Lowdown: Andre 3000 helps out Esthero
The mystery man on Esthero’s long-awaited follow-up to 1998’s “Breath From Another” debut is Andre 3000 of Grammy-winning duo Outkast.
Up until recently, the identity of the big hip hop star on her song “Junglebook” has been under wraps. The album, “Wikked Lil’ Grrls,” is tentatively scheduled for a March 1 release in Canada.
The song, which has a light African pop feel, is a piece of escapism about living in the jungle. “I told him what it was about,” says Esthero, whose album is a sexy, sophisticated blend of jazz, pop and urban musics. “It’s basically a fantasy song of being tired of your surroundings and the idea of moving to the jungle and living in a tree fort, dancing with fireflies — the desire for magic to be back in your life.”
The Toronto-based singer envisioned Andre on the track, but wanted him to get a sense of the album. She gave him four songs from “Wikked,” including the title track from her teaser EP, “We R in need of a musical ReVoLuTIoN!,” plus “Every Day Is A Holiday (With You),” a song she co-penned with her friend, Sean Lennon.
“I wanted Andre to want to be a part of the record, not just part of a song,” explains Esthero. “I thought it would be a big mistake to just send him the song because I don’t know if he would’ve done it, but he called me a couple of days later and said., ‘What are we doing and when?'”
Last July, she flew down to Atlanta’s famed Stankonia Studios, where Andre laid down his vocal. After hanging out in the lounge as the singer created, he emerged with a cool part about making love like animals and feelin’ cannibal. “I’ll eat you alive,” he sings on the otherwise tame song.
“When I heard the line, I thought he said, ‘I’ll eat you all night,’ and I was laughing. I said to him, ‘I don’t think you can say that,’ and he said, ‘Noooooo, I’m saying, ‘I’ll eat you alive — like a cannibal,'” she recounts. “He’s so talented. It’s so great to be around him, so humble, so fun. I’ll remember the night in the studio with him forever.”
Wikked also includes a plaintive gospel blues track called “Gone,” with Cee-Lo Green of Goodie Mob. Esthero had worked with the group back in 1998 for a remix of Breath’s “World I Know (Country Livin’)” for the Slam soundtrack. On the other end of the spectrum is a pure happy pop track, “Everyday Is A Holiday (With You),” one of two songs co-written two years ago with Lennon at his New York home.
“The song was inspired by something Sean had already written, a song called “Happiness,’ which we call The Muppet Song,” says Esthero. “It had like that Henry Mancini (vibe), so I started writing something like that. The song was pretty much done. He helped me write the bridge and we sat there at the piano and just laid some background vocals and ideas, and that was that. He’s got a beautiful left hand. He made the song come to life.”
“Working with Esthero is like mainlining inspiration,” says Lennon. “She’s like inter-venus music. If songwriting is a highway, Esthero is a souped-up pink Lamborgini. If you don’t wear a seat-belt, you get musical whiplash. ‘Every Day…’ was a garden already in bloom, she simply wanted someone to walk through it with. Lucky me.”
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