As the anticipatory buzz builds to just this side of impatience, the headliner takes the stage. From the moment he does, he has the audience eating out of his hand. Women shout his name and toss out song requests. Males and females sing along word for word as the tight six-piece backing combo feeds off the audience's vibe. Judging by this scenario, you might think a superstar was getting busy onstage. But the performer is singer/songwriter Eric Roberson.

For fans of the independent soul scene, Roberson - who has five releases out through his Blue Erro Soul label - is every bit a high-profile crowd pleaser as a Prince, Usher or Mary J. Blige.

The Situation discovers the man behind the soul...

You’re five albums deep into your career now having just released ‘Left’ in the UK on the legendary Dome Records label. How did that partnership come about?

You know back in the States, a lot of the independent artists, we all always take time to meet up with each other and talk over like the things we’ve learned, and some of the mistakes we’ve made and whatever, to share the keep building thing. I’ve done pretty much most of my stuff independently in the UK of just releasing things and giving it to buyers, but I’m not here you know, not here to really know the movers and shakers and different things that can lead up to really covering the UK, like especially just attacking radio alone. And a lot of the independent artists who have worked with Dome had a lot of good things to say about them, so when I wrote to Dome, we were very like-minded in a lot of ways and it just made sense. So we put it together for this record that they would do the UK release of the album and it’s just worked out great.

They’ve been doing a lot, I mean in just this trip alone showing the difference of what we were doing before, but as well as that, in the long run it’s to continue to build this label, so of course it’s also like studying Dome because they’ve had 15 years of this success and I believe it’s 50 albums that they’ve released. Hopefully we’ll have a lot of albums out and show success. It’s a learning curve, but it’s also a big boost to work with them.

You’ve got a really good street team here in the UK too, haven’t you?

Yay, the UK street team! What’s up to all my people UK! We’re actually all having dinner tonight, so I get a chance to sit down and talk with them a little bit. Just my website, the forum on my website ERF, Eric Roberson Family, you know they really formed up from there. All those people are just actually beautiful and the UK street team are a big help. I love ‘em to death!

Dome have lined up a heavy promo schedule for this visit and you’ve been doing stuff with BBC 1Xtra & Choice FM. Is mainstream now something that you’re aspiring towards?

It’s something that I accept, but I dunno if it’s something that I’ve aspired towards. I guess in everything you want growth, but to me it’s all about controlled growth. If mainstream equals losing what we have already, then I don’t know if it’s worth it, because from a business standpoint and understanding the business of music, I can survive this way. I can survive in doing the music the way I love and I can provide; that’s one of the main things. I dunno if I could survive if I had like 13 kids, but if I wanted to raise a family then I believe I could provide them with this. So as long as we can go about the mainstream the same way as we have been going about the gradual build.

Just the thing of looking at Fopp (in London) the other night and people getting turned away; I guess we didn’t really have a good read on how many people would probably come. I mean we’ve sold out at the Jazz Café a few nights, so I guess we had an idea of knowing, but I don’t want it getting to the point were I can’t speak to the fans. No matter what I’ll always be fighting to do that. Sure we develop it ‘cos we want the music to become big and go to the ears that wanna hear because that’s really what it’s all about. Not force-feeding it, but just finding the people who will love that music and they may not be taking the time to search for it. But in the same light, I have too many friends who are prisoners to their hotel room and they can’t even go to the lobby and meet up with each other. They’re like, ‘I’m in room 423, but don’t tell anyone and knock three times pause, then two times then pause, then eight times and then I’ll open the door!’ Nah, man we do music, we’re not spies you know!

MySpace has really taken off in this country now. Do you think it has significantly helped your career in getting your music out there?

It’s a major tool in the music business and you know, when I first started putting out records, it wasn’t around and I can only imagine how well ‘The Vault’ would have done early on to what it already did already, with the help of MySpace. But in the end, in general, it’s helped just alone for us to get in the UK. MySpace has only expanded out even more, but it’s a monster so it’s hard to keep track. I mean just the email that goes into it on my page, if you send something to me that day, it can easily get drowned and drowned in pages so it’s hard to manage.

I’m one of those people, I’m a Libra, so I want everything balanced; at performances I wanna shake everybody’s hand before I leave, I wanna say hello to everybody, you know if people are turning away leaving it’s not even that they can’t see the show, it’s like that I can’t acknowledge them. So for me to open up my MySpace page and there’s like a thousand comments, I’m like, ‘Arghh, I gotta lot of work to do today!’

How would your friends describe you?

‘He’s a jerk’, ‘he owes me all this money’, ‘he never calls me back’! I think my friends are very understanding of me and I love them dearly, so I really don’t know! I would say very much a person into music, a very passionate person and a person that’s very energetic, and giving in some fashion, you know. Probably spoilt, very spoilt! I love the fact that my friends and family spoil me, but at the same time I work hard to try to spoil them as well.

What do you like doing away from music?

More music! I like reading, I like eating good food. I’m not really a club-goer. If I go to a club, I just feenin to get back in the studio ‘cos I’ll hear some music and I’ll see the energy that it produces and I’m like, ‘I can do that!’ Sitting at a restaurant and talking with some friends and laughing about old times, something like that, that’s like such a good feeling because I travel so much.

A lot of times, just catching up with my family, catching up with my friends, and just reading; I love to write in general not just writing songs, whether it’s writing essays or writing a letter to a friend. That’s one of my hobbies as well. My family are all in New Jersey and North Carolina, so when I go to North Carolina it’s extremely peaceful and I go see my grandparents on their farmland. My grandfather is literally the wisest person in the world! So wise that you can’t retain what he’s telling you! He tells you some amazing statement and you’re like, this is life-changing, and then he tells you another amazing statement and you listen to the new one and you lose the last one - it’s like, that powerful. There’s some songs that I’ve written from conversations with my grandfather, several times. My father’s like that too man; very prolific speakers and very informative. Even though we now live in different times, sadly a lot of the craziness these days is ‘cos we don’t apply a lot of those lessons they learnt, to this day.

What would you say is your happiest childhood memory?

Hmmm, you see, I’m a Libra so I’m indecisive! Eating my grandmother’s pecan pie outta a little bit of foil, riding my grandfather’s pick-up truck. Getting my first keyboard. My first New Edition concert you know… Just simple things man; just really really simple things. Just running around the house laughing and my father playing guitar, and my mother dancing and me and my sister laughing! Just little things. I had a good childhood, a fun childhood and a very musical and creative childhood. My father’s side was all musical, but then my mother’s side was all fashion and making clothes. I had an older sister so my sister played in bands growing up and she was creative making clothes, and did theatre and stuff, so I just kinda soaked up all of this ‘cos she was just the true artist. She can sing too, but you have to pull it out of her! She has a great voice and my father still sings; we will hopefully get him to record sometime. It’s a musically happy family I guess.

Going back to the music, do you have anyone else signed to the label right now?

Not yet, no. Just ‘cos I can’t have that responsibility just yet, you know. I’m more of a guinea pig of this whole thing and we’re pushing through to see what works and what doesn’t work. Whereas eventually we wanna do that with another artist, it’s bound to happen, but there’s a few more kinks we have to work out, because I always tell everybody, what I expect from an artist that we sign, the work that I expect them to put into it, they might as well start their own label. You know what I mean, they gotta do that much. You’re gonna have to outpace me and that’s gonna be tough!

Eric Roberson’s new album ‘Left’ is out now on Dome Records. For more information, check him out at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/ericroberson.