DON E
WRITER / PRODUCER / ARTIST
Natural seems
the perfect title for the new album from one of the UK’s most gifted and
enduring urban music talents DON-E, for whom writing, producing and performing
comes naturally. Already DJs at 1Xtra, Choice, Kiss and Radio 1 are jumping
on upfront tracks like Addictive Love and Stay A While.
There are some stand-out duets, including Writing’s On The Wall
with Keisha Buchanan of the Sugababes, for whom Don wrote songs back in the
day, and Like I Like It with Kele Le Roc. The album closes with a stunning
ballad duet on The Time Is Now with ex-Sugababe Mutya Buena.
He recalls: “I was involved with the Sugababes from the very beginning
of the group, and produced a lot of their initial demos at my studio in Brixton,
working with Ron-Tom from Metamorphosis, who put the three girls together. It’s
great, now they’re all grown up and successful, that I got to work with
Keisha and Mutya on my new project.”
So Cold features Don-e on vocals and keys, Stuart Zender, ex- Jamiroquai,
on guitar and drums, and a guest cameo on Fender Rhodes keyboard from D’Angelo.
Don-e recalls:“Stuart and I hooked up as Azure in the late Nineties, recorded
some tracks at Electric Ladyland in New York, then did some more in London at
Eastcote Studios. So Cold was one of the tracks from those sessions.
D’Angelo was in town, passed by the studio to chill, heard the track and
said he’d jump on it.
“Copies of this track leaked out years later, bootlegs or whatever, and
everyone thought it was a D’Angelo track, so I felt it was time to put
the record straight by including it on the new album”.
Also attracting a lot of attention is the slow-jam version of the Bob Marley
classic Waiting In Vain, and TV talent shows get the Don-e treatment
on (You Ain’t No Good) Get Off, which tells it like it is.
In recent years Don-e has been focusing primarily on writing and producing at
his Brixton studio for other artists, among them Shaun Escoffery, Mica Paris,
his cousin Beverley Knight, Omar, Rahsaan Patterson and the Sugababes. His other
activities have included touring with Grace Jones and presenting vocal master
classes on MTV.