Interviews

Published on June 22nd, 2019 | by Guest Contributor

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City Heart, Southern Soul: Noel Gourdin is Back With New Music!

In 2008, Noel Gourdin sat atop of the Billboard with his hit, “The River.” See what the Brockton, Massachusetts native is up to now.

Noel Gourdin has a rare sound that stems from a Boston upbringing with southern Mississippi roots. This sound was put on full display for his 2008 Billboard topping hit, “The River,” where he describes his time, relationships and relatives from Mississippi. He furthered the notion in 2014 when he released an album titled, “City Heart, Southern Soul,” which describes, Gourdin in a nutshell. Gourdin has contributed five top 25 Billboard hits which include the aforementioned, “The River” which peaked at #1, “Beautiful,” peaked at #13, “Heaven Knows,” peaked at #21, “You’re My Music” featuring, Brian Culbertson peaked at #23 and “One Love,” peaked at #25. Noel plans to bring the art of storytelling back to R&B music while filling the void of music with a message and integrity.

I spoke to, Noel who talks about his exclusive U.K. album; which has reached #1 on the U.K. Soul Chart top 30. He’s also working on some new singles to be released in the States as well.

We need some new, Noel Gourdin music. Is that something you are currently working on?

Noel Gourdin: Yeah man, most definitely working on that. Right now, I’m actually working on a U.K. exclusive project. I’m doing that with a fellow named, Regi Myrix. He’s a producer and we are putting it out and it’s called, “Blak Buttah Volume One!” We’re doing that, it’s pretty much an EP that we’re working on. It’s going to be 7-records and like I said, a U.K. exclusive. But over here in the States, I’m working on a couple of singles. The first one is going to be something special, man. It’s going to be coming out really soon. I didn’t want the two projects to collide, so that’s why I’m getting this other one, “Blak Buttah,” a U.K. exclusive at the moment. I’m really excited about the record that we are going to be putting out here in the States.

What prompted the U.K. exclusive?

Noel Gourdin: My prior projects I have gotten a lot of support over in the U.K. Regi Myrix reached out to me. He actually has a lot of good relationships with DJ’s and radio folks overseas. He wanted to do a project and it has a lot of preliminary support. A lot of folks knew my name over there. When he put my name on it and said he was going to be doing an EP with, Noel Gourdin, they all jumped and said that they were looking forward to it and that they would definitely support it. So, that was something that was really good and to know that I would be working on a project over here, a single to start with to see if it would lead to an LP type project over here in the States. So, I thought it would be good to have that running into a project over here in the States and have good momentum. It just kind of worked out and it’s crazy, the single that we put out just hit #1 in the U.K. on the U.K. Soul Chart. Things are kind of going as we foreseen and planned, so it’s always wonderful when things work out that way.

Congratulations on that, brother.

Noel Gourdin: I appreciate it.

You bring a real soulful true R&B sound and voice. And we don’t have that in abundance like we once had. Do you feel there is a void there and if so, I’m sure you are willing and able to fill it?

Noel Gourdin: I do kind of feel that way, but this crazy industry, it seems like… I don’t like to say conform, but a lot of artists are starting to try to make themselves a lot more competitive. It seems like the looks that we are getting are getting less and less. They are kind of diminishing. We have to get with the times to make our music more competitive in this market to the way it is now. Now, these artists that you are not accustomed to hearing do certain things and types of music are kind of swaying. They feel like they have to do certain kind of music to remain competitive. Without saying names, I feel a lot of artists out there, a lot of Triple A artists in a sense can start making the type of music that is conducive with messaging and all of that kind of stuff. The way music was before. I think they have the power to kind of steer the industry back to where it should be, but it seems like a lot of times they jump on the conveyor belt and just ride it. It’s kind of disheartening when you see that done continuously. But hopefully it will get back to where it used to be, but for the most part I feel like it’s just artists trying to remain competitive; trying to get with the times and force a living because it’s tough nowadays.

Your song, “The River” is coming up on it’s 11th birthday. I love timeless music and that song is definitely timeless. You can play that song in 2040 and the meaning and message doesn’t change. It’s difficult to make that type of song and rare as well.

Noel Gourdin: I would definitely say that record is a timeless record. You’re right, if you listened to it when it came out in 2008, if you listen to it now or 10-years from now, it will still have that same affect. And that’s something that I think is reminiscent of the old music. The old music in the past has that same affect. You play it now and people will still feel the way they felt when it first came out. I think a lot of integrity is missing from the music today. It just seems like they are trying to make as much as they can as quick as they can.

The integrity of the music is not at the forefront the way it should be. It seems like there is a lot of message lacking. I like to tell stories and a lot of the times it seems like people around me that really care about my music and what I’m doing and the music that’s out there, sometimes they feel the need to steer me back and say, “Look, this might be a little too deep.” I think that’s crazy when you think of artistry. I think a lot is missing today do to that. Folks just want to hear certain things and certain types of music. And when you have an artist trying to really get into his artistry and dive deep and make some music that’s worth while and have some substance or tell a story or something that makes it timeless as we were talking about, it’s kind of disheartening when you have people trying to say, “In the sake of being competitive, I think we need to tone down the mental aspect of the lyrics.” We tone down the mentality of trying to make the music of something you’re thinking about, something that makes folks think and want to have a conversation about.

