Wicked Wisdom's New CD Is Out Today!

Wicked Wisdom's New CD Is Out Today!

Wicked Wisdom's New CD

GET YOURS!

Wicked Wisdom Will Be Performing Live On Fuse Network's, "Daily Download"

Wicked Wisdom will be performing live on Fuse Network's "daily download"
Date: February 21, 2006
Check your local listings for the time

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

It's A Different World For Jada Pinkett Smith: Actress Turns Metalhead

It's a different world for Jada Pinkett Smith: Actress turns metalhead

Kerry Gold, CanWest News Service

Published: February 17, 2006

VANCOUVER--Jada Pinkett Smith has left the comforts of Hollywood to become the front woman for a metal band called Wicked Wisdom.

Jada Koren, AKA Jada Pinkett Smith

Her hair is an explosion, her sinewy arm muscles are displayed in sleeveless T-shirts. And her usually smiling face is a rictus of pain, her voice a wail of frustration -- belting out, even spitting out, lyrics of songs with names like Bleed and You Can't Handle This.

This isn't the pretty Jada, in gowns that show off her diminutive coke-bottle figure and jewels that complement the fine planes of her face.

Introducing angry Jada, spawn of Satan.

"In this day and age when people are so afraid to feel, I like to create a space where if you want to cry, come cry. You want to bash somebody's head open in the pit? Go right ahead,'' says Pinkett Smith. "You know what I mean?''

She doesn't mean that literally, because she also admires the way metalheads look out for each other in the pit. But she's a woman who's discovered her aggressive side, and it feels good, very good.
"I do get a charge out of being aggressive. I like being in a forum where it's acceptable, and this is that forum.

"It's hard because in Hollywood I've had to shut down that aspect of myself, because people didn't like it. They couldn't connect to it. They're like, `Uh uh. She's a ball-breaker, she's trying to castrate us.'

"It's not that. I like to get my little growl on too once in a while. So it's nice to have this space, where I can be that, and then I can go back to Hollywood and I can play my little softer roles for them so that everybody's not all scared and intimidated, then the guys out here on the road are like, `Give it to us. We want it! We want it as hard as you can bring it chick!'

"It's nice to have the two worlds to go back and forth.''

The male-dominated world of metal doesn't intimidate her either, because she's used to that.
"Just the industry I come from, it's very male dominated,'' says Pinkett Smith, who is 34.
Groupies? She's got them, male and female. But that's nothing new, either.

"You get groupie guys and groupie girls -- this is rock 'n' roll baby, you know how it goes,'' she says, laughing.

(It should be noted that Pinkett Smith has a raunchy laugh to rival that of Billy Idol. It is a laugh filled with subtext.)

"The girls, yeah, they let you know. Even in Hollywood you get that. Definitely. Big time, it's the thing.

"The one great thing about doing this now is I'm straight edge. I don't drink, don't do drugs. When I was younger, I did all that stuff.

"I'm anchored, I have a family. I know what all that is `cause I've done it all. All that party shit, been there, done that. Not impressed with it at all. I'll go out and hang out for a little while, but I've been doing that since I was 12, so whatever.''

She may be accustomed to A-list treatment on the arm of her extremely famous husband, Will Smith, but as a newcomer to the metal scene, she's had to endure such indignities as the side-stage treatment at Ozzfest. In the humbling early morning time-slot, for a crowd of mildly curious metal fans who are already naturally intolerant to red-carpet celebrities, she's had to work hard to win them over. On good nights, she's had them moshing. On bad nights, she's been booed.

The question, of course, is why bother? It's a question she's had to answer repeatedly as she does interviews to promote the band's North American tour.

"Because of the persona that I've created -- and, also you know, us being women, people think that we don't get mad. It's ugly. And that's one of the reasons I love this genre, because I'm allowed to be as ugly as I want.

"People ask me, `Why are you doing this?' It's like, `Are you kidding me?' And I'm like, `I'm doing this because it's an aspect of myself that I tried to kill. That I tried to put away and put to sleep. And I realized it was killing the whole of Jada, stealing who Jada is. And because I had to be all of those things to be complete and to be whole.

"So for me, it's been a very spiritual experience that I don't talk about that often.''
Pinkett Smith admits that singing did not come naturally to her. As a child, she wanted to sing like Freddie Mercury of Queen, and she's still a fan of the late singer. She attended art schools in Baltimore and North Carolina, where she was told that she couldn't sing.

She doesn't recall a turning point when she decided to become a metal queen, but she does remember feeling restrained and alienated from her Hollywood colleagues. There is a song on her album called Something Inside of Me, about the murder of five-year-old Samantha Runyan. She'd heard about the girl's death minutes before a red-carpet event.

"I remembered crying my eyes out, and I remember having to pull it together because... and I remember being full of so much rage and pain while I was on this red carpet. But I couldn't talk about it. And I was amongst people who couldn't care less. And I don't know if they couldn't care less meaning them personally but their mission that night on the red carpet is to do the whole Hollywood thing, whatever that is. And I was so angry, even at myself ... `Just don't go.'''

Pinkett Smith may be tapping into her spiritual side, but for other members of the band who've experienced the grind, the newfound materialism doesn't hurt, either.

As guitarist Cameron Graves points out, Pinkett Smith may be new, but her fame and wealth take the band to a level unknown for most fledgling bands. Graves, who started playing classical music at age four, has been kicking around the music scene all his young life. But playing with Wicked Wisdom has changed the rules of the game for Graves.

