Smith Gets Wicked In Heavy Rock Band
Smith gets Wicked in heavy rock band
TOM CONWAY
Tribune Correspondent
The uninitiated Sevendust fan going to see their favorite band at Club Fever on Friday night may experience a "Hey, the singer looks like ... no, it couldn't be" moment when opening band Wicked Wisdom performs.
It is, however, true: Actress Jada Pinkett Smith fronts Wicked Wisdom.
Smith, more famous for her roles in "Collateral," "Ali" and the last two "Matrix" movies, said in a recent telephone interview that she enjoys the reaction she gets from people who are not aware that she is the lead singer for a heavy rock band.
"The cool thing about it is that not everybody knows," she said. "I just don't think people are used to seeing me like that, and they would just never expect me to be there."
Rather than do the vanity pop projects that most actors do when they attempt to enter the music business, Smith knew that she wanted to play the kind of music that she loved.
"I've always been a lover of heavy music," she said. "Always. I grew up with it, and it's something that I have always wanted the opportunity to do. I have always loved the expression and freedom of it."
About four years ago, Smith decided that she wanted to form a band and asked a friend, Pocket Honore, to help. He became the music director and lead guitarist for Wicked Wisdom.
"He and I were pretty much on the same page where we wanted to take this band musically," Smith said. "Then, we hooked up with a young cat named Cameron ('Young Beige' Graves), who plays guitar and keys, and he helped us solidify the sound that we looked for. Then we got Fish, who brought just a whole new dynamic to the band." Rio Lawrence plays bass for the band.
Phillip "Fish" Fisher, the founding drummer for the seminal ska-punk-funk-rock group Fishbone, compared his time with Fishbone to this current project.
"I have had a beautiful life in music to have played so much good underground music, and to help it to rise to the top," he said. "It is nice to start with a new band and do that journey again."
Fish said "it's all good" that the focus of the band is on Smith because of her celebrity.
"I don't feel like it is overshadowing the band," he said. "Of course, she's a big celebrity, so it makes a difference. But, whatever pre-conceived notions people have to her already-existing image are being shattered, and something else is being introduced by people hearing the music, and especially by them seeing it live."
Smith said that she is aware that the novelty of her singing in a hard rock band may bring people to the shows, but she will need to back it up with something substantial for it to last.
"People really come out to have a good time and hear good music," she said. "If you can show them a good time, and give them good music, then that is all they care about. To be honest with you, the real deal is that most guys think that girls can't rock and roll, and, on top of that, a black chick. So once I get up there and do my thing, it rarely is an issue. You've just got to show and prove."
"Bleed All Over Me," the first single off of the band's self-titled debut CD, due out Feb. 21, shows a side of Smith that is not apparent from her movies or talk show appearances.
"It's just another aspect of myself that is not always so PC (politically correct)," Smith said. "It is just that other side of myself. The reason why I really love this music is just basically that I can say what I want, do what I want, and it doesn't matter."
Will Smith, Jada's husband, is a hip hop artist -- and the star of such movies as "The Men in Black," "Independence Day" and "I Robot" -- who is routinely criticized for not being hard or "gangsta" enough in his music.
"He gets criticism for being too clean and I'm getting criticized for wanting to be a little ugly," Smith said. "He loves it. He came out on our sets with me for most of our tour, and it really opened his eyes to a lot of things, a lot of new musical ideas. It really sparked him creatively."
Does that mean we will hear less "getting jiggy with it" and more headbanging on the next Will Smith record?
"Yeah, I think you will," Smith said. "It's not what I'm doing, but it definitely has an influence on some of his musical ideas. Just using more loud instruments, and it's going to be an interesting project for him."
For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com
posted by Tommy @ 2:13 AM
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Jada Pinkett Smith Lives Out Her Axl Rose Dreams
Actress/singer puts movie work on hold to concentrate on Wicked Wisdom.
If you ever picture it at all, the music you might expect to hear pumping from the stereo at Will Smith's house is probably some old-school hip-hop: Spoonie Gee, classic KRS-One, a bit of Grandmaster Flash. But if wife Jada Pinkett Smith is home, it's more likely to be an ear-bleeding mix of metal from Mastodon, A Dozen Furies, Otep and Bury Your Dead.
"I listened to all kinds of metal as a kid," said Pinkett Smith, who has spent the past few years honing her hard-rock chops as frontwoman of Wicked Wisdom, a band that's put in such serious road time lately that the actress has been all but invisible on the big screen since its formation four years ago. "Metallica, Guns N' Roses. I would always look at Axl Rose and say, 'Why aren't there any chicks out there doing this now?' I always wanted an opportunity to get out there and rock out."
