhhh. We need a “whoislalahhathaway,” don’t we? We need one of those.

HGO: I hope more people know who Lalah Hathaway is than who Mike Jones is.

LH: Yeah, uhhh…okay. (*sounding not very convinced*). But yeah, I just like to be able to find out what is the weather in Holland right now.

HGO: Speaking of Holland, I got an email from a friend regarding the “Daughters of Soul” show stream. I haven’t watched it yet, but that site has a lot of really cool artists on it.

LH: The Fabchannel site? (www.fabchannel.com)

HGO: Yes.

LH: Yeah, it’s amazing when you go to other countries, and they realize that their people need music. It’s real deep. Like when you go to Den Hague and play the North Sea Jazz Festival, you can in one night see Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter and Dave Matthews and Roy Hargrove and Joni Mitchell and Cassandra Wilson. And then you can go back to the hotel and watch them all just jam for the next 24 hours. And it’s free because the government realizes the need for art and culture in its society. It’s kind of incredible.

HGO: Yeah, and as much as they cut our art and music programs here…

LH: It’s very, very sad.

HGO: You mentioned the way that Europe embraces the music, how do you compare it with what is going on in the U.S.?

LH: Well, it’s a much more open climate, particularly for Soul music, in other places. Maybe because they don’t have it. Maybe because we just take it for granted here. Not that the crowd is any better or worse, it’s just a different kind of climate. There’s just more of a clamoring for Soul artists and Soul music.

HGO: Do you have any feelings on the BBC (radio)? I listen to the BBC all the time.

LH: I watch the BBC (television). I don’t listen to it so much. I watch the BBC America and the BBC Channel. I love British humor and comedy, so I do a fair amount of watching that. Some of the programs are kinda crazy, but I grew up as a kid watching Monty Python.

HGO: So have you ever checked out the radio station?

LH: Well, when I’m in Europe, I listen to the radio because who knows what you’re going to hear? It’s the best thing.

HGO: That’s exactly my point for asking.

LH: But when I was little (growing up) in Chicago, the radio was like that. I could just turn up and down the dial and get cool stuff all day. The radio is not like that anymore.

HGO: Not at all.

LH: There’s only, particularly for Black radio, like 20 records a day…and 6 of them are Usher.

HGO: *laughter* I think it’s not quite 6 anymore. He might only have 3 on the radio now.

LH: Well, there’s like 7 Alicia Keys records, 4 Usher records, 3 Beyoncé/Destiny’s Child records…

HGO: You’re right. You’re absolutely right.

LH: Those records are all great. We just need more records.

HGO: Yes. It’s about balance.

LH: Right. Exactly.

HGO: And there’s ZERO balance.

LH: That’s a good name for a record.

HGO: “Zero Balance?” You can use that. No charge.

LH: Thank you. You heard it here first!

HGO: Okay, I listen to Wendy Williams every day.

LH: We can’t get her in L.A.

HGO: Why not? I think she’s (syndicated) in L.A.

LH: Is she? I think she’s hi-lar-i-ous! She’s hysterical to me. I watch her show, but they only do like one show a quarter or something crazy like that. She’d be dangerous if she were on TV every day. That’s just TOO much information for TV viewers. (*laughter*)

HGO: Yeah. But the reason why I mentioned her was that she started playing your version of “Forever, For Always, For Love” a while back (months after the album was released) and I hadn’t heard it on the radio before.

LH: She did? That’s so cool.

HGO: It seems as though the album “Outrun The Sky” is a slow-burning steady type of project. Do you think there is any advantage or disadvantage to album being a slow and steady project as apposed to a big splash right out of the box?

LH: Well, I have not had that “out the box” platinum hit. But I don’t know. You know…I don’t anything with regards to what is good or bad in the music industry anymore. I do know that for some records, it takes a little longer. Like, there are a lot of records that took a whole year to break.

HGO: Maxwell’s first album.