"It's a chess game that we're playing right now, with what is going on right here. And Jada is our queen piece on the board, man.

"`See, that's how we're trying to maneuver the situation, the project. Because of Jada's fame, I'm sorry, but it allows us to get what we need to quicker than all the rest of the bands. Yeah okay so we're not broke, and we're not riding in a van. You know what I'm saying? We're over that, we're free of that. A lot of these cats, right here, I'm working with, dude, they're not like 19- or 20-year-olds rolling around in a dirty van no more. It's serious.

"Jada has the money and the connections to get that going down, so that we're not playing around anymore with this stuff. We get right to the radio stations, right to the TV show people, right to the management.

So we can get out there faster, so we can get this project going. For real, it's a whole new level.''
"We are gonna do it our way,'' he says, busting into a raucous laugh.

"You know what I'm sayin'?''

Graves is also a member of a death metal band called Worm and plays with a jazz quartet every Tuesday night. He practises martial arts in his spare time, and is a hyper 24-year-old L.A. dude who was hired to play keyboards but learned guitar when Pinkett Smith wanted a bigger sound.

An earlier incarnation of the band, which included Wicked Wisdom's Louisiana guitarist Pocket Honore and then-Fishbone drummer Phillip Fisher, leaned toward R & B. When Graves joined, the band scrapped an album and started over again.

"Jada wanted something harder, she's a metalhead herself,'' says Graves. "She wants something powerful. She's a small woman, so she's got that whole power thing, you know? `I can't lose, I'm going to win. I need something powerful, that blows everybody out of the water, that kind of mentality.' It was kind of easy to create music to that, really.

"She's crazy man. She goes buck wild,'' he adds, giggling.

Graves knew Pinkett Smith's film career, but doesn't sound too impressed by her Hollywood connections.
"I knew a bunch of her movies. My first movie I saw of Jada's was Inkwell ... she had a cool role in there.
"But if I was to tell you the truth, me personally, I'm totally against Hollywood man. I don't like Hollywood at all. I created band-writing lyrics like, `F--- Hollywood.' I wrote a whole project off of that.

"So when I met Jada, I was still in that mentality. I would tell her, `Man, I love you Jada, but I don't like celebrities.' I played a song for her, that went, `I hate celebrities.' I told her that whole mentality is wrong, it's about commercialism and materialism. It's killing music artistically.

"And she was down with it. She was cool with it. She was cool to try to kind of represent that, a little bit.''

She's not so tomboyish that she shares a tour bus with the guys, mind you.
"She has her own bus, `cause Will already knows that on the guy bus the guys will get into guy shit, you know,'' says Graves, laughing.

"So Will is like, `We got to get Jada her own bus, so she can chill out with the candles, the vapourizer, do her own thing over there.' "But she comes over to our bus a lot and kicks it. Will's not out right now, but usually Will just kicks it on the other bus.''

Pinkett Smith is aware that her genre of choice is about authenticity, not fashion, and she's got to prove herself. Old-school metalheads don't traditionally tolerate imposters.

Says Pinkett Smith: "People need to know I'm real about it. They're like, `Uh uh, you ain't gonna come up here and do no J-Lo shit, or whatever. Not to dog Jennifer,'' she adds, quickly. "She's great at what she does. But they are, `Uh uh. We ain't doing that Hollywood shit here, chick.
" `So you better come with something or you got to go.' ''

