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Melanie B. Biography
From the opening lyrical assault of "Tell Me" to the bombastic "I Want You Back", it's clear that Melanie B's got a lot to say, and say it she does with total certainty and intensity! This is 100% Mel B - more than alive and more than well.
Melanie Brown has travelled a long way fast, from Leeds to London, from drama school to Wembley, from engagement to marriage to divorce, and most famously, from obscurity to Spice. Even though she was, by her own admission, a hyperactive child, no one could have predicted the exciting times that lay ahead for Melanie Brown way back in 80's Leeds. It's been 100 mph all the way, like some kind of action-packed movie on fast forward. This album is the culmination of all that pent-up energy, talent, drama, sexuality and sheer drive.
Music has always been the key ingredient for Melanie, right from the earliest of times when she listened to her mother and father's eighties faves such as Maxi Priest, the incomparable Bob Marley, Dire Straits, Aswad and Tracey Chapman. Right now she is into all kinds of music, from Jungle to vocalist Beverley Knight, British singer Lynden David Hall and the brilliant Macy Gray, whom she loves for "being freaky, outrageous and just getting on with it!". Whatever the style, Melanie was just born to sing and perform. "I'd have been performing at Speakers Corner or somewhere if all of this hadn't happened", Melanie laughs.
Her love of music has led to all kinds of adventures from French clubs where there is "a big African scene" to German dance hangouts, great bars in New York USA, the home of soul and dance, to London, where Mel reckons you can hear the best garage and jungle in the world.
There's no escaping the autobiographical nature of the lyrics, and nowhere is this more evident than on the opening song "Tell Me", which is a full-on questioning of someone's real motives for entering a relationship with her...she's already got the video going on in her mind's eye with 20 dancers, some from Leeds, lined up for the dance routines!
From there we move on to the gorgeous lilting Fred Jerkins "Lullaby", a folky ballad written about Phoenix Chi shortly after her birth. The serious undertones of the songs are never far from the surface and Melanie is the first to admit, "I've got a new lease of life now and in a way the split with (former husband) Jimmy was the best thing for all three of us emotionally that could have happened". "The album deals with real living, looking at myself and surroundings, telling a story and facing up to a marriage that went wrong" accepts Melanie, adding that she feels she "came out of it a better person - more balanced". The marriage she refers to was of course her short relationship with Spice dancer, Jimmy Gulzar. The couple were wed amid a blaze of publicity and cameras in 1998, only for the relationship to start hitting the rocks late in 1999, by which time the couple had a beautiful daughter, the exotically-named Phoenix Chi.
"Hotter" was produced by Sisquo, known for mixing 2 Pac, Mary J. Blige and Dru Hill, not to mention his own very successful career. "Hell No", a ballad with some surprisingly delicate guitar, is next up and again we are plunged into a raw emotional theme illustrated in the line "wanted to hate me when you found I lied" and talks about the "many nights I cried". Melanie remembers that he (Sisquo) "wanted quite an R&B sound from her and he had this in mind from the start".
"Step Inside" features a fast garage-type beat and a nursery rhyme opening, which was written with Max Beesley, who also produced and mixed the track. Max is an accomplished actor and musician in his own right, having worked with Paul Weller, Mica Paris, R.Kelly and Brand New Heavies. Melanie recalls that she "met Max about 3 years ago, and then again when he came to a Spice Girls show". After that they got to know each other. Working with him in the studio has been something of a revelation for Melanie and she even uses the "genius" word when describing his contribution to the record.
The soft and smoochy poppy smash hit-sounding "Feels So Good" positively leaps out of the record and begs to be played on the radio with its catchy chorus, sunny beats and positive vibes. It was produced by the legendary Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the team behind some incredible artists, including George Michael, Janet Jackson, Boyz II Men, Alexander O'Neill, Gladys Knight, Redman and Bobby Brown, to name but a few. Melanie recalls meeting them at their studio in Minneapolis. "They gave me a lot of confidence and were incredibly down to earth." Their techniques can be unconventional though, as in when Melanie ended up lying on the floor to get the "sexy vibe", ad libbing slow and sexy lyrics for "Feel Me Now" on the spot, so to speak.
A lot of the time during her sessions with Jam and Lewis, Melanie recalls that she "couldn't see them - it was just me in the vocal booth with a candle. They made me feel incredibly relaxed. There's even a massage chair in the studio to help vocalists relax." This was apparently instigated by Janet Jackson, who also left the earphones that Melanie used during the recording.