LH: Yeah, a whole bunch of people. Norah Jones. But my record actually has been in the top 10, that Luther record, for 25 weeks.

HGO: Wow.

LH: Yeah. Which is so cool because we only have $11 to do anything with.

HGO: *laughter*

LH: So it’s amazing. Being at a major label, I never had a #1 record. I had videos and I was on TV all the time and I didn’t have a #1. And now, to do a cover record, and just slowly it crept up to #1 and stayed in the top 10 for 25 weeks. So there is no rhyme or reason about what happens in the music industry.

My mother said “Oooh! You’re doing great! You’re on your way!” And I said this will be the longest 15-year-overnight-sensation ever!

HGO: *laughter* Well, that’s kind of related to what I wrote in my review of the album. I didn’t realize it was 15 years.

LH: I know. It’s trippy isn’t it?

HGO: Very much so. Back when I was watching the “Heaven Knows” video with all the dancers in blue, I really didn’t realize that it was 15 years ago.

LH: I know. And can you imagine that I recorded it in like ’88, ’89?

HGO: Wow. That’s amazing. And to think about your statement that you hadn’t had a #1 hit, but how many people who were around then are still around now?

LH: I know. It’s…it’s…I don’t even know what to say. I’m probably not alone, but I feel like it’s been such a strange and interesting trip. I spent 5 or 6 years without a deal, trying to get a deal, which doesn’t make sense at all. You know, it’s just I have an odd life and this is part of it.

HGO: So with your situation now, you have an indie label. Do you think that is the route you are going to continue on?

LH: I have no idea. Like I say, eras in the industry now last 6 weeks. So if someone came to me and said “Hey, we’re want to give you a million dollars and make you a big huge star,” I’d say “Let’s go.” It just depends. I know the only thing that I have to keep is the integrity of what it is that I do and my dignity. That’s very important to me. I’m not going to be shaking my @ss anywhere. And I’m not going to be hopping around on stage singing to a track. And that’s it. As long as I can continue doing what it is that I’m supposed to be doing, because that’s the only way I’m still here…is that I have to do what I have to do.

HGO: I was listening to one of your earlier albums in preparation for this interview, and I heard a “new jack swing” cut.

LH: *bursts into laugher* Which one? Was it Chuckii Booker?

HGO: I don’t remember the particular song or producer. But it made me wonder about how much of that material was your sound back then. Did you have as much control then as you do now?

LH: Oh nooooo. No. I was 17, spring break, taking the Amtrak from Boston to L.A. to work on my record. Basically I had like 5 or 6 A&R people and nobody knew what to do with me because I could talk about music. And they would send me to “Video Soul” with Donnie Simpson, and they would give names of people to say that I liked and I never said any of them because I didn’t like ‘em. So instead of just letting me be who I was, they were trying to mold me into something, which they weren’t even sure about, so it got kind of confusing.

I think that they started out feeling like “Okay, well she’s 17. Let’s put her in this 6X leather jacket, put a weave on her and we’ll just…make her…do…something. They didn’t even know (what that something was). They didn’t even know. So when I started wanting to sing and write and talk about what type of artwork I wanted for the record and who I wanted to work with, then it became a different thing. So it’s been interesting.

Now that I’m going to make another record soon, this will be the first time that I’m actually making a record start to finish. Because the first record took forever and I was in school. The second record was kind of weird and I was leaving (the label). And this record, I’ve been working on for the last 10 years on and off. So it’s a mish-mosh of a whole bunch of stuff. It will be interesting to start from scratch and make a record.

HGO: In looking at the credits for this album, I saw production credits for Mike City.

LH: He just paged me.

HGO: Really? That’s cool. I remember him from his work on Sunshine Anderson’s album (a personal favorite) among other projects. And as I listened to that album and was getting into the tracks, I didn’t even realize I was listening to Mike City until I read the credits. Can you talk about working with him?