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Pinkett-Smith's Rocker Role

The News Tribune. com
Pinkett-Smith's Rocker Role

Jada Koren, AKA Jada Pinkett Smith

Imagine my slack-jawed surprise last summer when I learned that Jada Pinkett Smith was scheduled to play Ozzfest. Yeah, that Jada Pinkett Smith; the woman best known for starring in “The Matrix” and “Collateral” and being married to rapper turned a-list actor Will Smith.
And imagine my confusion after I did a little more research and read that her band, Wicked Wisdom, played R&B. I had visions of thousands of agro 14-year-olds clad in black Iron Maiden concert tees hurling $4 bottles of water towards the second stage at White River Amphitheatre.
But Ms. Pinkett Smith was a no-show then for undisclosed reasons. Organizers did play a Wicked Wisdom video on the big screen behind the main stage. And, truth be told, “Something Inside of Me” sounded better than several of the second stage acts (faint as that praise may be.)
If you’re curious, you’ll finally get a chance to check out Wicked Wisdom – also Pocket Honore on lead guitar, Cameron “Wirm” Graves on rhythm guitar and keyboard, Rio Lawrence on bassand Phillip “Fish” Fisher (formerly of Fishbone) on drums – when the band opens for Sevendust Saturday at The Premier in Seattle.
The band’s self-titled debut also drops next Tuesday. And I caught up with Pinkett Smith on the phone as she and her band cruised through Nebraska recently. Here are excerpts from the conversation, with a longer version available on my Bring the Noise blog (www.thenewstribune.com/ae):
Q: I was looking forward to catching you (at Ozzfest.) What happened last year?
A: “I had to stay in San Francisco for some testing. I was getting tested for some lymph node cancer at the time. It was a pretty scary situation. Thank God everything came out negative. We found out what the problem was, but I was having some health issues, and that was the only reason I had to miss that Seattle show. I actually did the rest of the shows quite ill.” [Laughs.]
“It’s crazy, ‘cause people don’t understand. When you do this kind of stuff … it is a wear and tear on your body.”
Q: As an actor you put in those huge days, too.
A: “It’s different though because you’re in one place. … You go from your hotel or your house to your movie set. Then you sit around all day.
“The thing with music is that you’re traveling so much … and (there’s) the energy you exert on stage. And then afterwards we always go out and sign autographs for about two and a half hours for fans and stuff. It’s just a total different situation.”
Q: What about the outlet? How would you rate singing vs. acting?
A: “They both are just as pleasurable. It’s just different. I love having that exchange between the audience in that moment, you know what I mean. It’s just that immediate exchange. When you’re doing a film it’s just you and a bunch of cats on a set. …You don’t get to experience what you’re doing, really, with the audience.”
Q: There have been many other actors who have jumped from the big screen to the stage. Some have paved the way for you in a good way and some haven’t. There’s Juliette Lewis. Minnie Driver’s album was decent. Then you jump to the Corey Feldmanns. Because of that do you feel the deck is loaded in a way?
A: “It’s loaded in many different ways, you know. It’s always a harder for actors to make a musical transition than musicians to make an acting transition. But in my life I’ve gone up against so many obstacles. … I’m used to that. So whatever.” [Laughs]
Q: How did the band first come about? How do you go from having one established career to playing Ozzfest?
A: “About five years ago I decided I wanted to put a band together, actually when I came back from ‘the Matrix.’ It was something I always wanted to do … since I was a little girl. I’d see Axl Rose up there and I’d think, ‘Oh, god, why aren’t there any women doing that?’I just always wanted an opportunity to do it.
“I just decided I better do it now or never. I met Pocket, and he and I pretty much had the same ideas of where we wanted to go musically. And we went through many different transitions as far as the band was concerned. He and I are the only two original band members.
Q: I’ve only heard a little bit of your material. From what I understand you played R&B at some point.
A: “When we first started out we had this kind of R&B/rock kind of pop fusion thing happening. That didn’t really work for us. We kept playing with it and … finally got that launching pad that we wanted. And that is when we started playing around at different clubs to work the sound out. And that’s when (Ozzfest organizer) Sharon (Osbourne) saw us playing at the Viper Room.”
Q: Did she just come up to you at the show?
A: “No. I didn’t see her at the show. I just heard that she was there. … And then I get a call two days later from our office (saying) Sharon wants you to come on Ozzfest.’ You’ve gotta be … kidding me. [Laughs] I was just as shocked as anybody.”
Q: Did you think it was a joke at first?
A: “I was like I must be getting ‘Punk’d’ right now. Where is … Ashton (Kutcher)? I’m like this is not happening right now. But as I thought about it and it became obvious that this was a real invitation, I was like wow you can’t give up an opportunity like that. You just can’t. And so we went. [laughs]
Q: Given that people know you for your work as an actress, was there some hostility or cynicism on any of the dates?
A: “We only had that situation on one date, and that was probably my fault; something I really incited.
Q: What happened?
A: Oh, I’m not even gonna get into that. But the first couple of shows we had a huge learning curve. The great thing about Ozzfest is you will find out on Ozzfest that you will sink or you will swim. There’s no in between.
“The first couple of dates were really rough. Then we got to Chicago and had a great show. And from there Ozzfest really turned around for us. Word of mouth started getting better. The audiences started coming with a neutral attitude of let’s see for ourselves.. …
“The great thing about this particular genre and people that listen to this genre is they are a lot more open-minded than people would like to believe that they are. … There’s only a handful of people that are (jerks.)”
Q: I read that you actually opened for Britney Spears.
A: “Oh yeah, we actually went to Europe. We actually couldn’t have done that here in the United States, ‘cause we wouldn’t have fit with her at all. But in Europe it’s totally different, because you have all different types of musical genres mixed up.
“That trip was so wonderful for us because that’s when we did start to develop that heavier sound that we’d been looking for. … We actually wrote ‘You Can’t Handle This’ on the road in Europe.”
Q: Better tour mate: Britney or Ozzy?
A: “Umm. I have to honest, I had a great time on Ozzfest; just being able to be with those bands. I really learned so much having the opportunity to hang out with all those badass musicians. I got to go watch Mastodon play every day. It’s just like I’m running from FYE tent every day just so I can see those guys play.
“All the bands – bands on the main stage, bands on the second stage – were just so supportive of us, so nice. It was such a supportive family environment. It was nothin’ like people told me it was gonna be. I found more comradery at Ozzfest … than any other professional environment that I’ve been involved in, Hollywood included.”
Q: The past few years you haven’t been as active in film. Is that because of the music?
A: “Yeah, just being on the road. This is just a passion of mine. This is what I love to do. As far as creatively and just spiritually just what I’ve been able to learn about my country.
“Just being able to travel and reach my hands out to folks that I would never in a million years get to see and would never get to see me. … To kind of just expand the ideas and break down those preconceived notions of gender, race, you know, and the idea of ‘Hollywood is this, and people in Hollywood are that.’ You have to erase all those ideas.
Q: Do you have more films on the way?
A: Oh definitely. I’m working on a deal right now. … I’ll probably do one film this summer – might squeeze in two – then I’ll be back on the road. We’ll be working on another album, too.

