In 2013, Sebastian Mikael won the hearts of R&B fans with his Wale-assisted single”Last Night” which reached No.8 on Urban radio. Just last week, the Swedish-Ethiopian artist released a breathtaking record called “Forever,” which appeared on the Monday night’s episode of VH1’s “Love and Hip-Hop: New York.”
Mikael recently chatted with Aries of UrbanBridgez.com. He talked about how excited he is to be a part of the 20th annual ESSENCE Festival. In addition, he discussed his latest tune “Forever,” the process behind his debut album “Speechless” and which artists have inspired him.
Read excerpts from the interview below.
On performing at the 2014 ESSENCE Music Festival
“That’s another thing I’m looking forward to this year. It’s going to be crazy, that’s really going to be dope.”
On his new song, “Forever”
“That record to me is one of those very heartfelt situations that you go through in relationships. I feel like everybody can relate to it. Rather to be just a heartbreak type of record, it’s also an encouraging record where I can encourage people, that’s what I love about the record the most. Just from my own experiences of being in a relationship and learning things and seeing things, I wanted to inspire in terms of people listening to it.”
On process of creating his debut album, “Speechless”
“I’ve been putting a lot of work in the project. We’ve been working on it for a minute and I didn’t really want to rush anything, you know what I mean. I want to make sure that when I release it, I feel great about it. That it’s nothing that I’m a little iffy about. I want to feel like I put out exactly what I needed to put out, the way I initially wanted to. So that’s where we’re at right now, we’re in the final stages of wrapping it up. I’m very very happy with it, so I’m excited.”
On musical inspirations
“Marvin Gaye, he’s been one of my biggest inspirations. Babyface is one of my biggest inspirations too. Lenny Kravitz, Michael Jackson, D’Angelo. Also, India.Arie, Pharrell Williams, Coldplay, Bob Marley I can’t forget he has definitely been one of my biggest inspirations.”
Read the full interview here.
