Paul B Allen III Perspective on You Are My Everything
The magic of collaboration. The need to create your magic, and then to hand it over to the next person in line and let them do their magic. This synergy is the difference between something good, and something great.
To leave this world a better and more beautiful place than I found it by coaxing smiles and touching hearts with my music.
I do. Like birds that fly and fish that swim and whales that sing I have no choice.
I do not believe that a true artist can or would care to be compared with any other artist. Each artist is unique. When you hear Stevie, you know it from the first note. When you hear Luther, there is not a shadow of a doubt that it is Luther. As much as I adore them both, I don't want to sound like either. I am not Stevie or Luther. I am Paul. And when people hear me sing, they know immediately that it is me. They may love me. They may hate me. But they know it's me.
Writing music and books, and singing, just becuse I love to do it.
She is too shy and private for me to say.
it is simply seeing through a different lens. Some have a materialistic outlook on life; some have a fatalistice outlook on life. But most artists that I have ever known see the world as a big beautiful adventure, and see themselves unbound by convention. Artists embrace living outside of their comfort zone, and that makes everything look very different including them in the eyes of others.
You come into this life alone. You go out of this life alone. For most, they fill the middle part with wedding and parties and celebrations and connections. Artists do exactly the same, except for the middle part. We don't do 2 out of 3. We are 3 for 3 kind of people.
It was my passion for writing stories that lead me to writing poems that lead me to writing lyrics, that lead me to serving those words in my performances. It is not about my voice or how many vocal runs I can do. It is how I imterpret each word of the lyrics. So writing is what made all the rest possible. .
A more appropriate question would be what jobs have I not done. I have never believed in being a starving artist. I think I can have a Peter Lugar steak or an Amapola burrito, and still sing well all night long. If you pay your money to hear me sing, I want you to hear my voice, not my growling stomach.
I had hit songs before there were streaming platforms and and people are still performing those songs today. There was a precipitous drop in revenue for the songwriters and independent artists the moment streaming platforms entered the game. Yes artist have easier access to the music industry, but the vast majority of artists are not making money like the money they would have made before the the days of digital music. I would take us back to the days when radio stations ruled and you got to play the latest vinyl hits once you purchased them and brought them home from the record store.
Being trapped in the middle of an Anti-American rally in Turkey. I could not get into my hotel fast enough as thousands marched down my street with protest signs and screaming, "Americans, kill them all!"
"Always There." It represents success to me because it was the key to my successful introduction into the music industry, and I am still known by millions around the world as being the co-writer of this song.
The same as the fireman, the policeman, the school teachers, the maintenance engineers, the doctor, the lawyer, and the migrant workers. Our role in society is to do our jobs. I don't think we should be idolized, nor held to a higher standard. Artists are people first and foremost.
Success is subjective. Getting that gig at the coffee shop on the corner is the ultimate dream for some artists. Whereas nothing less than playing The Kennedy Center, or The Apollo or Madison Square Garden will do for others. The artists performing at the Kennedy Center are not happier or more excited than the artist performing at the coffee shop with all their friends there cheering them on. Only your heart can gauge your success. It not about the money or the prestige, for the artist, it is about saving and soothing your soul.
Most artist who end up being game-changers did not have that goal. When they released their creativity, it just happened. The world has to judge for themselves if you were a game-changer or not. It is a very organic process.
Watching lovers reconnect with each other as they are listening to me sing.
I practice organically. I am told by those around me that I sing all the time. When I am grocery shopping, etc., I am told that I am singing. I never realized it until my daughter told me that she has never seen me anywhere that I was not singing. It was a revelation.
Privately with dear friends who are artists themselves. We speak the same language. They don't say, as your loving family would, "Oh, that is a great song!" Artists will know what it took to get what you have, and their approval and considerations and encouragement and constructive criticism are to be cherised above all.
R&B, especially ballads.
Watching an episode of the great ensemble TV show called Northern Exposure, there as a poignant moment, and the music that was playing during that scene affected me like nothing in my past had. This was before the days of internet and really powerful search engines. But I had to learn about that song. So I literally tracked down the producers of that show and called them directly to ask about this song. Thiat is how I was introduced to "There I Go Again" by an artist named VINX. He does not know it, but I worked harder than probably anyone else in the world to locate and rush out and purchase his album. I am still a fan to this day.
I want them to feel me. I am in all my music. Sometimes I want you to reminisce. Sometimes I want make you smile. Sometimes I want to give you hope and let you know that all is not lost. I want for them to feel me.
The only person I ever dreamed of collaborating with was Quincy Jones.
Hmm... I've never thought about that before. Ok, after some thoguht, I would be the number one artis I would listen to. Why? Apparently I must be a little narcissistic.
Number 2? Stevie Wonder. Why? Because he has produced a lifetime worth of music, and it is all different and it is all genius. I would see and learn new things every single time I would listen to his music.
Number 3. Silk Sonic (Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak) Why? They have created some of the excellent music of our generation. It is precise, beautiful, well-written, clever, fun, exciting, and playful and powerful. And performed by two of our most amazing entertainers. Their album is my favorite album of all time.
Again, the highly successful "Always There." Writing the lyrics to that song changed my life and has guided me throughtout my entire musical career. It fed my children. It helped me rescue those in times of their greatest need. It lead to me being able to travel the world and make new extended families on nearly every continent.
No one. I don't like concerts, even thought I have performed at concerts all around the world. I did that for the people. But if it is going to be for me, I want for it to be intimate. I don't want or need to be around thousands of other people as I listen. I want to hear every note played and sung, and I do not want my attention broken even for a second. Concerts are not conducive to the way I chose to assimilate music.