Not all the producers "got it" straight away, expecting the scary member of the 40 million-plus album selling band to be looking for the red carpet superstar treatment. "There was even champagne on ice in one of the studios" says Mel, "but I wanted to keep it real". Others, like Biff, she had worked with before so they knew what her approach would be, although the sessions with swing king Teddy Riley of Blackstreet, Jay Z and Michael Jackson fame were more of a learning curve. The best memory from that session was an incredible BV, who helped her come up with a couple of verses and generally contributed above and beyond the call of duty. The two Riley songs are the brutal and self-explanatory "Pack Your Shit", with its heavy drum patterns and American sound, and the beautiful pop-driven "I Believe"...lots of space, bit of scratching, R&B meets pop in the best possible place. "Pack Your Shit" contains some scorching words, notably "pack ya shit, get the hell out, tears in my eyes, I don't feel right". Ironically, the number one smash, released the same week as her wedding, "I Want You Back" follows close on the heels of this track.
Fred Jerkins, whom Melanie had worked with on Spice, also shows up on the opener "Tell Me". Fred, who reportedly cancelled a Britney Spears session to work on "Tell Me", brings out a great vocal performance in Melanie.
As you would expect, nothing held back, nothing missing, nothing hidden and nothing short of great, her first solo album tells you everything about Melanie B! As she says, "it's an extension of my character", loud, proud and right upfront.
Melanie Brown has travelled a long way fast, from Leeds to London, from drama school to Wembley, from engagement to marriage to divorce, and most famously, from obscurity to Spice. Even though she was, by her own admission, a hyperactive child, no one could have predicted the exciting times that lay ahead for Melanie Brown way back in 80's Leeds. It's been 100 mph all the way, like some kind of action-packed movie on fast forward. This album is the culmination of all that pent-up energy, talent, drama, sexuality and sheer drive.
Music has always been the key ingredient for Melanie, right from the earliest of times when she listened to her mother and father's eighties faves such as Maxi Priest, the incomparable Bob Marley, Dire Straits, Aswad and Tracey Chapman. Right now she is into all kinds of music, from Jungle to vocalist Beverley Knight, British singer Lynden David Hall and the brilliant Macy Gray, whom she loves for "being freaky, outrageous and just getting on with it!". Whatever the style, Melanie was just born to sing and perform. "I'd have been performing at Speakers Corner or somewhere if all of this hadn't happened", Melanie laughs.
Her love of music has led to all kinds of adventures from French clubs where there is "a big African scene" to German dance hangouts, great bars in New York USA, the home of soul and dance, to London, where Mel reckons you can hear the best garage and jungle in the world.
There's no escaping the autobiographical nature of the lyrics, and nowhere is this more evident than on the opening song "Tell Me", which is a full-on questioning of someone's real motives for entering a relationship with her...she's already got the video going on in her mind's eye with 20 dancers, some from Leeds, lined up for the dance routines!
From there we move on to the gorgeous lilting Fred Jerkins "Lullaby", a folky ballad written about Phoenix Chi shortly after her birth. The serious undertones of the songs are never far from the surface and Melanie is the first to admit, "I've got a new lease of life now and in a way the split with (former husband) Jimmy was the best thing for all three of us emotionally that could have happened". "The album deals with real living, looking at myself and surroundings, telling a story and facing up to a marriage that went wrong" accepts Melanie, adding that she feels she "came out of it a better person - more balanced". The marriage she refers to was of course her short relationship with Spice dancer, Jimmy Gulzar. The couple were wed amid a blaze of publicity and cameras in 1998, only for the relationship to start hitting the rocks late in 1999, by which time the couple had a beautiful daughter, the exotically-named Phoenix Chi.
"Hotter" was produced by Sisquo, known for mixing 2 Pac, Mary J. Blige and Dru Hill, not to mention his own very successful career. "Hell No", a ballad with some surprisingly delicate guitar, is next up and again we are plunged into a raw emotional theme illustrated in the line "wanted to hate me when you found I lied" and talks about the "many nights I cried". Melanie remembers that he (Sisquo) "wanted quite an R&B sound from her and he had this in mind from the start".
"Step Inside" features a fast garage-type beat and a nursery rhyme opening, which was written with Max Beesley, who also produced and mixed the track. Max is an accomplished actor and musician in his own right, having worked with Paul Weller, Mica Paris, R.Kelly and Brand New Heavies. Melanie recalls that she "met Max about 3 years ago, and then again when he came to a Spice Girls show". After that they got to know each other. Working with him in the studio has been something of a revelation for Melanie and she even uses the "genius" word when describing his contribution to the record.
The soft and smoochy poppy smash hit-sounding "Feels So Good" positively leaps out of the record and begs to be played on the radio with its catchy chorus, sunny beats and positive vibes. It was produced by the legendary Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the team behind some incredible artists, including George Michael, Janet Jackson, Boyz II Men, Alexander O'Neill, Gladys Knight, Redman and Bobby Brown, to name but a few. Melanie recalls meeting them at their studio in Minneapolis. "They gave me a lot of confidence and were incredibly down to earth." Their techniques can be unconventional though, as in when Melanie ended up lying on the floor to get the "sexy vibe", ad libbing slow and sexy lyrics for "Feel Me Now" on the spot, so to speak.
