From this week's Pfork interview w/ James Blake:
Pitchfork: Do you like your voice?JB: Yeah, I do. It's not that I love it, but I love using it. I've gotten used to it as an instrument to explore, but I haven't fully explored it yet.
[...]
Pitchfork: How do you feel about people calling you "soulful"?
JB: It's weird, nobody seems to differentiate between "soul" and "soulful." To me, soulful isn't what we got from Sam Cooke-- it's a different, calculated thing that's sort of derivative and backwards-looking. It's an obsolete term. It's not anything that needs to be said. If what they mean is "good singer," then that would be a much better phrase to use. Because "soulful" doesn't really give me anything. Take Adele, for example-- she might have listened to hundreds of soul records throughout her life, but I wouldn't call her soulful. I'd just say she's got Adele's voice.
Pitchfork: For me, when people say "soulful," it feels like they're saying, "Oh, it's a white person who can sing like they're black."
JB: There you go. You said what I don't want to say. But why do I not want to say it? That's the question.
Pitchfork: I think there are things in our language that we don't really confront, but maybe you're forced to confront it a little more when people say it about you.
JB: Well, for example, I get compared to Jamie Lidell. And if you listen to some of Jamie Lidell's stuff and hear the way he's singing, it's revivalist. Frankly, if that's the comparison being made, I think some people need to get their hearing checked.
Poll Results
| Option | Votes |
| Adele | 8 |
| Jamie Lidell | 8 |
| James Blake | 4 |
― ilxor you've listened to one odd future album once (ilxor), Tuesday, 22 March 2011 16:20 (fourteen years ago)