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Wicked Wisdom’s primal rage is no act

Wicked Wisdom’s primal rage is no act

By mike usinger

Jada Koren, AKA Jada Pinkett Smith & Pocket Honore

If Wicked Wisdom is a vanity project, you’d never know that from the demands the band makes of interviewers. The L.A.–based quintet has a concrete rule: all journalists must talk to at least two members of the group if they are interested in doing a story. And what a story Wicked Wisdom is. It’s not often that the spouse of one of Hollywood’s most successful players sets out to reinvent herself as a post-thrash metal queen.

The frontwoman in question is Will Smith’s better half, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has racked up more than a few big-screen credits with roles in The Matrix Reloaded and Scream 2. Her partners in sonic bombast are guitarists Pocket Honore and Cameron Graves, bassist Rio Lawrence, and ex–Fishbone drummer Philip “Fish” Fisher. What the band’s self-titled debut lacks in radio-friendly unit shifters, it makes up for in full-bore ferocity. Wicked Wisdom sounds like the work of suburban skids who’ve been force-fed a steady diet of Slipknot. That’s not an accident.

“When we first started this band, it was like a pop/R&B thing,” Honore says, on the line from a Fort Wayne, Indiana tour stop. “We weren’t really feeling it, so we made it into more of an alternative situation. Then Cameron and I started messing around. I’m a big Slipknot and Pantera fan; he’s a big Meshuggah and Slipknot fan. We tuned things down really low and realized we were coming up with stuff that was really heavy but still groovy.”

At that point, after a couple of years of playing low-profile shows on the L.A. club scene with revolving band members, Wicked Wisdom locked into a style it was happy with.

“I love Pantera, Sepultura, and Meshuggah,” reveals the gravel-voice Pinkett Smith, calling from her Fort Wayne hotel room. “I also grew up with Guns ’N Roses and Ozzy Osbourne, so I wanted to have hooks and melodies in what we do.”

For Pinkett Smith and Honore—Wicked Wisdom’s only surviving members from the pop days—agreeing on the direction the band would take was easy. Getting the headbangers of America to accept the group as legit was another matter. Thanks to such musical horror shows as Keanu Reeves’s Dogstar and Russell Crowe’s 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, the paying public has little time for slumming silver-screen millionaires. Wicked Wisdom discovered this last year when it signed on for a second-stage Ozzfest stint. For the first half-dozen shows, the metal faithful gave Wicked Wisdom a good idea of what Frankenstein’s monster felt like when he finally lurched out of the castle. And then something clicked.

“I’ve had this performer inside of me for a long time, but I had to work on letting it out,” Pinkett Smith says. “At the beginning of Ozzfest, I was holding back, and that was the problem. What I had to realize was ‘Jada, this is not the place to hold back.’ Once I started to let go, it all got better. As the shows went along, we’d have three mosh pits going at the same time.”

Wicked Wisdom gives you a good idea how the band won over all but the most close-minded of haters. Wasting no time earning its Parental Advisory sticker, the album starts off with “Yesterday Don’t Mean”, an expletive-packed locomotive loaded with far-beyond-driven guitars and rolling-thunder drums. Wicked Wisdom eases up occasionally, with? “Forgiven” detouring to the hard-rock area of Gothville and “Set Me Free” injecting a little experimental funk into the mix. Mostly, though, this is metal for those who still haven’t got over the death of Dimebag Darrell Abbott. Pinkett Smith—who doesn’t sing so much as bellow—doesn’t win a lot of points for vocal range, but she at least seems authentically pissed. If you thought Otep had issues, check out “Something Inside of Me”, a bludgeoning attack on child abuse that finds her barking “Something inside of me could break that mother?fucker’s neck”.

Cynics are going to charge that Pinkett Smith is playing a role, a skill for which her day job has more than prepared her. She, however, suggests that something more primal kicks in when she finds herself in front of a mike.

“I feel like I’m at home up there,” she argues. “The stage is like my freedom space where I let my soul pour out.”

If that comes across as Hollywood psychobabble, then consider this: if the advance buzz is to be believed, Juliette Lewis isn’t the only Tinseltown actor currently winning over audiences one sweaty show at a time. And although Wicked Wisdom might not quite live up to the band’s live reputation, Honore promises the band is just getting going. Wicked Wisdom, he says, has only begun to unleash its inner monster. By the time the group drops its next album, the guitarist pledges that no one will be doubting Pinkett Smith’s devotion to metal. Vancouverites, meanwhile, can judge for themselves when the band opens for Sevendust at the Commodore on Sunday (February 19).

“This record is actually kind of watered down,” Honore admits. “The next one we’re working on is way heavier, like somewhere between Crowbar and Meshuggah. If we’d gone that heavy with this record, no one would have even given it a chance. Now that it’s out there, next time we’re coming with a ball breaker.”

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

When You've Done Everything Else

When You've Done Everything Else
Wicked Wisdom is clearly climbing the ladder of success

BY AMY ATKINS

Jada Koren Pinkett Smith

At 34 years old, Jada Pinkett Smith has seen her share of success. She's starred on both the small and the big screen (most notably the Matrix series), is happily married to someone equally successful (musician/actor Will Smith) and is the mother of three (two of her own and step-mother to one child she lovingly refers to as her "bonus son"). What more could there really be? Apparently, Pinkett Smith asked herself that same question and came up with an answer that must have been something like: "I'd like to front a metal band." Enter Wicked Wisdom.