LH: Mike City is awesome. He is one of those people that told me he was going to do something and he actually did it. I like his songwriting. I like his production. I like the way he walks the line between what is commercial and what is great to your ear. I like the stuff he’s done with Brandy. I like the Carl Thomas stuff. I like the Sunshine stuff. He’s somebody that can call me at 3 in the morning and say “Can you come over and do some backgrounds for me? I got 11 dollars…” and I’ll go do it. Because he’s just cool; he’s cool like that.

HGO: From this album, my favorite tracks are “If You Ever”…it reminds me of my ex.

LH: Did it?

HGO: Yeah. I’m not going to print that though.

LH: Alright then. That’s fine. I understand.

HGO: Also “In The End” and “We Were 2.” Those two (in particular) are some pretty rough stories; for a person to have those realizations that are discussed in the lyrics.

LH: You can identify?

HGO: No. No. Maybe someone can identify in reference to me though.

LH: *bursts into laughter again*

HGO: And finally “Admit It.” Now in the song you have a lyric that talks about “the bullsh!t that men do.” What exactly is “the bullsh!t that men do?”

LH: I didn’t write that lyric. And you should have seen them in the studio trying to get me to say the word “sh!t” on a record. They were saying, “You know, we could put a Parental Advisory sticker on it and people will buy it!”

But, you know…really for me…it was really just a way for me to say “sh!t” on record.

HGO & LH: * laughter*

LH: You know, I really don’t have a lot of that ‘man-drama’ thing, so I don’t even really know. But all the things you think they are….

HGO: Oh, I know. I just wanted to know your interpretation.

LH: Yeah. I’m saying anything that I would call silly sh!t; that could be anything from being an @ss to not contributing or cleaning up. I don’t know, it’s just one of those kinda…just some silly sh!t! It’s just one of those things. I don’t know.

HGO & LH: *laughter*

HGO: Ok.

LH: You know you’ve caused me to say “sh!t” like 18 times.

HGO: And I’m going to print them ALL.

HGO & LH: *more laughter*

HGO: Now, I know asking if you have a favorite song is often like asking if you have a favorite finger. But do you any favorites on the album?

LH: I don’t. It changes. I can always listen to “Outrun The Sky” and “Boston” because I wrote them. I don’t really have any favorites though. I like my record. I’m actually really excited about my record because I think it’s good. I think that it’s varied. And I think it’s just a nice page in the book; just a nice piece to add to my body of work.

HGO: I would agree.

LH: Thank you.

HGO: Your welcome. Now as far as production on your upcoming project, do you think that you will handle more of the production yourself?

LH: I don’t know. I don’t really have to. If someone comes to me with a song and I love the song and how they produce it, I’m totally into it. I don’t need to or have to feel like the producer or the writer of all the songs. But as an artist, when you give your input, you are producing your product. So that is kind of what it is that I’m doing. No one needs to call me that. It doesn’t make me happy or sad. But I definitely need the input, if that’s what that means.

HGO: What was it like working with Joe Sample?

LH: Have you ever met him?

HGO: No.

LH: He’s hilarious. And when I say hilarious, I mean for-real-for-real hilarious. He’s a lot of fun to work with. He’s a great storyteller. He tells these stories of being in this industry and being a black man in this country over the last sixty-some-odd years and playing music on the side of the road and having to dance when the (state) troopers pulled him over. He’s real deep. Joe’s a deep cat. But he’s mostly hilarious. He’s that kind of cat that you look at him and he looks like a very stately gentleman. But he is hiiiiiii-laaaar-riiiii-oooouuuusss! He’s very fun to play with and to work with and one of my mentors for the last 15 years.

HGO: Do you plan on doing any similar projects?

LH: We talked about it. He told me he wrote this song and he has some stuff for me to listen to that I am going to try and write to. And we definitely want to do another record because we just had a good time. We wrote that record like…he had the songs and we talked about what we wanted to do. Then we went in the studio and in two weeks it was done. That’s how they used to make records so it was cool.

