Floetry |
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Fri. January 03.2003 12:09 PM EST |
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Floetry: Best Of Both WorldsThe buzzed-about singer and rapper are Brits who live in Philly, and a mainstream pop act that has roots in poetry. They talk about Michael Jackson and the power of sexy beats. by C. Bottomley |
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Floetry (Linda Zacks) |
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I get off on words, says Natalie Stewart, self-anointed floecist with London duo Floetry. When I was seven years old it was perpendicular. I used to try and put that word in every sentence! Also, me and my sister would use 'melancholy' for
Stewarts command of vocabulary is now dedicated to more than just ordering lunch. Floetrys debut album, Floetics, pairs her quickfire rapping with singer Marsha Ambrosius soaring vocals. While Natalie gets athletic with her hurdling rhymes, Marsha lays some honest soul over bare grooves and sumptuous strings. Marsha calls their songs conversations, and the disc's yin-yang moments - where the skittish calling card of "Floetic belies the lush testimony of Sunshine - are of a piece with Floetry themselves. Like many duos, the ladies talk over each other, finish each others sentences, and slip private jokes into their chatter. Natalie is the non-stop yakker; Marsha the thoughtful one, sneaking in sly digs when her partner pauses for breath. Old chums - they both studied at Britains equivalent of the Fame school - they dont so much answer interview questions as give a performance, an approach that gets animated when theyre asked to describe each other. Marsha Angelique Ambrosius is strong and honest with herself, Natalie decides, in an accent thats as English as pigeons in Trafalgar Square. Shes a Leo and a Liverpudlian. Shes a melodic genius/mad person so in tune to melodic structure that shes sometimes hard to communicate with & On cue, Marsha begins humming to herself. See?," continues Natalie, "She doesnt listen to what I say, she listens to how I say it, and shes involving herself with her own explanation. For the record, I think that should be marked as unfair! Natalie thinks too far ahead of everyone else, retorts Marsha. Sometimes, shes like a clairvoyant, but Ive become a believer because Ive known her for 13 years. [Watch Clip] They arent sure when they first met, but the singers guarantee it was on a basketball court. Natalie was an army brat; Marsha the daughter of a basketball coach. They became fast friends when Natalie needed to work on her left-hand moves, and Coach Ambrosius took her under his wing. I wanted to study theatre at the Brits School! exclaims Natalie. I wanted to go somewhere where being theatrical didnt get you into detention. I grew so much at school. I was writing and acting and on stage all the time. Marsha decided to study business and finance, although everyone - teachers included - thought music was her calling. Id be singing all the time, and they all assumed that was my main interest," she remembers. Their friendship was built on what Natalie calls a "sick" sense of humor. We laughed at people a lot, she says. "Id be like, 'Marsha, look at that!' And wed just roll on the floor and not let anybody know who were really laughing at. Just the fact that we are being interviewed as Floetry is hilarious, adds Marsha. Maybe so. The notion of them actually performing together didnt materialize until they'd left school, and Marsha discovered she had written a song that needed something a little extra. Nat had declared herself a poet, so I called her and said, I have a hook with no verses. Can you put some poetry to my music? The song was called 'Fantasize.' We still perform it to this day." We did this one show and we were like, Yo! We got to write something else, chimes in Natalie. We were excited. That turned into three months of intense writing! Our art just built so quickly! Too quickly for London to handle. After exhausting the English poetry circuit, Floetry acted on an invite to perform at an Atlanta poetry slam. From there they made their way to Philadelphia, where they became familiar faces in the citys music scene. You never know who you are going to see! says Natalie. The first day we were there, we were hanging out with Scratch from the Roots on South Street. Then you go down the street and you see Jill Scott, you see Musiq & Common was there, remembers Marsha. Its definitely very tight knit, Natalie explains. Philadelphia has a lot of young interesting - Hungry, interrupts Marsha. - hungry musicians that were raised in church. They didnt pick up instruments, saying, I want to be like someone. They were in bands that were backing-up choirs, so they were playing to praise God. The way that they play is bigger than just trying to get a record on the radio. Philadelphia is rich with people who care about musics live element, says Marsha. We forget that there was once a time when there were no ProTools in the studio and 90 billion tracks to mess around with. You dont have an orchestra in the room playing at the same time as youre singing anymore. [Watch Clip] The pair signed with a label run by DJ Jazzy Jeff, setting out to prove themselves worthy of such company. They wrote songs for Jill Scott, Bilal, and Glenn Lewis. Then a certain Michael Jackson heard their song Butterflies and came calling. The girls erupt with excitement at the memory. Three years ago, Nat had a dream that we were in a limo with Michael, Marsha recalled. He was singing a song and it was like, Oh, I like that song. A year later, were in the studio cutting Butterflies with Michael Jackson. When we met him, we met the man that sung ABC, Nat says. We met a person who kicked down enough color barriers that we can now be here doing what we do. He led us into a lot of things. It was educational for us to see how he worked in the studio. There arent lots of people hanging around, and chicks coming through all day. Its Lets get some work done. This is a real life job and were blessed to be employed artists. Marsha sums it up. Our life is a dream! As if working with the King of Pop wasnt enough, the two hoop fans are managed by the son of Julius Dr. J Erving. Doc has got so much mojo, it is just ridiculous! thrills Nat. He shook our hands and his hand was so big it came up to my elbow! I would watch the [1979 basketball movie] The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh all the time and tell people that he was my uncle - I never knew that I would meet him some day! confesses Marsha. Floetry are currently queens of the court, with both Whitney Houston and Faith Evans keen on their songwriting skills. As the Butterfly demo tucked at the end of Floetics demonstrates, theyre their own best interpreters. Marsha, particularly, is a gifted singer who dazzles with her sheer variety of tone and feeling. She calls herself a chameleon; her voice has the ability to change to suit any emotion. There's a song not on the album called Losing My Appetite,'" she says. "[When people heard it] they swore it was Janet Jackson. It was me! Im like, 'It has to sound that way because its so sensual and seductive and sweet.' Im not that kind of person, as you can see!, she adds with a laugh. Its theatrical, Natalie continues. Theres only so much you can say about yourself. Especially if you want to go down a couple of layers and show people pain. Nat wrote a song, Believe, for Michael Jackson, says Marsha. I actually cried when we cut the demo. But it wasnt me crying. It was how I imagined him [Michael] feeling the emotion at that particular point in the track. Everyone who heard it was like, Wow! The emotion! It made me cry! And I was actually cracking up in the studio! [Watch Clip] Whether Nat and Marsha are just playing around or not, Floetics honestly embraces the carnal. On Opera, a womans love moves her to sing arias. Getting Late gets lost in orgasmic gasping, and on fan favorite Say Yes, Marsha coaxes whoevers listening to submit and disrobe. Its definitely an album that should come with its own bottle of baby oil - or at least some smelling salts. Our fans say that theyre putting the work in! laughs Natalie when asked if theres going to be a generation of Floetry babies. We often say, if you can have an argument with your partner to a Floetry album, youre probably not supposed to be together. If you can argue through Getting Late and Say Yes, I dont think youre on the right path! |
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