I think as a culture we also have to stop looking at it as a bad thing that some artists are defined by one song. I don’t know if you’re into football, but although, Franco Harris put up great numbers and became a Hall of Famer, he’s really most known for the “Immaculate Reception” and that’s not a bad thing. I loved your albums, but there is nothing wrong with being defined by, “The River.”

Noel Gourdin: I would say it’s almost like a pitch line or catchphrase that you can put into a Google line nowadays. As long as it gets the traffic going towards you then it’s all good for me. For folks to know me from “The River” and then they come there and come to find out that I had a record called, “Beautiful,” and that went in the top ten. And I had a record called, “One Love,” and a record with, Brian Culbertson called, “You’re My Music.” So, as long as the people get to listen to you, it’s all up to them to take it from there. I know this record went #1 and stayed there for 15-weeks on Billboard at #1, so let me listen to this or this. That’s the wonderful thing about music, man and being able to hear, like you said, one type of record that I’m known for. That’s what’s great about today because the internet is a wild thing. The way things are driven nowadays, for somebody to come and search for that one record, “The River” and be able to plug in and kind of check out all of my other records. That’s what it’s about, man and I hope it continues.

“The River” is at 1.5 million views on YouTube, some of the comments are calling it the most underrated timeless song recorded and others are just saying how it reminds them of the cookouts and family gatherings. That has to be a great feeling.

Noel Gourdin: Oh absolutely! It makes me feel that what I’m doing is worthwhile. To listen back to that and read the comments and to know how people feel about it. For folks to say that they reconnected with their long-lost love over that, they got married to it and all that kind of stuff, that’s what makes it worth it. To listen back to that record now and know that there is some messaging there and a hidden message for certain folks… they hear what they need to hear in a record. And that makes me feel good that I could kind of keep doing what we did when we did that and enter that same kind of head space. Hopefully it’s coming back around. That’s the kind of feeling that I’m getting right now. I feel like R&B is kind of coming back around, for right now. We don’t know exactly how long it’s going to last (laughing), but it kind of feels like it’s coming back around. I’m getting really excited and feeling really optimistic about it.

Your last album, “City Heart, Southern Soul” that you dropped in 2014, I think that title describes you and your music to a tee.

Noel Gourdin: Absolutely! When I came up with that title, my niece’s boyfriend also helped out. He was like, “Yo, I think you got a city heart,” and I was like, “Yeah, southern soul.” So, we just put it together; “City Heart, Southern Soul.” It fits perfectly for me. Being born in the suburbs of Boston; Brockton, Massachusetts and my folks are originally from Mississippi, so every summer we were going down south for family reunions and family gatherings. We did that every summer. The convoy going down the highway heading down south, I am city heart and southern soul. It kind of just fit, man. I got a lot of the things from down south. Being in the field with my grandfather before he passed and my grandmother and them teaching us and telling us stories about how things were in the south. Having that difference between the north and the south. How much slower things are down south and how rude folks are up north. I became accustomed to both places and their differences. I fell in love with both areas, man. That kind of makes up what I am as an artist, growing up in both places.

Who were your musical inspirations?

Noel Gourdin: For my inspirations, I was rolling with my pops all the time. He had those black and gold Maxell cassette tapes that was about 4-hours long (laughing). All the artists that he had on there which were, Tyrone Davis, Johnnie Taylor, Jerry Butler, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, all the Temptations stuff, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes; a lot of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s was the stuff that I grew up listening to. When I came of age and started listening to music, I loved, Prince and Michael Jackson and the New Jack Swing and I like to call it the middle school hip-hop. I kind of put all of that together in what style, Noel is. I put all of that music together and tried to do the best that I can in serving them well and trying to carry on their legacy.

Is there anyone out there in particular that you would like to collaborate with?

Noel Gourdin: Man, absolutely! Joe Thomas is one of my idols, man from way back in the day. I would say from 94-95. That “All That I Am,” his first album, man. I have been on the road a few times and we bumped into each other and I got his number and we talk once in a while. It’s kind of cool to be able to call a mentor who is one of the reasons why I started singing. To have him as a friend and a colleague. So, definitely, Joe, I love, Faith [Evans]. I love Jazmine Sullivan. I just love their tones. I feel that the timeless thing is tones. It’s one thing to be able to have all the runs and the tricks with voices, but I really did the tones. I think that has the staying power. There’s a lot of folks that I would really like to work with, but I would say, those three are at the top of my list.

I appreciate the time. Let people know where they could keep up with you at.

Noel Gourdin: I appreciate it, Percy, man. I appreciate you for giving me the time and opened me up to your readers. If they want to get in touch with me and stay tuned for my projects that are going to be coming out really soon, you can reach me on Instagram and Twitter @noelgourdin and on Facebook you can hit up my fan page at, The Real Noel Gourdin. I really appreciate you giving me the time, brother.

 



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