HGO: I have to say that those two records, the one with Joe Sample (“The Song Lives On”) and “Outrun The Sky”, I bought on sight. I hadn’t heard anything from them and when I walked in the record store and saw them, I immediately purchased them. That’s kind of how it seems to go with your music for me.

LH: Thank you. And that is the kind of artist I want to be. Like I love Me’Shell (NdegeOcello). And when I got that “Bitter” record, I was like “Oh.” I love that record now, but the first 8 times I listened to it, I was so wanting to hear a record like the last two. And I realized that with an artist, you are not going to get every page in the book. It’s about the full body of work. I love that record now, but in the context of her first 2 records, I was kind of confused like “Where is she going with this?” But I get it. She’s a book that I will just keep reading. No matter what she does, I will get the record.

HGO: Kind of like Common’s “Electric Circus.”

LH: Exactly. I just got his new record. I haven’t listened to it yet. I’m extremely excited. I love Common.

HGO: Do you plan on working (collaboratively) with any other artists?

LH: Not that I know of. I don’t know. I get really lucky and I get to work with really cool people. I feel very very lucky particularly for a singer. But I really want to work with the Neptunes. I’d like to work with Roy Hargrove. A lot of people. A lot of stuff to do.

HGO: Roy Hargrove made one of my favorite jazz songs of all time off his “Family” album called “Roy Allen.”

LH: Really? We went to school together.

HGO: Really. That’s cool. Do you have any dream projects that you would like to do?

LH: Dream projects. Hmmm. I would love to make a really beautiful orchestral Christmas record. I just think that would be cool and nobody is doing that. I don’t want to make a Hip-Hop Christmas record. I want to make like an old-timely, classic Christmas record that you have to have. And I would like to make an Ambient kind of Downtempo/Trip Hop record. I’m into kind of Ambient music. I don’t know what you call it, but I hear it occasionally and I say “Oooh yeah, I like that.” Do you know what it’s called?

HGO: Not really. There are so many classifications nowadays, but I know what you’re talking about. On a different note, would you ever do the Natalie Cole/Nat King Cole duet type of song?

LH: I don’t know. Somebody already did it, which would make it so lame for me to do. But people say that to me like once a day. And they say it in a way, which is like “I have an idea for you!” Like I’ve never thought about it before. I don’t know if I would do it. I talked to Natalie about it once and she said, “You have to do it.” And I said “Really?” So I don’t know. It’s kind of unnatural in a way because he’s not here. So I don’t know. I’m still processing that end of it.

HGO: Would you like to share your thoughts on your father (Donny Hathaway) and his influence on you and music as a whole?

LH: Well, it’s interesting because I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. In the last few years, it seems like not a day goes by, particularly since I started finishing and being in this record, that I don’t hear his name somewhere or hear his music somewhere or read him being referenced in a interview like in Vibe or People Magazine or somebody’s talking about him on MTV or I hear him sampled on the bumpers on some show. His influence on me is huge. His influence on everybody is huge. I saw Narada Michael Walden a few weeks ago, and he said, “You know, everybody is in debt to your dad.”

And if you think about it, the real wild sh!t is that what you are hearing and what you are influenced by is like a 25 year old kid. Those records, like the “Live” record; that record is like ’72, ’73. So he’s not even 30 years old, which is amazing and tragic an beautiful and all of that.

HGO: Are there any obscure artists you enjoy that people may not think you were into?

LH: I love Bjork. She’s not very obscure but a lot of people might not know who she is. I love Bjork. I like Jazzanova. That’s interesting to me. What’s really strange is that I’m a real serious gamer.

HGO: Really?

LH: Yeah. And a lot of video game music influences me.

HGO: Any in particular?

LH: *smiles and answers reluctantly* Okay, so I’m like an R.P.G. (Role Playing Game) person and I’m a Final Fantasy person. Are you a gamer at all?

HGO: Not really, but I’m familiar with some of it.

