"Keep Pushin On," "Horny," "Hold Your Head Up High," and "Movin Up (Take My Problems to the Dancefloor)" are just a few of the international club smashes that Inaya Day has brought to appreciative dancefloors. As a songwriter and backup singer, she has worked with everyone from Missy Elliott and Bootsy Collins to Michael Jackson and Randy Crawford. With a new single, "You Spin Me," and a full-length album in the works, Inaya is touring the country and will show you that her Day has come.
DJ Ron Slomowicz: You're coming to Nashville next week; have you ever been to
Nashville before?
Inaya Day: Yes, when I was recording on gospel tracks for other
artists. I was also there when I was touring with the Wiz as
Stephanie Mills' understudy.
RS: Wow, was that one of your first major performances on stage?
Inaya Day: No. It was an early one, but not the first.
RS: So I read on your website that you've done gospel and R&B as
well as house music. What about your voice, do you think, translates
so well across so many different genres?
Inaya Day: My voice kind of transforms to the mode of the song. If
it's a sultry feel to the track, then I naturally go for the sultry
feel. And if it seems like the track calls for a bit of yelling, then
I give it the best I've got, and God knows I can scream.
RS: That sounds like "Hold Your Head Up High," when you just let it go.
Inaya Day: Yes. So I did that, and I thought to myself, what the
heck was I thinking, when I have to do this live I'm going to have to
scream my head off, along with like four other tracks, so I'll just be
going "aaah aaah" through the whole thing.
RS: Was that Boris Dlugosch track the first exposure you had to
house music?
Inaya Day: Not the first exposure, but it was the first house track
that I allowed to be released.
RS: 'That you allowed to be released...' Is there a story there?
Inaya Day: Yes, I was doing an R&B project with Epic Records at the
time, and I did not want to do house music because it would interfere
with that. I did the demo with Boris and I was at home in America in
March of '96 when I heard "Keep Pushing" during the noonday mix, and I
was like, 'woah, that was a demo.' Then I called them and let them
know 'hey, remember that paper you signed?' They were like oh, so
then that was a record that snuck by me. So I guess it was meant to
be because God allowed it to happen even though I was against it, he
showed me another way and ten years later I'm still in it.
RS: You've done a lot of great work with the whole Peppermint
Jam crew, what's it like working in the studio with Boris or Mousse T?
Inaya Day: Well, Mousse T is the main cat and he's like a big
brother, he's a lot of fun - it's like we're not even working.
Musically, it's like a musical marriage, he does a track and I
automatically go 'ooh' and I feel exactly what he had in his mind - I
feel what he wanted. So it's a perfect blend and it's never work,
it's just having fun making music. We jump around, dance, have a
couple of German beers, laugh, and before you know it we have a hit.
We go 'oh wow, it worked.'
RS: Well how do you go from gospel to a song like "Horny?"
There's just such a jump there.
Inaya Day: I didn't write "Nasty Girl" and "Horny," I never write
exclusive lyrics. I did Horny because Mousse T had this track and he
said I want to put some words to it. He said he was thinking
something like 'I'm horny, horny, horny' because of all the horns. I
said that sounded like a good idea Mousse, that's going to be funny.
So we were giggling and I'm like 'I'm horny, horny, horny, horny' and
that track with horns went 'dah, dah, dah,' so it was like Horny
because of the horns. So we used it as a double entendre and when
Errol wrote the verse it became 'you got me horny' and it went into a
sexual thing. I don't sing the verses, Emma Langford sings the
verses.
RS: So Mousse T is German, is Boris German also?
Inaya Day: Well, he's Turkish, but he lives in Germany.
RS: So you've with a German, a Turk, and also Mr. Timothy – who
is Australian. How did you find him?
Inaya Day: He found me actually - he stole my information from
E-Smoove when he lived in Chicago. He said I hope you don't mind me
eMailing you, my name is Timothy and blah, blah, blah. He sent the
track and I said 'well, I like it,' so we wrote together and then we
got "I Am tha 1" and we've been working together ever since. That was
like three years ago.
RS: You did Glamorous Life with him, right?
Inaya Day: Yes. Glamorous Life, I Am that 1, Stand By Me, and Got To Get Up.
