Omar’s Latest Album 'Brighter The Days' (A Listening Party)

UK soul legend Omar’s latest album, Brighter The Days, features collaborations with India Arie, Giggs, and more. He joins us for a Listening Party and to reflect on his career.

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart, and this is the latest from Omar.

[MUSIC - Omar: This Thing Called Life]

For many years, I've learnt to play the game

Learnt to play it well

Getting something out of nothing never works

You've got to give to get

Never settling for lesser of

Than I felt within

I deserve the lot

Made my whole career

Sticking to my principles and what I want, want, want

All I see, greater need

I will always fight the struggle

As I live and I breathe

I will always make a hustle

For every step I do take

Leads me onto better days

Alison Stewart: The song you just heard was called This Thing Called Life, the opening track from the UK soul singer Omar's latest album, Brighter The Days. He calls the 18-track project his magnum opus, a culmination of decades of musical exploration and growth. Since stepping onto the music scene in 1985, Omar has released nine studio albums, starting with his well-received debut, There's Nothing Like This. Throughout the years, his talents caught the attention of Angie Stone, Erykah Badu, Stevie Wonder, all of whom have become collaborators, and even the Monarchy, when he was named a member of the Order of the British Empire in 2012.

Brighter The Days features collaboration with some of neo soul's and R&B's most respected voices like Ledisi and India Arie, among others. The album is out now, and Omar joins us in studio for a listening party. It is really nice to meet you.

Omar: Likewise. Good afternoon.

Alison Stewart: I heard on Instagram you described this as your magnum opus.

Omar: Yes, I tried a thing, I think, saying that. No, I feel really proud of the piece. As you said, it's 40 years in the business, nine albums isn't something to be shy about. I had fun doing it, and it just feels like another achievement, another part of the evolution.

Alison Stewart: What stood out to you about this album? What did you evolve with in this album?

Omar: A lot of it was written during the pandemic. We were going through all the problems of social distancing, couldn't be with loved ones, couldn't bury loved ones, and really dark times. We had to reset, so I had to find a way of being able to occupy myself because all the gigs were stopped. You couldn't go and see live concerts, can't perform. I set up my studio in a way to livestream from there, but then I also just got into being creative and just making music that I thought was going to be like a therapy, therapeutic for people, because people were responding quite nicely to the stuff I did live on social media as well. Yes, it was one of those things that helped me get through it.

Alison Stewart: That first track that we heard, This Thing Called Life, why did you choose that as the opening track?

Omar: Oh, it's just so big and broad. It's like a James Bond-type effect. I had a friend of mine, Chris Cameron, who's also done a lot of the string arrangements over the years for a lot of my albums. I decided to go back to basics. With the way it just opens up, it's just so fantastic. It's like fireworks, you know what I mean? I thought that's a very good way to start the album.

Alison Stewart: You talked about this coming out of the pandemic, which was a dark time, but you call the album Brighter The Days?

Omar: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Why?

Omar: It's like there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Also, a friend of mine, Vanessa Simon, wrote a lot of the lyrics for the album. For the title track, she wrote in the lyrics of that song, Brighter the Days. I was just like, "That is it. That speaks to my soul. This is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing." There's another song on there called It's Gonna Be Alright, which is where I got a John Barry piece of music called 007 and Counting. I cut it up at one o'clock in the morning. I was just repeating this thing over and over again. Did it live on Instagram as well.

The reaction from people from that was just so amazing that I thought, "Okay, this is something that I can use to help people get through their dark times, because I hear a lot from my fans, is that my music has helped them through certain periods in their life.

Alison Stewart: That's a cool thing about social media that people don't necessarily talk about. The ability of fans to reach out and tell you how much something means to them.

Omar: Especially for an artist like myself, who's not mainstream. There's a way to still reach to the masses, and that's the way to do it.

Alison Stewart: I am talking to Omar. He's joining us for a listening party for his latest album titled Brighter The Days. Let's listen to a track. This is There's Much Love In The World. How did this come about?

