an old pm dawn interview n concert review...

KIDSDAY "TALKING WITH"
We interviewed Prince Be/The Nocturnal and DJ Minutemix/JC (also known as Attrett Cordes and Jarrett Cordes), from the group PM Dawn at PolyGram Records in Manhattan recently.
Their latest album "The Bliss Album," immediately became one of our favorites. When they are not recording their own music, they are helping other artists. Currently, they are producing albums for Paula Abdul and supermodel Naomi Campbell.
Q. How old are you? A. Prince: I'm 23 and my brother, DJ, is 22. There are five of us in our family; we are the oldest.
Q. Where did you grow up? A. Prince: We are from Jersey City.
Q. When did you decide that you really wanted a career in music? A. Prince: We sang in the church choir. My mother is a gospel singer. She's happy for us because this is what she wanted to do.
Q. What do you think sets you apart from other groups? A. DJ: We just try to be as honest emotionally as we can. It is just something that happens when you try to be yourself.
Q. How did you get involved with George Michael? A. Prince: He was a father figure growing up. George was receptive to our music.
Q. That cross you are wearing is beautiful. Does it stand for something special? A. Prince: No, I got it for my birthday and I liked it.
Q. Who styles your hair? A. Prince: I wanted a little bit of everything. I put in the blonde streak to give me some highlighting. I put it in a ponytail when it gets hot. I do it myself.
Q. What would you be doing if you weren't singers? A. Prince: I worked for a homeless shelter. I think I would be a police officer. DJ: I worked in the mail room of a record company. I was hoping to become a promoter or something.
Q. Did you think you would be so successful? A. Prince: I always wanted to be stable, and do something that I would really enjoy for the rest of my life. Write to PM Dawn c/o Gee Street, 825 Eighth Ave., New York, N.Y. 10019.

PM DAWN'S SOLID MIDDLE SET MAKES LOOSE ENDS TOLERABLE
St Louis Post
PM Dawn got off to a slow start in its concert Friday night at Six Flags, but the group got up a head of steam as it went along and delivered a fine set of music. The actual members of PM Dawn, rapper-singer Prince Be the Nocturnal and his cohort JC the Eternal, didn't even take the stage until after the second song had started. Opening with "If I Wuz U," one of the most memorable songs from its debut album of two years ago, "Of the Heart, of the Soul, and Of the Cross: The Utopian Existence," would have been a smart move if the vocalists would have performed it where we could have seen them. As it was, the fine live band put together for this tour chugged through the mid-tempo number as the audience listened to disembodied voices, which made it difficult to connect with the song. JC came out shortly after the second song started, accompanied by a suspiciously thin man dressed like Prince Be has dressed in videos. After a minute or so, JC stopped the band, and kicked the imposter off the stage, replacing him with the actual Prince Be. These shenanigans may have broken up the people touring with the band, but it left me confused. One shouldn't have to wait a song and a half to actually see the lead vocalist who has been singing all along. Fortunately, things settled down from there. Before performing the group's first big hit, "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss," Prince Be actually sang a couple verses from "True," the Spandau Ballet song from which it had sampled the original hook. Later, they performed the group's most recent hit, "Looking Through Patient Eyes," from their second album, "The Bliss Album . . .? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence)." (These guys have a thing about really long album titles.) After that, PM Dawn could do little wrong. An enthusiastic cover version of the classic Parliament song, " Flashlight," showed a commitment to funk roots; their other big hit, "I'd Die Without You," displayed their consummate ballad skills; and an unbelievable version of the Beatles classic "She Said" combined raucous rock'n'roll with hard-edged funk. The show ended with "The Nocturnal Is In The House," which, on record, is a light-weight rap song by many standards, but which live became a communal celebration of the most exciting aspects of hip-hop. Once a great groove is established, and some sort of rhythmic chanting is set up, it's possible to really move an audience, and that's exactly what PM Dawn did. The band was called back for an encore, which didn't live up to the heights achieved near the end of the actual set. Maybe they didn' t know how to get started, and they sure didn't know how to end, but in the middle, PM Dawn was terrific