So in 2002 Pinkett Smith decided it was now or never. She called a friend in the music biz and asked him to help her get a band together and shortly after, she met the Zakk Wylde to her Ozzy, guitarist Pocket Honore. At first, the group tried out a "rock/soul fusion thing" that didn't quite feel right, hitting the road in 2004 opening for the European leg of Britney Spears' Onyx Hotel tour.
"It was on that tour that we realized we wanted a more metal thing and we started writing more on that tip," she said. "It just started getting heavier and heavier, and that's when it clicked for us." Around that time, Honore brought on keyboardist/rhythm guitarist Cameron Graves and former Fishbone drummer Phillip "Fish" Fisher. While Pinkett Smith was finding her inner demon as the band worked out grinders like "You Can't Handle This" in the studio, the real trial by fire came last summer when the untested group hit the Ozzfest stage (see "Ozzfest Gets Jiggy? Jada Pinkett Smith's Band Added To Lineup").
Honore, who cut his chops working on R&B and hip-hop tracks with everyone from Erykah Badu to Patti LaBelle, gave up his lucrative production/session playing career to sign on with Pinkett Smith. He said the actress was understandably nervous when they first started playing together, but by the time they hit Ozzfest, her confidence was apparent. "At first it was too cute and we all agreed it had to be more brutal," he said. "Cameron is big into Meshuggah and I love Slipknot, so we played her some tracks along those lines and she said, 'Yeah, right there!' "
Four lineups and two albums' worth of material later, the band jelled, and Honore was ready for anything that Ozzfest crowds could dish out. "I done been in barroom brawls before," he said, citing some early dates that were a bit rocky. "But once word got out that we weren't a joke, people started coming out and by the sixth or seventh gig we were on fire."
Pinkett Smith, who listened to everything from Duran Duran to Led Zeppelin, John Coltrane, Prince, Pink Floyd and Mozart as a kid, described the feeling of rocking onstage as being wholly different from kicking ass as Niobe in "The Matrix" sequels.
"Onstage, I'm giving them Jada, versus me giving them a character," she said. "And some people like Jada and some don't, and that's part of it. It really grounds you and empowers you when you can get onstage and know you had a good show someplace where no one's ever heard of you. And the audience might not be that enthusiastic, but you rocked out and had a good-ass time. The difference is when you do a crappy movie in Hollywood, everyone says 'great job.' On Ozzfest, if you're crappy they get you off the stage and you know where you stand. Nobody's out there clapping because they want to protect your feelings."
Though songs like "Don't Hate Me" do have Pinkett Smith showing off her Korn-inspired rap skills, hubby Will has made a conscious effort to let Wicked Wisdom stay Jada's thing. Besides, she knows she doesn't flow well. "I asked him about my little rap thing on that song and he was like, 'You know, it's cool.' "
Opinion on Wisdom's upcoming self-titled debut album (out February 21) is split in the Smith household. While son Jaden likes mommy's songs, he's more of a hip-hop head and is always asking for Will's music. Five-year-old daughter Willow, however, is a huge metal fan. "She has as better growl than I do," Pinkett Smith said. "I dropped her off at school the other day and she said, 'You know I'll have a better band than you do.' " You've been warned. Look for Bloody Eye on Ozzfest 2018.
Except for a pair of projects she's considering for this summer, Pinkett Smith has put her acting on hold to concentrate on Wicked Wisdom. They are currently on the road opening for Sevendust and have more dates planned for late summer and fall. "This is passion," she said, pointing to some of the dark themes she wrote about on such songs as "Bleed All Over Me" (codependency) and "Something Inside of Me" (pedophilia) as examples of the release the band affords her. "I feel really blessed and grateful to have this opportunity."
Wicked Wisdom track listing, according to Pinkett Smith:
"Yesterday Don't Mean"
"Something Inside of Me"
"One"
"Bleed All Over Me"
"Cruel Intentions"
"You Can't Handle"
"Forgiven"
"Set Me Free"
"Don't Hate Me"
"Reckoning"
Wicked Wisdom tour dates, according to the band's publicist:
2/2 - Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere's
2/3 - South Bend, IN @ Club Fever
2/4 - Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart's
2/5 - Baltimore, MD @ Rams Head Live
2/9 - Springfield, IL @ The Warehouse
2/11 - Appleton, WI @ The Checkered Flag
2/12 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
2/14 - Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre
2/16 - Boise, ID @ Big Easy
2/17 - Spokane, WA @ Big Easy
2/21 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
2/25 - San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
2/26 - West Hollywood, CA @ House of Blues
2/28 - Anaheim, CA @ House of Blues
3/2 - Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
3/3 - Las Vegas @ House of Blues
— Gil Kaufman
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