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In 2003, Terri Walker’s Def Soul debut album, ‘Untitled’, featured 14 tracks of vibrant neo-soul that switched between tradition and the latest thing. It was a hit, and she soon found herself being put up against Beyoncé Knowles for Best Album at the MOBO Awards. Terri studied opera as a child, and pointed to this training as reason for her fluid, effortlessly shifting vocal style. By 17, she was actively pursuing music, and cites her inspirations as Aretha Franklin, Chaka Khan, and Mica Paris. The big sound at the time was UK Garage, so she found herself contributing vocals to tracks from types like Shanks & Bigfoot. With a classically-trained voice that could cross over into any genre, she initially wowed some of the brightest talents in the UK garage scene such as 187 Lockdown and TNT, but Terri grew up with her mum’s soul and jazz collection, and ultimately Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin would be bigger influences. Now we’ve reached 2006 and Terri says that her new album, ‘I Am’, brings together the best of the first two albums, and a lot that’s new — the fundamental difference being that this album is all Terri Walker. With the release of ‘I Am’ you will be seeing much more of Terri, as she intends to take these songs out of the studio and onto the live stage.
Her mother moved to Germany when Terri was four-years-old, but she came back to the UK to be educated at boarding school in Sussex. There her musical training was largely classical, but she broke free of any such constraints after Italia Conte. Since that time, she has worked with an eclectic group of musicians that includes Mos Def, Lisa Stansfield, Raphael Saadiq and Ben Watt. Lead vocals on a Jools Holland album track, ‘Misfit’, led to a Royal Albert Hall performance with Jools and his big band, in a line up that also included the likes of Sir Tom Jones and Ronnie Wood. It reads like a lifetime in music, but for Terri Walker it has only just started. Terri was Britain’s best-kept secret. Everyone in the business quite rightly raved about this blistering new talent and there was her album again, nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, but somehow the general public hadn’t appraised themselves of one of the best singers to emerge in a decade. Without telling anybody, she left for LA to record the next album, initially just for one week. "I told nobody except my Mum. I told her that it was something I needed to do, and she said 'You go, girl!'." Terri had the phone number of somebody she had worked with in the UK, who was based in LA, and she called him when she got there. Her contact introduced her to a few people in the business and things started to pick up. "Hinda Hicks was over there at the same time working on her new album, so we hung out a bit," she tells. A week turned into a month, which Terri spent writing and recording with a number of people around the city. "My voice changed while I was over there, and I started writing songs about the way I felt about things. I just thought, 'This is more me'." The UK soulstress followed her critically acclaimed debut ‘Untitled’ with ‘L-O-V-E’ (Love Overcomes Virtually Everything), filled with mainly R&B tracks that further showcase her considerable vocal ability. With an impressive array of producers including Soulpower and hip hop/R&B producers Copenhaniacs, not to mention Ivor Novello-winning songwriters Cutfather & Joe (Jamelia's ‘Superstar’), the album marked significant progress for the singer and occasional MTV Base presenter. "I had to think for a while about what I wanted to do next, and it was then I decided that I had to make an album exactly the way I wanted it to be made. I wanted to be judged on my own writing and my own performance, so I set about contacting anyone I had enjoyed writing and playing with up until that point, and recorded the whole album pretty much as live. It was great fun." Terri went back to LA to mix the album with Gerry Brown, whose list of musical credits reads like a ‘Who's Who’ of rock and soul. "It's amazing working with a guy like that who just drops names like Steely Dan, Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder into a conversation," she says. "And Gerry and Dekkor, they just let me do my thing – everybody just let me do what I felt was right for me, and the result is an album that I love." Terri signed to Dekkor Records after leaving Mercury last year. She tells me, “Dekkor gives creative control and freedom of expression, much better than being on a major label where you have to watch what you say.” Since then Terri has been working flat out in the studio since September, and completed the new album in December. She doesn’t see this as a come back though, more of a “progression from the last two albums.” So what can fans expect? “Live instruments, songs about life, love and friendships, with the neo-soul vibe still in tact,” she says confidently. UK talent, Ty, also features on the album, but there is the minimum of collaborations because ‘I Am’ is supposed to be Terri’s story. She’s glad there’s more and more UK talent coming out this year and says she loves Sway, Corinne Bailey Rae and L Marie. Currently on her UK tour, Terri has kept the UK talent flowing, with some unsigned acts in support at all of her shows. “I think it’s important to keep it British, and I’ll be having some amazing new talent at my shows.” Meanwhile Radio 1, 1Xtra, Choice FM and other radio stations will be sure to support Terri’s new album on top of her growing fan base.
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