LH: Okay, so these records are for sale and I own them all.

HGO: *laugher*

LH: And it’s so geeky, but I’m just telling the world. I don’t care if everyone knows. I own all the R.P.G. records.

So I am influenced by lots of different things. I would like to be the best singer that ever lived and to be that I just have to keep listening to everything. Like I can sing a chord. I can make sounds that I hear. And that just means that I’m trying to stay open to everything that I hear.

But back to the artists. Bjork, Jazzanova. I’m trying to think of what’s on my Ipod. I like Poe. I like Jonatha Brooke. Do you know who she is?

HGO: No.

LH: She used to have a band called The Story. It’s a really great record. I grew up listening to all kinds of music so I don’t know what’s obscure anymore. I guess anything that’s not Hip-Hop (or R&B) is obscure.

HGO: Well, I don’t necessarily mean obscure. But to people who may want to classify you in that R&B/Soul category, artists outside of that realm that you may be into which those people might be surprised to find out about.

LH: Well, I love Gerry Rafferty. I love Little River Band. I love Seals & Crofts. I really really liked The Eagles growing up. Heart. Ann Wilson could sing. It was not really a choice back in the 70’s it seemed. You had to have “something.” Even if it was the “Disco Duck” song, you had to have some sort of interesting quirk to get somewhere. There was a lot of music growing up at that time.

HGO: Yeah. I grew up in the 80’s and it wasn’t so separated back then. I grew up on MTV when it first started and (I remember) watching Devo and stuff like that. I mean there was Rock (and New Wave), but Devo would come on and then Michael Jackson would come on. And then Run-DMC would come on.

LH: Yes. All that music was such a mixture. I have XM (Satellite Radio) in my car, and if you go to the 70’s station, you can hear who knows what. And it’s just beautiful. You go to the 80’s station and you hear who knows what. You go to the 90’s station – it’s a hit or miss at the 90’s. That’s when it really started to break down.

But in the 70’s and particularly in the 80’s, if you listen to Foreigner and Journey, those records were influenced by Stevie Wonder…by Earth Wind & Fire. Earth Wind & Fire was influenced by The Eagles at that time. You can hear all this mixture of the culture and that is the story that our country was going through at that time. And now it’s just really kind of a…short story.

HGO: Well, the music is out there…

LH: Right, but you just have to find that music.

HGO: Yes, and unfortunately most people aren’t industrious enough to seek it out.

LH: Yeah, that’s the sad part. I don’t think it’s really made available for kids and I think that’s going to be the death of R&B music. And in the next 30 years, Rhythm & Blues music will be like Baroque music. It’ll be some guy paying $100 to commission me to sing some Aretha Franklin cover.

HGO: *laughter*

LH: It could go that way if we don’t nurture it. It’s a muscle, you know what I mean? We influence every culture in the entire world with this music, but we only have like 8 records right now.

HGO: And now it’s time for our patented question at HGO: Make a 10-song mixtape right now.

LH: Alright! Right now it’s going to be Herbie Hancock from the “Sunlight” record. I heard this last night on the radio. I have this record and I’ve been waiting to listen to it today. Either “Come Running” or “I Thought It Was You.” Then I will include “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” – Joni Mitchell. Then I will include “Outrun The Sky” because that’s my record. And then I will put “Where is The Line?” by Bjork because I’ve been listening to that. I will also include “Just A Song Before I Go” by Crosby Stills & Nash. And then I will include the “Bee-Bop Medley” – Chaka Khan.

I do this all the time, too. I make “on the go” playlists all the time. I’m IN my Ipod like crazy. I’ll include some Miles and a little Dexter Gordon for that feeling. I’ll do some live D’Angelo. I have any number of bootlegs, which I shouldn’t have, but they’re all live bootlegs.

HGO: Well, that’s it.

LH: Ok cool. Thanks.

Lalah Hathaway’s album “Outrun The Sky” is in stores now.