MiddleChild Promotions Interviews Michelle Williams

The year 2013 was pretty incredible for former Destiny’s Child member Michelle Williams. From headlining the Broadway tour production of Will Smith & Jay-Z’s “Fela” for 6 months to performing at the Super Bowl halftime show with Beyonce & Kelly Rowland, Michelle has had her hands full! Believe it or not, she’s not ready to slow down anytime soon. In the midst of being on the road most of the year, she’s also been hard at work on her first solo album in nearly 6 years and first Gospel album in nearly a decade. She was recently honored in her hometown by some of her fellow artists, family and friends for all of her hard work and dedication to her purpose. She was a joy to talk to. Check out what she had to say!

Terrell: Let’s talk about your return to the Gospel industry. I remember seeing your most recent interview on BET’s “Lift Every Voice” where you spoke out about leaving gospel music because you were tired of trying to “prove” yourself to people. Talk to me about that and what made you decide to come back?

Michelle Williams: You know what Terrell? At the end of the day, you have to do what God tells you to do. That’s just the way it is. On judgement day, God is not going to except the excuse “Lord, they talked about me….”. This is indeed an assignment that’s been given to me by God’s spirit. But yeah, it honestly took me awhile to really be obedient. That’s why I thank God for His grace and mercy. It took me a little while, but I finally decided to be obedient and I’m SO glad I did. So I just want to encourage people that God will tell you to do something and a lot of times it goes against what YOU may want to do. But if I had MY way, I probably wouldn’t do this professionally because I love the genre so much. Gospel music is what I was born & raised on. When you get on the inside of things it’s like “maybe not…” but I’ve just made the choice say “OK God, I’m going to trust You and do what You’ve told me to do”. This time I’m going about it differently. I’m not coming to make no friends. I’m not coming to be the “hottest” in Gospel. None of that. I’m coming strictly on ASSIGNMENT. I’m coming to help souls on their journey to freedom as well.

I’m coming to help those that need to be free from whatever is keeping them from living their best lives and being free from people and their opinions. Whatever it is that’s keeping you from freedom, I want to help people get free from that. That’s all I’m here to do.

Terrell: I love it. I totally applaud you for that. So, while I was prepping for this interview, I was reflecting on your first solo album and the start of your career as a solo artist. Your first solo collaboration was with the legendary Shirley Caesar on “Steal Away to Jesus”. What do you remember about working with her?

Michelle Williams: That was an amazing time! She’s such an icon in Gospel. She’s a legend. I never thought in a million years I’d be working with her. She was SO encouraging to me and very nice. I also remember her telling me while I was getting ready to put out my first album that “OK Michelle, if anybody has something to say, they can come through me” and I was like “Well alright!”. Now that I think about it, there’s a few people that I should’ve sent to her, but um…..

Terrell: You are crazy!

Michelle Williams: (laughs) I’m just saying! But yeah, that was so much fun and truly an honor for me. I’ll always love her for embracing me the way she did.

Terrell: Cool. Your upcoming album is entitled Journey To Freedom. What’s the significance behind the title?

Michelle Williams: It’s just about my journey and where I am in my life right now. It’s my story. It embodies the awesome things we were able to come up with sonically. hings I never thought I would touch musically, we were able to do. There were some songs….I almost didn’t record “Fire” because I was like “That’s not me”. But then I thought about it and realized that it is me. The song was just done in a way that I would’ve never expected. Sometimes people put their labels on you and then, before you know it, you’ve adapted to those labels yourself instead of experimenting and trying some new things.

Terrell: I agree. I know Harmony Samuels produced the bulk of this album. How did this musical marriage come about?

Michelle Williams: I met him through Kelly Rowland actually. He did 3 songs on Kelly’s latest album. Actually the song that Beyonce & myself are featured on, (“You Changed”) he produced it. So Kelly was like “Sis, you gotta work with Harmony, I think yall would make some great stuff with your voice and his productions…” So I called him up and met him at his studio. So let’s see what we can do. Initially, we were only gonna do maybe 3 songs together. But that 3 songs eventually turned into 15 songs. You know how Janet Jackson has her Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis? That’s what I went back to. I found that in Harmony Samuels.

