Life Isn't All Bliss for P.M. Dawn

Life isn't all bliss for P.M. Dawn

Urban group's frontman looks beyond sagging sales, mounting bills

COURTNEY DEVORES

Special to the Observer

In Charlotte on the way home from touring Alabama, P.M. Dawn stopped at the Papa John's on South Boulevard for a couple Alfredo pizzas. While frontman Prince Be ordered, three guys outside recognized Dr. Giggles.
"They said, `No disrespect, man, but you look famous,' " Giggles said a week later.
"I guess I am, sort of," he replied.
Three people turned into 15 as Giggles did an impromptu performance to promote the group's appearance at Amos' SouthEnd. The show is tonight. During the early 1990s, P.M. Dawn scored a string of urban pop crossover hits such as "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss," "I'd Die Without You" and "Looking Through Patient Eyes."
But success was short lived. By 1995, album sales sagged.
"I went from $7,000 a year to $6 million in one year," said Be, who co-founded P.M. Dawn with his brother, DJ Minute Mix. "I don't know what I spent it on, but that was the most fun I ever had. Not a lot of people can say they spent $6 million."
Now a 35-year-old father of two, Be joked about calling the current tour the "Paying Bills Tour."
"The Summer of Bliss Tour," a reminder of their biggest hit, won out.
"I'll be extremely blissful if these bill collectors stop calling me," he joked, not that he's missing out on royalties. "I'm not blazing on the radio. I got a good amount of hits to keep me floating, but I'm living beyond my means."
Be, speaking from a gas station near his New Jersey home, said he hopes the group's next album, the independently produced "P.M. Dawn Loves You" due this fall, sparks interest.
He's still reworking songs the same way he did with Dawn's first hit, built from a sample of Spandau Ballet's "True." Recently, he's reinvented songs like Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" with new lyrics.
"People in Alabama went berserk for `Under the Bridge,' " he said. "It's (originally) a song about addiction. I wrote it more about addiction to a person."
As much as Be would like to hear his songs on the radio again, he rarely listens to Top 40 or hip-hop stations.
"When you get annoyed by Top 40 more than you enjoy Top 40 you're officially grown," he said. "I can't even believe all the hip-hop artists. There's no trace of me in that game at all.
"I listen to underground stuff, Lite FM, and the jazz station," he said, which may explain why he describes the upcoming disc as tame and more adult.
He said he doesn't even let his kids listen to radio. He plays them Hall & Oates and De La Soul.
"I told them, `I just want your ears to be clean if you decide to do music.' "

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observe...t/14935628.htm

ah you beat me to posting that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by HieroHero

Life isn't all bliss for P.M. Dawn

Urban group's frontman looks beyond sagging sales, mounting bills

COURTNEY DEVORES

Special to the Observer

In Charlotte on the way home from touring Alabama, P.M. Dawn stopped at the Papa John's on South Boulevard for a couple Alfredo pizzas. While frontman Prince Be ordered, three guys outside recognized Dr. Giggles.
"They said, `No disrespect, man, but you look famous,' " Giggles said a week later.
"I guess I am, sort of," he replied.
Three people turned into 15 as Giggles did an impromptu performance to promote the group's appearance at Amos' SouthEnd. The show is tonight. During the early 1990s, P.M. Dawn scored a string of urban pop crossover hits such as "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss," "I'd Die Without You" and "Looking Through Patient Eyes."
But success was short lived. By 1995, album sales sagged.
"I went from $7,000 a year to $6 million in one year," said Be, who co-founded P.M. Dawn with his brother, DJ Minute Mix. "I don't know what I spent it on, but that was the most fun I ever had. Not a lot of people can say they spent $6 million."
Now a 35-year-old father of two, Be joked about calling the current tour the "Paying Bills Tour."
"The Summer of Bliss Tour," a reminder of their biggest hit, won out.
"I'll be extremely blissful if these bill collectors stop calling me," he joked, not that he's missing out on royalties. "I'm not blazing on the radio. I got a good amount of hits to keep me floating, but I'm living beyond my means."
Be, speaking from a gas station near his New Jersey home, said he hopes the group's next album, the independently produced "P.M. Dawn Loves You" due this fall, sparks interest.
He's still reworking songs the same way he did with Dawn's first hit, built from a sample of Spandau Ballet's "True." Recently, he's reinvented songs like Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Under the Bridge" with new lyrics.
"People in Alabama went berserk for `Under the Bridge,' " he said. "It's (originally) a song about addiction. I wrote it more about addiction to a person."
As much as Be would like to hear his songs on the radio again, he rarely listens to Top 40 or hip-hop stations.
"When you get annoyed by Top 40 more than you enjoy Top 40 you're officially grown," he said. "I can't even believe all the hip-hop artists. There's no trace of me in that game at all.
"I listen to underground stuff, Lite FM, and the jazz station," he said, which may explain why he describes the upcoming disc as tame and more adult.
He said he doesn't even let his kids listen to radio. He plays them Hall & Oates and De La Soul.
"I told them, `I just want your ears to be clean if you decide to do music.' "

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observe...t/14935628.htm

I'm Going To Scream On This Chick 2morrow.
4 The Record I Didn't Break into an impromptu performance!!! and the 3 dudes knew me from myspace. When I played the new music they simply bobbed their heads, and approved!!! She obviously doesn't understand Hip-Hop or the difference between "reworking" and remaking a song, and I'm very disappointed that she twisted Be's words around like this.

Be was only joking about the paying bills tour, and the chick laughed it up with us, then made us look weird!!!

Not to sound like a paranoid freakout but...THE MEDIA sucks! Honest to goodness journalism seems to be dead these days. Just keep making great music and sooner or later the art wins out.

Personally, I think it's a good article. I don't think it makes you sound weird at all. Start screaming on writers and you'll REALLY start seeing some weirdness. :D

I think the problem is just that the article is just not well done. For a human interest article to be worth reading, it's gotta have some kind of depth, and this piece is 'bout as shallow as they get. If I didn't already care about Be and Giggles before I read this piece, I sure wouldn't care about them after reading it. The article missed both the "human" part and the "interest" part.:cool:
Either Ms. Devores' editor chopped up her piece to the point where it's no longer recognizable, or she is just not a very skillful writer. I'm not saying that to be ugly; it's just that some people are good at finding stories, and some people are good at telling stories, and very few people are good at doing both.

To further what Wheel is saying part of the issue is i don't think writers are writing these articles as much anymore. I think you tend to get critics or people with some sort of PR interest in these roles. Perhaps i'm wrong. As a whole i don't think other than personally writing isn't too rewarding. Obviously there are exception to the rules but to write a great article you don't get paid correctly for it. I'd want to do the best for an integrity point....but sadly for most folks it's all about the green.