NEW YORK — Even though she had sold 25 million albums and is a 12-time Grammy Award winner, success didn’t help Alicia Keys avoid a two-year bout of depression.
She’s back now with her fourth album, The Element of Freedom, and is unafraid to show all sides of herself to the public.
“Pain... it’s just an immediate feeling that drives me to write. But now I can say that even in joy I can express myself.”
Appearing calm and relaxed during our interview, Keys lights up the room. Her checkered shirt, sleek hair parted in the middle and hip-length boots evoke a Pocahontas look of sorts.
I met up with her in the lounge of the trendy Cooper Hotel in New York’s East Village. With a Starbucks cup at her feet and her eyes on her BlackBerry, she was coordinating the goings-on in her Long Island studio from Manhattan.
“Uh-oh, I hope that’s not true,” she tells me.
Something bad happen?
“They can’t find the CD in my studio. I hope that’s not true.”
The release of The Element of Freedom had just been postponed two weeks, to Dec. 15, when we chatted. “I needed more time to make it work perfectly,” she explained. “It’s way better. It gives me time to breathe.”
In the meantime, the singer’s voice can be heard everywhere in New York during the chorus of Jay-Z’s new hit tune, Empire State of Mind. “These streets will make you feel brand new / Big lights will inspire you,” she sings about her hometown.
Keys, 28, is a product of Hell’s Kitchen, the Manhattan neighbourhood also known as Midtown West. She used to heat her apartment with her kitchen stove as she practised her music at night and studied during the day. Back then, she was the opener for Clive Davis at Joe’s Pub, where she’d get on stage dressed in a hoodie, her Kangol hat and sneakers.
Keys has had to prove herself in a man’s world, so it’s no surprise she cultivated the tough exterior image of a strong woman. On The Element of Freedom, Keys lets her audience see some of her vulnerability.
“You will hear a mixture of strong and delicate. A new sound, a new emotion. That’s a lot of who I am right now,” she said. “Before, I thought I could only show the strong side of me.”
The night before our interview, Keys played for a group of New York University music students. Right before the show she opened up to them on a largely unknown subject: The period of depression she went through while writing her third album, As I Am.
“That record was very difficult for me,” she told her audience. “I was starting to understand that I was dealing with certain people in business that were not really for me, and they all had their intentions and thoughts.”
The once eternal optimist had lost her smile.
“On top of that, I was really trying to find myself and I was feeling extremely overworked. I was snappy, I was nasty, I was mean, losing my grandmother during that time as well. Everything felt like it could all just tumble down at once.”
Bit by bit, Keys worked through her depression and also discovered a new creative approach to composing.
“It did allow me more freedom. In the past, I was locking myself in the studio because I thought it was the only way to create music. This was a much more casual way to do it.”
She visited museums and was inspired by paintings. In the end, the album was finished faster than its predecessors.
So what’s next for Keys?
“I don’t feel like I reached the top; I have a lot more to climb. I want to continue growing and expressing myself creatively. I definitely want a family. To be a mother, that’s gonna be a beautiful time in life...”
