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.' "
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