What are the special details needed to be in place to create a signature Earth, Wind & Fire project? Which old’ and ‘new’ players lent their skills to create it? And what does Philip Bailey consider their greatest-ever gig? Here’s an except of the Knowshi.com chat with EW&F, which contains all of the answers: read on…..
Knowshi: You’re all over the new music singing in both the baritone and the falsetto range, how do you maintain it? Do you have a regimen you follow or….
PB: “Me and Maurice are the sound of the band vocally, so we’re both able to sing ‘up and down.’ When he left, I just had to step up and it gave me the opportunity to, night in and night out, use the full registers of my voice. I am a baritone, I studied operatic baritone in college and I always had the falsetto because I would mimic the female vocalists that I loved, like Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, Dionne Warwick.
As far as keeping it up, I know the things I can do and what I can’t do. I can’t take a lot of air conditioning—that is like kryptonite—and Coca-Cola is….I don’t drink Coca-Cola.”
Knowshi: Really? What does that do?
PB: “I found that out the hard way when I was doing a gig—I needed something to drink, got some Coca-Cola, went back to the mic and it just said ‘AAAAACK’! (laughs) No voice at all. I sounded like the ‘Aflac’ duck, no voice. So brown sodas….mmm-mmm.”
Knowshi: I learned something new today, wow. Another thing I wanted to ask you, Mr. Bailey—Mint Condition gave you a tribute last year at your request and they speak very, very highly and fondly of you. Is there a chance that you two bands will unite and record?
PB: “Well, we think highly of them too—their praise of us is very kind, I’ve always liked their band and Stokley is an amazingly talented singer, songwriter and producer. I sure would love to do something together, so maybe if you put it out in the air, it can happen.”
Knowshi: Oh certainly, right when this is published! I know we’ve got to wrap it up now Mr. Bailey, but I’m curious about one last thing….(please click here to read the rest at knowshi.com)
