“If I look back on my entire career, I think my duets were some of the most powerful songs,” Eric Benét reflects to Rated R&B.
It’s the week following the summer solstice, and Benét is seated in a Los Angeles café, enjoying a beverage. He is sporting a dark denim shirt, a cherry-colored beanie, and a close-fitting pearl necklace.
The Milwaukee native, who was one-half of the R&B duo Benét with his sister Lisa before embarking on his solo career, has built a reputation for making timeless duets. While “Spend My Life With You” with Tamia and “Georgy Porgy” featuring Faith Evans — a remake of Toto’s 1978 classic — are among his signature hits, Benét has also delivered other standout collaborations.
Over the years, he’s teamed with Mariah Carey (“Want You”), Terry Dexter (“Everlove”), Ledisi (“Good Life”), and Chrisette Michele (“Take It”), among others. He also reunited with Faith Evans (“Feel Good”) and Tamia (“Sunshine Remix”).
In a 2016 interview with Rated R&B, Benét teased that he was working on a joint project with Tamia. “It was a joy working with her again,” Benét said of the “Sunshine (Remix).” He added, “We got excited in the studio this last time that we talked about doing an album together, and we’re going to make that happen.”
Although a joint album with Benét and Tamia has yet to see the light, he hasn’t lost sight of a collaborative project. “For the past 10 years, it’s always been in the back of my mind, like, ‘Yo, one of these days, I need to do a whole album where it’s all duets,” he tells Rated R&B.
The crooner’s last album, Eric Benét, was released in 2016. The self-titled project included the singles “Sunshine” and “Insane.” Given his extensive hiatus from releasing an album, Benét aims to refresh his comeback with his Duets project. “This seems the perfect opportunity because I haven’t had a project out in eight years,” he states. “If I’m going to come out after such a long time, don’t come out the same way, come out different.”
Benét will release his Duets EP on Aug. 23 via his label JBR Creative Group, with plans to follow up with an album version. Duets will include the lead single, “Something We Can Make Love To,” featuring Tamar Braxton. The R&B slow jam was produced by Laney Stewart, brother of Tricky Stewart. The five-track set will also include appearances by Chanté Moore, Corinne Bailey Rae, LaTocha, and Ledisi.
In Rated R&B’s interview with Eric Benét, the singer talks about collaborating with Tamar Braxton, his upcoming Duets project, and how he balances being an artist and head of a record label.
How did your collaboration with Tamar Braxton, “Something We Can Make Love To,” come about?
This is one of those songs where I wish I could take credit for writing. I had nothing to do with the writing of this song. My partner Alison Ball, CEO of JBR [Creative Group], and I decided it’s been quite a minute since I came out with a project. We decided instead of putting out another Eric Benét project, why not do a duet joint?
I wrote these songs, and they were great, but sounded very much like Eric Benét songs. It’s not a bad thing. We thought maybe this time around, why don’t you give them something that doesn’t feel like you wrote it but fits in the family of your romantic songs?
We went to Atlanta and hung out with Tricky and Laney Stewart. Laney presented this song to us. We thought it was perfect. Tricky hit up Tamar and said, “Yo, you gotta get on this joint.” Tamar heard the track and absolutely loved it. She sounds incredible on it. It was one of those songs when I first heard it, I was like, “Yeah, this feels like it could fit in the whole family of Eric Benét music.” But also something right now that feels classic, romantic [and] could work as a first single.
Did you and Tamar get to record together in person?
We didn’t. The song, as I understand it, wasn’t conceived as a duet. It was conceived as a guy singing about a girl who he’s trying to get with. Tricky presented the idea to Tamar, and then lyrically, they made it a duet situation. I was not in the studio when she laid her vocal down, but Tricky was texting me, giving me the play-by-play. Like, “Yo, she sounds crazy on this sh*t. I can’t wait for you to hear it.” As soon as I heard a vocal, I was incredibly moved.
What story do you plan to tell on your Duets album?
I don’t think there’s a central lyrical story with this album. There is a continuation of what I felt has worked incredibly well for me in my career. If I look back on my entire career, I think my duets were some of the most powerful songs. For the past 10 years, it’s always been in the back of my mind, like, “Yo, one of these days, I need to do a whole album where it’s all duets.” This seems the perfect opportunity because I haven’t had a project out in like eight years.
So if I’m going to come out after such a long time, don’t come out the same way, come out different. It’s interesting when you’re doing a duets project because you have to look at every vocal as an instrument. Every singer has their distinct tonal qualities, cadence, and emotive properties in their voice — and that’s an instrument. You have to pick the right instrument for the right song. I was approaching it that way, where I would write the song, live with it for a minute, and ask myself, “What instrument does this song need?” It’s the same process I’ve used throughout my career.
When I wrote “Spend My Life With You,” I didn’t conceive it with Tamia singing it. I had to write the song first, hear my voice on it, and decide what timber, tone, vibrato, vocal control, sensitivity [and] strength is going to fit in this section. Then it was like, “Oh, Tamia. That’s perfect.” So it’s the same process.
