"Catching Up With Byron Stingily"
When DMA last caught up with former Ten City lead singer and Nervous Records recording artist Byron Stingily, he was in the process of recording his debut solo album The Purist. In case you're checking the calendar, that was almost two years ago. After much time, effort, touring and mega smash dance and pop singles in Europe, the charismatic, falsetto-voiced singer is on the eve of launching that same record we spoke of two years ago, albeit with more songs than before. Now extremely proud of his achievements on this album the Chicago native is set to do everything it takes to make both this record and dance music as popular here in his home country as he and it is overseas.
DMA: When we spoke about two years ago, you seemed to be pretty excited about how your imminent solo album was coming out. What took another two years for it to finally become an in-store reality?
STINGILY: Everytime we thought we were done, we would come up with a new idea or someone else's time would become available to work on the album. We just wanted to make sure the time was right and the record was perfect. Louie and Kenny called and said they wanted to do a song for the album; but they needed two and a half months before they could do anything, so we waited on them, and then I was in England and one of the A+R guys over there said that he really wanted me to do "...Mighty Real." A lot of people who were working on this album had suggested I do that song, and I believe that if enough people tell me the same thing then it should be done. I thought, 'hmm, maybe they're right...' and then we were waiting on remixes for that. There were just lots of different opportunities and waiting for people's schedules to open up that caused a good part of the delay.
DMA: Now with "...Mighty Real," there is a huge resemblence between your voice and Sylvester's being that he sang in the same falsetto you sing in. Do you believe people might feel that you doing the song may be a bit too obvious?
STINGILY: All my career, there have been a couple of songs that people have suggested that I do. A lot of people have wanted me remake some Earth, Wind and Fire songs, which I felt were WAY too obvious, and people have also wanted me to do Sylvester too. I always thought it was too obvious as well. I also never felt comfortable doing someone else's songs because I wanted to create my own path and carve my own niche and leave my own legacy. But I have arrived at a point where I feel confident in myself to do someone else's song. That indeed is a Sylvester song, but I feel comfortable in myself to do it. It's also a way to pay tribute and help be an avenue for his music to live on. Maybe some people who need to be educated will discover his great works by my rendition.
DMA: On the album, of course your name is prominent on the cover, but then it also lists who the producers are of each song. Do you think that lessens the impact of it being a Byron Stingily solo album?
STINGILY: I don't feel that at all. Each song that's on the album apart from "...Mighty Real", I co-wrote with the producers and in some aspects I also co-produced a lot of the songs. I did vocals and vocal arrangements and came up with plenty of the ideas. I don't feel that I have to have all the credit. I'm the artist, but their role is producer and there's enough credit to go around. To be honest with you at this point in time, everybody needs credit in dance music because there's not enough people getting it here.