Wicked Wisdom is Jada Koren (a.k.a. Jada Pinkett Smith) on lead vocals, Pocket Honore on lead guitar, Phillip "Fish" Fisher on drums, Rio Lawrence on bass and Cameron Graves on guitar and keys. I got the opportunity to speak with both Pinkett Smith and Graves about their freshman self-titled release and their current tour.

Through her PR company, Pinkett Smith called me from Cleveland. I really wanted to be cool, but have to admit I was starstruck. After a stammering introduction and a, "May I please call you Jada?" (sheesh), I asked her how the tour was going. Now, I have a gravelly voice, but Pinkett Smith sounded a little like Richard Nixon. She said the tour was going very well and Wicked Wisdom was getting great response from every audience. As to my Richard Nixon comment (yes, embarrassingly enough, I actually told her she sounded like Tricky Dick), she said she was giving her voice a much-needed rest. The music Wicked Wisdom produces is heavy and Pinkett Smith's fist-pumping vocals can be as hard and raw as the guitar riffs. She'll need the downtime while she can get it as Wicked Wisdom has a flurry of tour dates with Sevendust (and Nonpoint, Socialburn and One) ahead of them. As for the audience response, she said the interaction with people has been amazing--something she just doesn't get on TVs or movies. And the relationship with her band has also been something special. That's great, but how does the rest of the band deal with having a famous movie star as their lead singer? According to guitarist Cameron Graves, just fine.

Graves, 24, studied briefly at UCLA. He said he took myriad classes like psychology and astronomy. "I just wasn't feelin' it, though. All I wanted to do was play music." Graves had known Pocket Honore for a few years and said he, his brother and his father (musical artists in their own rights) all agreed that working with Honore would be amazing. "One day, a homegirl gave me his [Honore's] number and I just called him," Graves said, with wonder in his voice. If the chance to work with Honore is such a, well, honor, I wondered what it was like to work with someone as famous as Pinkett Smith.

"It's really nothing, to tell you straight. The reason me, Pocket and Jada get along so well is we don't treat Jada [differently]. We aren't starstruck. She's just [our] homegirl. We're all from the 'hood. In terms of everyday life, [we're all] just tryin' to buy gas, tryin' to make sure we got money for food, tryin' to chill out 'cause it's too stressful--just regular everyday things. Jada's the same regular person, so, it's really nothin'. We get up there, all five of us, just tryin' to kick ass."

Kickin' ass is just what they're doing. Pinkett Smith spent six weeks touring with Ozzfest, so she's no stranger to life on the road. However, she didn't want to become a stranger to her family so they come along. Family includes her spouse and kids, a goddaughter, nephews, friends and even, sometimes, her mother: "We have the band and crew bus, and then we have the Smith family bus. We couldn't all fit on one bus if we tried!" Smith said laughing. Her mother? Certainly Pinkett Smith's family is proud of her successes up to this point, but how does her mother feel about her music? The lyrics of some of Wicked Wisdom's songs are not exactly Hallmark card material, such as the hook in "Something Inside Of Me": "Something inside of me is poised/Something inside of me could throw/A 10,000-pound fist/Something inside of me is so incensed/Something inside of me could break/That muthafucka's neck." According to Pinkett Smith, her mother not only loves the CD, but it's her mother who helped give her the freedom to do the kind of music she does.

"My mother was one of the first people to introduce me to rock and roll," Pinkett Smith said. "She's a big Who fan. My uncle got me into heavy music: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Queen, Ozzy Osbourne, Santana. I come from a very musically eclectic background."

From her background right into the foreground, Pinkett Smith credits Honore with much of the band's vision and direction. With only a few tour dates behind them and a CD release before them (Wicked Widsom hits shelves on February 21), there's no telling what direction the band will go. Whether Pinkett Smith's fame will be a burden or a blessing also remains to be seen, but based on the music and the way the members of Wicked Wisdom seem to feel about it and each other, it's a pretty safe bet that this project is just another in a long list of successes.



For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Interview With Jada Pinkett Smith and Cameron Graves

Jada Koren Pinkett Smith

Wicked Wisdom - Jada Pinkett Smith and Cameron Graves
By:Patrick


Your debut album comes out on the 21st of this month...
Jada: Yeah!
....A lot of kids may not even have heard the band yet. So for those kids that read this what would you tell them they can expect from Wicked Wisdom?
Jada: Cam (Cameron Graves)..

Cam: Man, just a lot of craziness. You can expect a lot of craziness in the music and in the lyrics and some heartfelt spiritual stuff. Everybody in the band is pretty spiritual so we write from that place all the time. Yeah, a lot of that definitely. A lot of that mosh-pitting, a lot of hard riffs.

Jada: Where we are right now its like a collaboration of many different musical styles and I think you’d be kind of surprised with the musicianship and the musical idea’s that we have. This is different....really different.
Your album was set to be released on the 31st right? Why did it get pushed back further?
Jada: Yeah, it was definitely the 31st and our partners that we have at our label....we have our own label but then we’re partners with Suburban Noize. They just felt like it wouldn’t be enough time to promote it so we were like "Ok". It was set for January. They really wanted to have time to promote the album and set the album up and it totally made sense.