What inspired you to create a duet album with multiple artists instead of collaborating with just one?
I think if I did a project with the same artist, it might have a propensity to have too similar of a mood for most of the songs because I’m going to be thinking about that voice when I’m writing. That’s not a bad thing, especially if I want to put one album full of romantic ballads. It would be a great idea but I wanted this project to have different flavors and moods.
You previously teased a collaboration with Chaka Khan. Could you talk more about that song?
I told Chaka I was doing this project, and she said, “I’m in.” There’s a song on my first album called “Chains.” She loves that song. She’s like, “I want you to write something for me that feels like that song.” And I thought, “OK, I’m going to try to do that.” When you’re writing a song, you’re pulling mysterious things out of the ether and universe. Sometimes, you don’t know where they came from. So I can say I’m going to try to write another “Chains,” but I don’t know what the hell is going to happen.
And, of course, when I’m trying to write a song like “Chains,” I didn’t like any of my ideas. It sounded like I was trying to do a bad impersonation of an old Eric Benét song. What I had to do was remember the conversation I had with Chaka. She was talking about the meaning [and] the down-home, funky feel of the song. I was like, “Let me think of a lyrical topic that resonates with me in this moment. Let me pull musically from some classic deep-rooted African-American something because I know that’s what resonated with her.”
I wrote this song called “Southern Pride,” which is about the Great Migration from the 1920s of African-Americans leaving the South looking for a more tolerable brand of racism in the Midwestern and the Northern States. So, this is a message to Chaka: “You heard the song, Miss Chaka Khan. You said you love it and just need to figure out when you are going to come to the studio to record this vocal. Now come on, Chaka!“ All that to say, Chaka ain’t come by and do her vocal yet (laughs).
Is there a release date for your duets album?
We’re going to come out with the EP in August. We wrote so many songs that we’re going to come out with an album of 10 other songs, most likely at the top of the year.
Is there a song on the album that pushed your creative boundaries?
Yeah, there’s a couple. I grew up listening to a lot of classic Brazilian jazz and Brazilian music like Antônio Carlos Jobim and Sérgio Mendes. I was like, “I want to write one of those.” And so I wrote it. I got with my guy Randy Emata, who’s my musical brother, and vibed this thing out and this thing feels so good. Now, we’re talking about going to Brazil to shoot some content for it. Then there’s another song that’s kind of in Spanglish. There’s a little Spanish in it. I don’t speak much Spanish at all, but we put a little in there, and it feels like a classic, painfully romantic Spanish song. There are the genres I’m really trying to explore and mess around with.
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On Instagram, you document your fitness journey. How important is fitness? Can you just talk about the importance of self-care and if it correlates to your creativity?
Thank you for asking that question. Once you’ve been in the game as long as I have, you see many of your contemporaries fall by the wayside for various reasons, but whatever the reason, I know if they had a better handle on their health, they would be better equipped to deal with the punches that life throws at them. If you’re spending way too much time drinking after a show or eating fried foods or partaking in too much sugar, dairy and not drinking your water, not getting your sleep, and trying to replace your lack of energy with some part of pharmaceutical jolt. Anything that life throws at you, be in fighting shape to take care of it. Take care of yourself.
You run your company, JBR Creative Group, with music exec Alison Ball, who you’ve been acquainted with since your Benét days. What was your vision when you launched JBR?
Alison gave me my first record deal and my second record deal, and now we’re running a company together. I love it. Being in the industry for so long, we wanted artists to be empowered and to create an environment where it’s not so much this executive versus the artist type of relationship. It’s more of a partnership, and make sure they have ownership in the masters. Try to include them every step of the way of the decisions of the marketing to the promotion. My first record deal was like, “Nah, you ain’t coming to no marketing meetings. Are you crazy? No, you’re not going to know what money is being spent.” We’re trying to do the opposite of that.
We’ve signed a couple of new artists. We’re signing at least three more next year. Joe Leone will be the first one coming out. Super talented guy, who is a multi-instrumentalist and has an interestingly beautiful voice. I’ve been in the studio with him. We’re on a mission to empower artists and make sure they are just as included as we are with the decisions of their life, their label, and their careers.
You’ve been rocking pearls consistently over the last few months. What does it represent for you?
The pearls for me, I don’ know, I just like them. Sometimes I get fixated on one little fashion thing. I had this black motorcycle jacket I used to wear, and I wore it everywhere for about three years and then I stopped wearing it. Then my thing was dreads for a while. I was just like, “Nah, I need to change.” Trust me, whenever I’m sick of wearing them, you probably will never see them again.
What do you want listeners to take away from Duets?
I just want people to explore because I’m exploring different genres. I encourage people to get the whole project when it comes out because there may be some things that will resonate with you way more than the one or two singles. It may surprise you, so once the project is released — the EP and the album — peruse through the whole thing because there’s going to be some joints on there.
