The soulful, hypnotic grooves on his new album ‘1978’ run the older music through a modern filter.
José James’ new album “1978” was inspired by the music of Prince, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson from that era. José James wasn’t listening to music back in 1978 – that’s the year he was born. Yet many of his favorite albums are from that year, and the soulful, hypnotic grooves on his new album “1978” recall songs by Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Prince and others through a modern filter.
James spoke recently by video about this most personal of projects. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.The first seed planted was meeting Leon Ware – he wrote so much for Motown, but he also produced and wrote “I Want You” for Marvin Gaye, which is my favorite album of all time. We spent a beautiful day at his house in Marina del Rey. He had such a wealth of ideas and gravitas.
I want music that feels fun and accessible. I spent two years touring with my Bill Withers Project, and watching people dance to “A Lovely Day.” I want my music to tap into that joy, but I also wanted to write songs that you could put under a microscope and nerd out to the jazz harmonies, the way Quincy Jones did for Michael Jackson.. I pre-produced everything on Ableton here in my home. I wanted it to sound like J. Dilla and Leon Ware produced the album for me.
This is my first real L.A. album. There’s so much space here – I’m looking out my window right now, and I can see the mountain range. It’s just totally different when you’re seeing soaring birds and coyotes running across the street. But also there’s this car culture out here and I pictured somebody listening to this in their car, driving super slow in a late ’70s black Cadillac with a really nice system.
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