![]() ![]() “I came out on my family label, Skyblaze Recordings, and we partnered up with major labels even when I was on major, so I’ve always felt empowered to do the music that I wanted to do.” ![]() “I just focus on being authentic when I’m in the studio,” she said. The singer credits the initial years of her career she spent on her family label for not only instilling the extraordinary self-confidence necessary to succeed in her industry, but also giving her the tools to do it her own way. Sometimes it’s hard to get the exposure, that’s been more of a challenge than anything.” “In the studio that’s fine, but it can get challenging in terms of marketing, and radio, stuff like that. “I enjoy the songwriting aspect of what I do, and sometimes it doesn’t fit exactly in a genre,” she said. But trying to convince the typical gatekeepers to promote her music was a struggle in the days when the walls were more rigid. The fans themselves weren’t the ones Goapele felt she had to explain herself to - “they don’t care what it’s called if they feel it, they feel it,” she said. “It’s something that I’ve been doing for a long time, but I felt like I had to explain myself, when I was first doing it. “I feel like we’ve come full circle, genre wise, with independent R&B music,” she said. Her discography has never been an exact fit into the box of R&B, but in an era where the borders between genres are crashing down, she finds it easier to create what she wants without having to struggle with labels. Goapele has seen the full evolution of R&B in her 17-year career, a transformation she welcomes with open arms. Instead of chasing the next big innovation, however, she used the project as an opportunity to return to her musical roots, minimizing live instrumentation to create what she calls an “effortless” album reminiscent of her debut Closer. Now, less than a year removed from the release of her sixth album Dreamseeker, “the next thing” keeps moving further down the road for Goapele. And then it was, ‘what’s the next thing?’” “Then it was 2,000, and then I wanted to sell 100,000, and then the first album ended up selling a couple hundred thousand, so that felt like success. “When I was first doing music, I wanted to sell 1,000 CDs, because that’s how many I could afford to press before we had a label,” she said with a laugh. The act of chasing one’s dreams isn’t a flimsy New Year’s Resolution or a future aspiration for acclaimed singer Goapele - it’s a never-ending way of life. The singer often infuses issues of social justice into her songs. Goapele’s impressive 17-year career has yielded six studio albums, the latest being Dreamseeker, which was released in May 2017. ![]()
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