Terrell: So going into this project early on, musically, did you have an idea of what direction you wanted to go in?

Michelle Williams: Initially, I did know that i wanted to have a little bit of an alternative twist to the music. I can truly say that I love every single song I’ve recorded for this album. I don’t regret anything because I feel like it all flowed so well to become what it needed to be.

Terrell: Like I said, I love both of the singles. Especially “Fire”, which has somewhat of a reggae feel to it.

Michelle Williams: Yes! Thank you so much. You know, Harmony is Nigerian. That’s his nationality, even though he was born in London. His parents are Nigerian. So I get a little bit of that feel from him. Not only on “Fire”, but there’s also a Nigerian praise anthem I recorded called “When Jesus Says Yes”. There’s another track that’s simply called “Yes” that has a similar type of feel to it. PLUS! My “If We Had Your Eyes” (Remix) with Fantasia came out great! We both work closely with Harmony Samuels, so that’s how this collaboration came about. I just love her. People like to keep her name on their lips for whatever reason, but you cannot deny that
this girl got some oil on her! The anointing on her is so strong and I’m so proud of her and very happy she was able to come through for me. I have some other surprise collaborations on the album also. Just gotta wait on those good ol’ clearances! Once they’re confirmed, I’ll be able to
announce them to you guys.

Terrell: Wow! I can’t wait to hear. Now we’ve always heard Beyonce and Kelly mention how funny you were…..

Michelle Williams: (laughs) Yeah….

Terrell: I’ve always loved your personality just as much as I love your music because we’re getting to see more of that lately. Now I’m hearing you might be getting your own reality show. Then I heard you’re not so sure about doing it. Where are you right now with that?

Michelle Williams: Well, thank you for that compliment. It’s still up in the air. I’m not 100% confident in it just yet. I’m just….I’m just not sure about it. Plus, you gotta understand that whatever you put out there….baby, it is out there! 20 years from now, they can get that footage. So I just want to make sure that that’s something that I really want and something that I really want to do.

Terrell: I can definitely understand that. On your previous album (“Unexpected”) you had a great chemistry with producer/songwriter Rico Love.

Michelle Williams: Yes!

Terrell: It’s funny because I follow him on Twitter and he’s always saying how much he loves you and credits you for being one of the first to really believe in him.

Michelle Williams: Awww, yeah, he’s so sweet. I’m so proud of him. He’s really doing his thing well out here. And who knows? I might try to squeeze him in to do something for this album. He’s definitely someone I have an undeniable chemistry with in the studio. But yeah, Rico Love, Harmony Samuels and Tommy Simms have chemistry with me that I could never
deny.

Terrell: Absolutely. I hear that you might be starting your own record label. Any truth to this?

Michelle Williams: There’s definitely some possibilities for that. We’ll have to see. I would love to develop some artists. I don’t wanna manage though. I just want to develop you, give you what you need and send you on your way!

Terrell: Now I know quite a few times you got the chance to meet Whitney
Houston….you’ve always cited her as one of your musical heroes…..

Michelle Williams: Absolutely.

Terrell: What do you remember about your encounters with Whitney?

Michelle Williams: Everything. I just remember how amazingly real she was.
Very funny. She was so warm to us. So cool and had such encouraging words to say. You know, I’ll never forget when I had my Broadway debut in “Aida”, she wasn’t able to make it to opening night, but she personally sent me these beautiful flowers with a handwritten letter attached to it.
I actually still have that letter too. That meant so much to me and was so sweet of her to even think of me. I’ll never forget that and I’ll never forget her.

Terrell: That’s beautiful. I have to congratulate you because you were recently honored in a big way in your hometown of Rockford, Illinois. Congratulations on that!

Michelle Williams: Thank you honey! That was so surreal. I felt so inspired and so special at the same time. Being honored like that just helped feel like the saints say in the church “run on and see what the end is gonna be!”. So that was awesome to see different artists up there doing musical tributes to me. It also let me know that I need to pull some of those songs out and start performing them again. Those are some nice songs. I mean, some people get hated on in their own hometown, but if you can have love in your own hometown? You can do anything. So it’s a blessing that I don’t take lightly at all.

Source: MiddleChild Promotions