Cam: Yeah, it made perfect sense.
Now that ya mentioned Suburban Noize I’ll skip a few questions here..... When it came time to chose a label did it make you more comfortable to know you had hard working musicians as your label heads?
Jada: Kevin heard the stuff and said "Well, I wanna be down". What’s great about Suburban Noize is that they are pretty much in the same pocket as we are...as far as breaking boundaries of music. If you look at the Suburban Noize artists you have all kinds of bands that into different kinds of stuff and you have those people that are really pushing the edge so it was a great family for us to become apart of.


You’ve been on tour for awhile now... Has it been ruff touring with virtually nothing released yet minus the single from the record?
Jada: You know what? Interesting enough it hasn’t been bad, ya know what I mean? It hasn’t been bad at all. It has been really good. Going out on Ozzfest was hard, people didn’t know we were a band and that I had a band and all that kind of stuff. Now...the great thing about this particular genre is that people just come to hear music. I mean if you got material out it makes it easier because people will know your songs and stuff but what the crazy thing is is that people come to hear music so if you’ve got something to offer they’ll get into it. So that’s been a really good experience. After a couple songs into the set people are like "OK"... So its been really good.


Ten tracks made the album....how many were written for it?
Cam: Oh, that’s crazy.

Jada: *Laughs*

Cam: 13 actually.

Jada: Yeah, 13.

Cam: Two of those three we never really touched on, like never really learned. They’ll actually end up just going on the next album.

Jada: Right. With this one it was mainly Cameron [Cam] and Pocket basically write the music. They’re constantly writing and the music is constantly growing and expanding. The other tracks they had were so much heavier and they put this particular ten songs together because it works well for this experience and for the next experience we have a whole nother get down right there. *starts laughing*


To Jada: You write all the lyrics to the bands music right?
Jada: Yeah.
Which song holds the deepest meaning to you lyrically and what’s the meaning to that song to you?
Jada: I’d have to say my favorite one is "Bleed All Over Me" and "Bleed All Over Me" is about codependency and people that are attracted to pain *starts coughing* and people who like to face each other people’s pain. To me when I heard that track it was instant "Bleed All Over Me". I knew exactly what the content would be and I just wrote it.
To Cameron: I think everyone can relate their own special meaning to other peoples songs when they listen to them so which track off the new record holds the deepest meaning to you lyrically and what’s that track mean to you?
Cam: Oh man....Shoot. I’d have to say "Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit".....

Jada: Oh, of course Cam *laughing*

Cam: .....because I like that. It’s so real if you think about it.... "Yesterday Don’t Mean Shit Today". Just think about that statement man. You’ve always got these cats always trying to talk about... "I did this and I did that" and that try to act all stupid and most people turn into assholes because of what they did. So this is a straight-out statement saying *raises voice* "What are you doing today?"

Jada: *Laughs hysterically.* What are you doing today? You are funny with that.

Cam: *Laughs*

The albums first single "Something Inside of Me" is out now and the video is in rotation on Headbangers Ball and Google released it on their search engine page.... What’d do you two think of the video’s outcome?
Jada: Um, just the fact that Cam’s not in it makes it weird... He’ll be in the next one.

Cam: Yeah, man.

Jada: I love Paul Brown so I thought it was cool. I loved the concept for it.
Do you have any idea yet what the next single from the record may be?
Jada: We’re thinking about "Bleed All Over Me"
"Bleed All Over Me" huh? Do you have any idea when that will be released yet? Jada: In March.
Oh, that’s coming up quick.....
Jada: Yeah, we have pretty good video content for it too...I think.
Oh really? Tell me about it.
Jada: *Laughs* Noooooooo, I can’t, I can’t. The only reason I can’t is because we’re still working on it. We just kind of have a ruff concept on it. Its gonna be dope though.
Excellent, well I look forward to checking it out.



The cover art to the album is rather odd... what’s the concept behind the snake on the cover?
Jada: Do you want to answer that over there Cam? Your over there just nodding your head... *laughs*

Cam: Nah, nah, nah...well I mean yeah, there’s definitely a serpent aspect throughout the whole vibe imagery because of what we represent.

Jada: Yeah, what we represent as far as coming from the underworld to Earth. Just like coming from that underground where like people now will make a realization of Wicked Wisdom. Ya know the serpent is a symbol of renewal, a serpent sheds their skin and for us its symbolic for our music and our band. We’re in constant renewal.....

Cam: It doesn’t mean the devil.

Jada: *Laughs* Yeah, it doesn’t mean the devil at all. I mean that’s how it got turned into that whole freakin’ idea is when the monotheistic religions came in and took the power and they took all the goddess and made them evil. Even this *Jada throws up the horns* . This was a goddess symbol too. This meant Mother of the World and it still does today in India. You didn’t know that did you?
No, I actually didn’t. It’s true you do learn something new everyday.
Jada: Then along came the people and they turned it into devil horns. So when I put it up, that’s what it represents.

Cam: That’s real.....


After this tour ends what’s the band going to be up to for the rest of the year?
Jada: Another tour.
Another tour huh?
Jada: Hell yeah.
Back to Wisconsin?
Jada: Oh hell yeah, we always gotta come back to Wisconsin. Especially after the way you guys put it down tonight and the way you guys put it down on Ozzfest.... We’re definitely coming back to Wisconsin for sure. We got love here when we came through on Ozzfest and we got love here tonight. We have to return.


This one of those questions I always ask everyone... If you could punch one person in the face and get off clean who would it be and why them?
Jada: Goddamn, that’d be a lot of cats.

