BBC Radio 1 Interview (2001)
(Credit to FemceeFanatic for finding the interview)
11 September 2001: Lisa Lefteye Lopes talks about her new album 'Supernova'.
Lisa 'Lefteye' Lopes has struck out in a solo carrier after a successful time with TLC. She has worked with many artists including Lil' Kim, Toni Braxton, 2pac, and Mel C, and is now to release her new solo album Supernova. Radio 1 caught-up with Lisa as she talked about her clothing range and detailed plans for getting married. Listen to the full interview, or read-on for a few choice quotes.
You're here to promote the new album Supernova, why that name?
Well, you know, because I felt as though it was most appropriate. What a Super Nova is, it's a rare star and it increases in brightness up to a billion times its normal shine. So when I think of me I do think of a Super Nova, I do think of myself as someone who's rare. The project itself it's a little unique, it's very eclectic, you can't put it in one category. There's a variety of music on it, there's a variety of styles on it, and it's very important for me to reach as many people as I can through my music, through love, through healing. So I'm hoping that just as a Super Nova star shines in brightness that same love that I put into the project will bleed and it will radiate and hopefully the listeners will definitely feel what I've done.
One of the tracks is called 'Hot' and I think that is the track that is going to be first released here, is that any reflection on the whole Super Nova thing, or is there more to it?
Is there more to 'Hot'? Well, you know, that's the most aggressive track on the album, and that is definitely my choice for a first single because it introduces me as a solo artist and pretty much lets everyone know who I am where I stand, what I think about myself. Basically it all boils down to: I do view myself as hot, and a Super Nova star is definitely hot.
Hot in what respect? Hot in terms of ability, hot in terms of the way you look, hot how?
Hot in several different ways, OK, I'll take the two you just said and we'll go from there! You've got to put yourself on a pedestal sometimes, I have very high expectations of myself. That way if I fall underneath my expectations I'm still doing very good. So I can't think any less of myself than someone who's hot in every way that you can possibly imagine it to be.
Your record company kept on delaying the release date, how did that make you feel?
Well at first I did not want to compromise the date, because the date was important to me. August sixteenth just happened to be the day that my father was born and that his father died, and so it's a release date, any know, and that's the day that's I wanted to release my project on. But because they needed more set-up time I compromised the date, but we still streamed it live on the internet. If you go to eyenetics.com you can still here cuts from my album.
You've collaborate in the past with Mel C, are there any other British artists who you'd like to work with?
That's not fair! But yeah, I would like to work with Craig David. I saw him perform live at the MOBO Awards when I hosted it, and sometimes you don't always get that feeling from an artist, the same feeling you get on the record, from a live performance, sometimes they don't always live up to your expectations. But I personally thought he did a great job on stage and that's the type of energy I like to work with.
Will TLC fans be getting the new album, will they be able to get it straight away, or will it take them a little bit of time to be able fit in to Super Nova as an album?
The TLC fans pretty much seem to be stuck on TLC and the TLC sound. I think that if they have any reservations about who Left Eye is to them or who they think I should be or what they think I should be rapping about then it may take them a minute to get it. But if you listen to my album with an open ear and an open heart, then I don't think that you could not love the album and every thing that it stands for because it was truly a labour of love. I just wanted to make sure that I relayed a positive message in every song on the album, it didn't matter if it was a party track, it didn't matter if it was a relationship song, song about questioning our existence in the universe. So I just took my experiences, wrote about them and picked music that really moved me, and I'm a critic, I'm very hard to please when it comes to music. I like the album, not saying because it's my album because I'm not really biased to my work 'cause there's plenty of work I've done in the past that I don't really care for. But the album just feels good and that's what you want your album to do you want it to feel good, you know.
On the album you worked with people like Carl Thomas, you worked with Rock Wilder, what was it like working with those artists?
It was a pleasure working with everyone because everyone's unique everyone brought magic to the table and we worked with some of the people who are my favourite artists or who are my favourite producers. So Carl Thomas he brought a different feel to the album, or at least to that song 'Life Is Like A Park', it was just what we needed for that song was a Carl Thomas. Rock Wilder, the track that he produced is the most aggressive track on the album and that's really what he's known for. He's produced stuff for Wu-Tang Clan, Jay-Z, and we needed a cut like that on the album especially coming from the Big Bad Wolf, how could you not? But there's just a variety of songs on the album and we even used producers who have never been on a project before, up-and-coming producers that I thought were very creative, very talented and had a lot of potential. There's even artists that we used who sang on the hooks who have never been on the project before, so what I did is a mixture of talent that had a good record and talent that needed a chance.
by Nick Davis
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