A lot of the time during her sessions with Jam and Lewis, Melanie recalls that she "couldn't see them - it was just me in the vocal booth with a candle. They made me feel incredibly relaxed. There's even a massage chair in the studio to help vocalists relax." This was apparently instigated by Janet Jackson, who also left the earphones that Melanie used during the recording.
Not all the producers "got it" straight away, expecting the scary member of the 40 million-plus album selling band to be looking for the red carpet superstar treatment. "There was even champagne on ice in one of the studios" says Mel, "but I wanted to keep it real". Others, like Biff, she had worked with before so they knew what her approach would be, although the sessions with swing king Teddy Riley of Blackstreet, Jay Z and Michael Jackson fame were more of a learning curve. The best memory from that session was an incredible BV, who helped her come up with a couple of verses and generally contributed above and beyond the call of duty. The two Riley songs are the brutal and self-explanatory "Pack Your Shit", with its heavy drum patterns and American sound, and the beautiful pop-driven "I Believe"...lots of space, bit of scratching, R&B meets pop in the best possible place. "Pack Your Shit" contains some scorching words, notably "pack ya shit, get the hell out, tears in my eyes, I don't feel right". Ironically, the number one smash, released the same week as her wedding, "I Want You Back" follows close on the heels of this track.
Fred Jerkins, whom Melanie had worked with on Spice, also shows up on the opener "Tell Me". Fred, who reportedly cancelled a Britney Spears session to work on "Tell Me", brings out a great vocal performance in Melanie.
As you would expect, nothing held back, nothing missing, nothing hidden and nothing short of great, her first solo album tells you everything about Melanie B! As she says, "it's an extension of my character", loud, proud and right upfront.
Melanie B. All Music Guide Biography
Pop singer and television personality Melanie B. (aka Scary Spice) is best known as a member of the '90s all-girl pop group the Spice Girls. Born Melanie Janine Brown in Leeds, England, in 1975, Brown was interested in performing from a young age and attended the Intake High School Arts College in Leeds. After school she worked for a time as a dancer before auditioning for the group that would eventually become the Spice Girls. Joining the dance-pop group in 1994, Brown was soon dubbed "Scary Spice" by the media -- who nicknamed all the members of the Spice Girls -- due to her high-energy, brash stage persona. In 1998, Brown scored a solo number one hit with the single "I Want You Back," recorded with rapper/producer Missy Elliot for the soundtrack to the film Why Do Fools Fall in Love. She followed up the track with a cover of the Cameo funk classic "Word Up" for the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Around this time, Brown also began appearing as a television presenter for various shows, including several awards programs as well as the BBC2 music magazine Pure Naughty.
In 2000, Brown released her full-length solo debut album, Hot, on Virgin Records. Featuring a bevy of name producers including Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Teddy Riley, and others, the album sold poorly and Brown was ultimately dropped by her label. Around the same time, Brown separated from her husband, dancer Jimmy Gulzar, with whom she had a daughter in 1999. Since that time, Brown has continued to pursue a solo acting and recording career. She also released her autobiography, -Catch a Fire, in 2002. In 2004, Brown began appearing as the drug addict Mimi in the Broadway production of +Rent. In 2005, she recorded a live performance of material from the musical as well as some of her own songs, which she released as L.A. State of Mind on the independent label Amber Cafe. The year 2007 was busy for Brown, who not only toiled with the tabloid press coverage of her breakup with comedian/actor Eddie Murphy (with whom she had a child that same year), but also revealed she had secretly married movie producer Stephen Belafonte. Concurrently in 2007, Brown participated in the Spice Girls' farewell tour. ~ Matt Collar, All Music Guide
In 2000, Brown released her full-length solo debut album, Hot, on Virgin Records. Featuring a bevy of name producers including Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Teddy Riley, and others, the album sold poorly and Brown was ultimately dropped by her label. Around the same time, Brown separated from her husband, dancer Jimmy Gulzar, with whom she had a daughter in 1999. Since that time, Brown has continued to pursue a solo acting and recording career. She also released her autobiography, -Catch a Fire, in 2002. In 2004, Brown began appearing as the drug addict Mimi in the Broadway production of +Rent. In 2005, she recorded a live performance of material from the musical as well as some of her own songs, which she released as L.A. State of Mind on the independent label Amber Cafe. The year 2007 was busy for Brown, who not only toiled with the tabloid press coverage of her breakup with comedian/actor Eddie Murphy (with whom she had a child that same year), but also revealed she had secretly married movie producer Stephen Belafonte. Concurrently in 2007, Brown participated in the Spice Girls' farewell tour. ~ Matt Collar, All Music Guide
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