Cam: Now, you’ve got me trying to start some controversy.

Jada: *Laughs* Don’t start no controversy Cam but yeah there are so many people. I’ve had to work very hard on myself to move out of that particular mentality because that was definitely my mentality back in the day but damn, one person.... god. Shit.

Cam: Yeah, one person I could punch in the face....

Jada: And get away with it. So just one punch them once or could I beat the living shit out of them?
Well if they don’t go down after one I guess you could throw as many as ya need to in order to knock them out.
Jada: *Starts Laughing* For me its a laundry list of jokers man. A laundry list. What about you Cam?

Cam: Ya know, really the same thing here man.

Jada: *Laughs*

Cam: Its a list though. I dunno if I want to call out names because I could start some real...I could start some shit. I’ll just leave it at that. There is a very important person on that list though *laughs*.

Jada: Yeah, I’d say there is some really important people on mine too.


Alright, now thanks for doing this and I’m sorry for a few of these basic questions I’m sure you’ve answered many times.... Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Jada: It was very nice meeting you.
Thanks, it was very nice meeting you as well.
Jada: Thanks for waiting around for us too.
Oh, its totally cool. I’m a patient guy.
Jada: I know you are.
My phone was pretty much dead and wasn’t able to answer half of your calls but it worked in the end so thanks so much.
Jada: I’m glad.
I’ve seen Sevendust so many times so I don’t mind missing a few songs from their set.
Jada: I love them. I love being out here with them. Their one of my favorite bands. I never thought in a million years I’d be on tour with them. You have no idea, I’m in my own world right now. I get to go see Sevendust every night and I’ll never get sick of it either.


For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Wicked Wisdom: New Album Tour

UltimateGuitar.com

Wicked Wisdom Band Members

The invitation to perform at Ozzfest 2005 came at a perfect time for the band Wicked Wisdom who had an amazing summer on the tour. Now, WW is set to release their self titled debut on 100% Womon Records & Suburban Noize Records on February 21, 2006.

More than two years ago Wicked Wisdom set out on a fearless journey to create music that defies boundaries and convention. Fronted by lead singer Jada Pinkett Smith, Wicked Wisdom gives birth to a sound unconventional and confined in any single genre. Seamlessly fusing the screaming guitars of heavy rock, driving drums of speed metal and unmistakably locked grooves of funk, with a melodic vocal style; that is fierce and vulnerable.



When Wicked Wisdom's Pocket Honore tuned down his Guitar and started writing new material with recent addition Cameron Graves A.K.A. Young Beige, the two realized they were creating a truly explosive sound. This new sound combined with Smith's searingly honest and revealing vocals proved the band was on the right path. The addition of Fishbone founding member Phillip "Fish" Fisher on the drums pushed the sound even deeper. Bass player Rio Lawrence's extreme stage presence can only be topped by his ability to fly through his booming bass riffs with an easy aggression. Rhythm Guitarist and keyboard player Cameron Graves plays the crucial role of maintaining this band's hard melody while accompanying Pocket's wild guitar style.

It was not long before the Wicked Wisdom live show garnered major buzz and caught the attention of influential ears, including Ozzfest tour organizer Sharon Osbourne. Mistress of Ceremonies Sharon Osbourne boldly states, "I went to see Wicked Wisdom play last April in a tiny (Los Angeles) club at midnight. Let me tell you, I was blown away. When you see and hear Jada with her band it's apparent that she has nothing but love and respect for this genre of music. I totally respect that the band wants to pay their dues playing the second stage on Ozzfest."

Wicked Wisdom is: Jada Pinkett Smith (vocals), Pocket Honore (lead guitar), Phillip "Fish" Fisher (drums), Rio Lawrence (bass guitar), Cameron Graves (rhythm guitar & keys).

Tour dates are as follows:

02/14 - Gothic Theatre - Denver, CO
02/16 - Big Easy - Boise, ID
02/17 - Big Easy Concert House - Spokane, WA
02/18 - The Premier - Seattle, WA
02/19 - Commodore Ballroom - Vancouver, BC
02/21 - Roseland Theater - Portland, OR
02/24 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV
02/25 - House of Blues - San Diego, CA
02/28 - House of Blues - Anaheim, CA
03/02 - Marquee Theatre - Tempe, AZ
03/03 - Sunshine Theatre - Albuquerque, NM

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Wicked Wisdom

Wicked wisdom


By NICK ROGERS
A&E EDITOR
Published Thursday, February 09, 2006

Jada Koren, AKA Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith has robbed banks, fought for futuristic freedom and sent an apocalypse-minded demon back to hell onscreen.

She's earned her rep as "the tough chick in Hollywood."
Still, as Pinkett Smith puts it, it's a "whole 'nother get-down" for this 5-foot-nothing front woman to unleash a torrent of p.o.'d guttural growls with hard-core metal band Wicked Wisdom.

"MTV sprouted from my generation, and I would look at Metallica and Guns 'n' Roses, see Axl out there and say, 'Why don't we have any chicks that do that?'" says Pinkett Smith, who uses the musical moniker Jada Koren (her middle name) and goes on to name-check Meshuggah and Phil Anselmo of Pantera.

A black woman fronting a metal band isn't a novelty; the shaved-bald Skin led the now-defunct Skunk Anansie back in the 1990s.

