THE ARTIST: Symbolic Times

The Artist finally finds happiness through control of his art. He speaks to ANDREW WATT in New York.

For an exhilarating period through the’ 80s and early’90s, the artist then known as Prince had the contemporary world at his feet. A master of funk, rock and soul, he inherited the legacies of James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix and Little Richard all at once. Prince was a musician revered by his peers and yet also a super-star prone to excesses and tantrums. A series of hits such as “Little Red Corvette”, “Raspberry Beret“, "1999”“, Let’s Go Crazy" and “Purple Rain” were punctuated by milestone albums including Sign O‘ The Times, Controversy, Around The World In A Day and The Black Album.

But the economics of the music biz tightened just as Prince’s vision diversified, shifting from chart hits to deeper exploration of funk and soul. His creativity and work ethic was producing more material than any record company could find viable to release commercially.

As the marriage between star and Warner deteriorated into a public brawl, the public assumed he ‘d crossed the line from genius to madness. Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable hieroglyphic and scrawled the word ‘slave’ across his face at public appearances. That was to denote that through the years, black jazz and blues artists were so concerned with getting a pink Cadillac they were happy to sell the ownership of their songs to white masters.

“I’d go to meetings (at the record company) with ‘slave’ written on my face, ”he recalls, seated at the famed Hit Factory studio, looking impossibly fresh and youthful ”And it would freak them out.” They would look at me, how could they to someone like that? But you have to divorce yourself from being who you are expected to be. The benefit is the growth of the light inside.”

“But you should hear what the press used to say about me! That I ‘d gone insane. There’s no insanity in my family, even though they try to dig that up. I have a thick skin. Anyone who has faith in God and the spiri twill never speak falsely. They wrote I was going broke. That I was selling my purple house in Minneapolis. All I was doing was moving to another house which had more privacy, that’s all.”

The current three-storied wooden abode is hidden from the road by a thick line of trees. It has a tennis court, pool, a small lake and a windmill brought in from Holland at considerable expense. The Artist and his wife Mayte moved in just before the birth in November 1996 of their baby Boy Gregory (who had a deformed skull and was on a life support system for a week until the couple switched it off), so they painted the walls blue and the window sills pink.

“Until You’re In My Arms” is a lamen to the boy,while the CD’s hidden track “Why Did I Waste My Kisses On You” ends with the sound of a life support machine.

In recent times, the Artist has come in from the cold. A 3-CDs set was pointedly titled Emancipation, and, the sprawling 4 -CD Crystal Ball was only available by mail order on the Internet and a very limited number of store s. The hugely successful 7-city US tour was sixth biggest of 1997, grossing $ 27 million US.

The three hour shows featured Old School soul funkers Chaka Khan and Larry Graham in his band. The set included three Sly & The Family Stone covers, and an hour-long encore called ”Mad Sex”. The Artist intends to remain on the road for two years, and returns to Australia next year.

Sain spoke to him on the morning after the launch party for the new CD Newpower Soul,which had been attended by Stevie Wonder, Joan Osborne, former Supreme Mary Wilson and a very respectful Mel B aka Scary Spice. The Artist has his rules at interviews. He doesn’t like to shake hands. No tape recorders, only notepads. When he listens to you, he gazes at the floor. When he speaks, he looks at you in the eye. You’re told never to refer to him as Prince.

“Black people still call me Prince. I ask them why, and they say, ’Y ou’re like a prince to us.’ So one day I might go back to using that name. Not right now. Call me whatever you like. My wife calls me ‘hey you!’. She never calls me by my name.”

What sound should Love Symbol be? “I don’t know. As soon as I hear that sound, I’ll know.”

Newpower Soul is released through his NPG (New Power Generation) Records, also home for Khan and Graham. NPG’s distribution deal with music giant BMG means that The Artist is in the position of being independent with total control, and his CDs reaching as wide an audience as possible. Creative freedom, he agrees, is more than control over words and music. It includes command of the frequency and timing of releases, and their scope and size.

Record labels reserve this as their right to decide, after consulting their marketing and accounts departments.

It’s not a problem with other acts. Few modern artists create up to eight CDs’ worth of material in a year. The Artist points out that anyone who can do so should not be restricted by a system that penalises, not rewards them, for being prolific.

“The main thing I was talking about was ownership to the rights to the legacy”, he explains. “This is our software. It’s not about a pink Cadillac or some drugs! They can keep all that. But don’t take away the legacy. That’s all the artist has. Allow me to have my legacy so I can be like David Bowie and make $90 million.”

He is referring to Bowie’s lucrative bond issue deal last year, which only happened because Bowie owned his songs.

The Artist turned 40 in June. His dress sense is unisexual and he still makes do with just there hours’ sleep. But he no longer eats meat, and his marriage has inspired over a thousand love songs. “The One” is even about having only one partner. He met Mayte in 1990 but says their souls have known each other for a thousand years. Both believe in reincarnation and that they met in ancient Egypt.