Naturally 7

Students.ch hatte die Gelegenheit sich mit Roger Thomas (Bariton, Rap, Arrangements), Rod Eldrige (Tenor, „Trompete“), Andrew Leftkowits (Bass) und Jamal Reed (Tenor, Bariton, „Keyboards“, „Geigen“)der siebenköpfigen Akapellaband zu unterhalten. Während sich der neue Bassist Andrew Leftkowits gar nicht äussern wollte und bei jeder Antwort seiner Kollegen den Kopf nickte, versuchte Rod Eldrige alle Fragen mehr als ausführlich zu beantworten.

Students.ch: Your on Promotion Tour. I`ve just seen that you`ve got a lot of early Breafast-TV-Shows to do. Are you up for them?

Roger: That`s the part of the job the we like at least: the early, early morning interviews.

Jamal: Because we know these early morning shows are very helpful for our career. I think we have to do it all; whether it is the Morning Show, the Late Show, the Afternoon Show or the Brunch Show.

Rod: People watch TV before they go to work; let`s catch them as well. We do as well Late Shows for the Kids who watch at night.

There are some rumours and stories how the band was created. For exmaple there is the Story with the radio in the classroom. The teacher searched for it but realised afterwards that it was the voice of one of her pupils.

Rod: This is a lie. I gonna tell you the truth. All of us made sounds when we were young. But the idea to bring that into a group wasn`t there until many many years later after the group even got together. The group got togehter to sing regular acapella and start in church as a gospel group. It wasn`t until after that we decided to be different and figured out what to do to be special. And Warren, who makes the drums, made the drumsounds in the classroom. So we knew he could do the drumsound with the songs we`ve allready written. The same happend to Garfield who plays the harmonica. And now we wanted to be something diffrent. We wanted to be a band, but a vocal band.

Das Cover zu Ready II Fly

Let`s talk about the new record Ready II Fly. It took you five months to produce it. Was the record company easy to pay for such a long time?

Rod: We got a recording budget. In nature of the Naturally 7 a lot of time and energy needs to be invested.

Jamal: Most of the time we spend writing. So we had the repertoire already. We had a relaxed environment.

Rod: We recorded about 30 songs. There was pressure in the decision making, but not in recording. We have our own recording studio that helps to save money.

Roger: Record Companies always have expectations because they always have a plan. But we didn`t get treaten too bad as we kept everything in time.

Is correct to say that your album is religious and not political.

Rod: Yeah. It`s rather spiritual and religious than political. Our focus are lyrics that are very positive, very uplifitig, very inspirational. We`re not saying things that people are used to hear. We come from a spiritual corner. Our philosophy is love on another and love god.

What do you like your audience to be?

Rod: Hard to say. There is no audience we don`t like. An audience who is in front of us is our favorite.

Roger: We are a vocal band, it allows you to get through many doors. We perform what ages is concerned from 0 to 199 months. But I get charged up when I see a lot of screaming fans. We just did a show in Nürenberg and we had 5000 just going crazy, hands out, wanna touch you. I love performing for everyone, but this was extra special.

Rod: There were a lot of girls.

Jamal: Girls are good fans.

Can you remeber your apperance at the Avo Seesion two years ago?

Roger: It was an honour to be on that show. Because we know that on that stage before us had been great musicans. To be considered to be a part of this festival was an honour for us. Definitely great experience.

Any plans for the summerfestvial next year?

Rod: We are open for it. But there is nothing planned for next year. We have this project now with Ready II Fly. We are working now with this CD in different markets. It`s our plan in the future to release and promote Ready II Fly in different countries around the world.

Where do you want to go?

Roger: Asia started first this summer, then Germany, now Europe and USA next year.

What about the feelings for America? You aren`t there anymore very often.

Roger: We had to promote our records as well outside of the US. But now it`s time to go back home and show our friends what we`ve been doing overseas for all that time.

Jamal: New York is home. I don`t plan leaving it any time soon.

Naturally 7 spielen am 16. Dezember 2006 im Zürcher Kaufleuten.

Links

• www.naturallyseven.de
• www.n7house.de/