Pinkett Smith is just the only one who forged a formidable movie career first, married superstar actor-rapper Will Smith and is associated more with red carpets than black metal. Still, there's much to back up her insistence that this is no well-funded, whimsical holiday from Hollywood.

Wicked Wisdom is willing to hold the No. 4 spot on a five-band bill for this Sevendust tour and play smaller cities such as Springfield. This isn't, of course, to say star power hasn't shown up on the road; Sevendust singer Lajon Witherspoon has been amused by crowds who crane their necks during his band's set when Will Smith has followed his wife's tour to several stops.

But there's nothing Big Willie Style about Wicked Wisdom's music - the Pantera-esque blast of double bass drum and guitar of "Something Inside of Me" and, on "Cruel Intentions," Pinkett Smith snarling like the creature she vanquished.

"About four years ago, I just decided, 'Before I leave this planet, I have to have an opportunity to do this,'" says Pinkett Smith, who pens Wicked Wisdom's lyrics. "I planned on putting the band together, playing around (California). I never knew it would grow into what it grew into."

Pocket Honore, lead guitarist and musical director for Wicked Wisdom, says Pinkett Smith was very "excited, yet nervous" when a mutual friend brought them together. Her enthusiasm encouraged the longtime R&B/hip-hop session man to pass on touring gigs of that genre.

Rio & Pocket


"I just kind of got burned out on doing the R&B/hip-hop stuff," says Honore, who has played with Patti LaBelle, Ice Cube and Eric Benet. "(Jada) said she wanted to do rock, and I said, 'Cool.'"

Aggressive sound came gradually to Wicked Wisdom, which dallied with harder-edged pop, soul and alternative styles before guitarist Cameron Graves came on board in 2004 and encouraged the band to tune down the instruments and give the really heavy stuff a shot.

Cameron Graves, AKA Wirm


Wicked Wisdom (which also includes original Fishbone drummer Phillip "Fish" Fisher) was as shocked as the Ozzy faithful when the band was asked to join 2005's Ozzfest on the second stage.

Phillip Fisher, AKA Fish


Pinkett Smith says it was only natural that metal fans had difficulty reconciling her being there, and each night, Wicked Wisdom only had 20 minutes to prove itself. There were plenty of preconceived notions and tense taunts - Honore says a New Jersey show was particularly rough, as bird-flipping fans in the front row really riled up Pinkett Smith.

"After that, we said, 'It's time to move onstage. We can't just stand here,'" Honore says. "The one that turned it around was in Chicago. It was our first headlining show in the rotation, and we played that first song and it just went off. That was the longest day we signed autographs on the tour."

Since then, Wicked Wisdom has been a featured musical guest on "The Late Show with David Letterman," of which Pinkett Smith says, "David doesn't get too excited about much of anything. When he was smiling, it was, like, 'Wow, we must have really did something tonight.'"

And on Feb. 21, the band's 10-song, self-titled debut CD hits stores. But Pinkett Smith already is looking forward to scaring off the sophomore slump with an even harsher sound.

"Even this particular album is just a launching pad," Pinkett Smith says. "We want to get even heavier than what we've done now."


Nick Rogers can be reached at 747-9587 or nick.rogers@sj-r.com. Staff writer Daniel Pike contributed to this story.

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Jada Pinkett Smith Gets Hard-Core

Jada Koren, AKA Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith gets hard-core

Actress brings metal band to Bogart's

BY GIL KAUFMAN | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR

As Niobe in the "Matrix" trilogy, Jada Pinkett Smith tapped into her serious side. But as frontwoman for the hard-core metal band Wicked Wisdom, the pint-sized actress unleashes her inner demons in a way that would make Neo run for cover. The group has been earning its stripes on the road for the past two years: first as an opening act for Britney Spears in Europe in 2004, when it was more of a pop-R&B act , and last summer on the metal-centric Ozzfest.

The band's self-titled debut is due out Feb. 21 and it will play Bogart's Saturday night, opening for Sevendust.

We talked to Pinkett Smith about her new gig from a tour stop in New Haven, Conn.:



Question: What made you decide to try your hand at music?

Answer: "It was always something I wanted to do. Four years ago I decided it's now or never. I knew I wanted to do something with a rock feel, but I just had to figure out my own feel."

Q: How'd you discover that menacing voice? It's not what people would expect.

A: "I always knew it was there, I just needed time to find it. I like that powerful sound."

Q: What kind of music did you listen to as a kid?

A: "Metallica, lots of Guns 'N' Roses. ... The house I grew up in was not segregated like (MTV) with music. My mother was a big Who fan, but she was also into Prince and Chaka Khan. My uncle introduced me to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. My grandparents were into jazz."

Q: How is this different from your acting career?

A: "I love that exchange with the audience. There's this connection you have right there in the moment. I'm right there with them and they're right there with me, versus the exchange with an audience of an image they're watching of me on the screen."

Q: What do your kids and (husband) Will (Smith) think?

A: "My daughter is a huge metal fan! She has a better growl than I do and she's only 5. She said, 'You know I'll have a better band than you do' the other day when I dropped her off at school. As far as my music is concerned, Will stays out of it. It's my baby."

E-mail gilkco@aol.com

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com

Jada Pinkett Smith Lives Out Her Axl Rose Dreams

Wicked Wisdom Band

From MTV.com News

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.

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:

2/9 - 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

For more info on Jada Koren Pinkett Smith, visit www.thejadapages.com