Omar: This was after a writing trip with some friends of mine, Ben Jones, Ben Edwards, James Gardiner-Bateman, Dan Bingham. We just wrote a couple of songs. One was in the style of Al Green. Then there was this version, which is a Latin vibe. Then I also got Chris Cameron to do the string arrangements for it as well, in the style of Henry Mancini. I thought it would just made all the sense in the world. It's just about having love for one another, you know what I mean? This is the kind of thing that we need to share a bit more. There's more that unites us than divides us, pretty much. That's what the song's about.

Alison Stewart: This is There's Much Love In The World by Omar.

[MUSIC - Omar: There's Much Love In The World]

There's much love in the world

That's sitting there waiting for you

You must make yourself

Available to be infused

with love, love, love

Surrender yourself to its unyielding pull

You can't control the feeling

Might as well see it through

Doesn't matter if it's rain or shine

Giving me feelings, 'cause you're mine, oh, mine

I give thanks every day

That you come my way

Alison Stewart: First of all, the strings are gorgeous on that.

Omar: Thank you.

Alison Stewart: You got everybody in the control room, everybody's grooving. Everybody's grooving to that song.

Omar: That's a good sign, yes.

Alison Stewart: It was really interesting, and I have really hung on to this quote that you told The Guardian, because I've been thinking it myself. You said, "I'm closer to the end than I am the beginning, and I refuse to be negative about stuff."

Omar: Yes.

Alison Stewart: See that sign? Right?

Omar: Work hard and be nice to people.

Alison Stewart: Right?

Omar: Absolutely.

Alison Stewart: That's the way I feel about it.

Omar: Well, this is what I'm saying. There's certain factions out there trying to make you hate this person and that person, where I know down on the ground, we all get on quite well. Do you know what I mean? We've got to stop listening to the bad voices and just listen to the good ones because our time on earth is limited. Me being the age that I am as well, like I said, I'm closer to the end, and I'm winning, so I've got less time for nonsense is basically what I'm trying to say. You know what I mean? Life is short. Let's focus on the good stuff.

Alison Stewart: All right. Let's focus on the good stuff. Writing songs. What's your process?

Omar: Process is getting the studio, for one, or it doesn't even have to be there. I play bass, drums, and keys. It could start with the drum beat, it could start with the bass line, it could start with the chords, it could be the melody, it could be any kind of factor, but it's always generally, 98%, the music first than the lyrics, because the melodies of the whole piece or the feel of the songs dictate what the song is going to be about. That's the basics.

Alison Stewart: How do you know when a song is done?

Omar: When you tell yourself that it's done. Certain people that I know, they say, "Well, you need to just leave the bare bones." My thing is, because I'm a producer, I'm always thinking of what can be added as well, but you just don't want to add too much because everything needs to have its space. If you have too many things going on in a piece, then things can get covered up, and there's no point of having them in there unless they're supposed to be there. This album took me eight years to finish.

One of the songs, Lovey Dovey, with Eric Roberson and Raheem DeVaughn, we actually started-- my brother, Scratch Professer and myself, we started this about 2007. It passed over two albums before I actually used it on this one. It's not just the song being finished. It has to be right for the album, because I feel it's like telling a story. When you start the story, you don't stop listening until it's finished. That's the basics.

Alison Stewart: Thinking about recording music now, as when you're recording in the '80s and the '90s, it's really changed a lot. What is something that's changed significantly that you think, "This is really great," and something that changed that you think, "I don't know about this?"

Omar: The live element. I was saying, when I got together with my friends and we did some writing together, I think that there's something within that that people do much less of. If you go back to Motown and how they used to record there, it used to be a whole bunch of guys in the room. One time, one take.

Alison Stewart: Let's go.

Omar: Oh, yes, or have two or three goes, and you take the best of that. I think losing that element is a bit sad, but in terms of technology, much easier. I used to travel to LA and I have to take my computer. Then I'd have to take the interface. Then I have to take all these other sounds. I'll be traveling-- What's his name? He used to sing with Frank Sinatra. Squint, Black guy. Sammy Davis--

Alison Stewart: Oh, Sammy Davis Jr.

Omar: There we go. Thank you.

Alison Stewart: Sammy Davis Jr.

Omar: With his 10 suitcases. That's how I used to have to travel. Whereas now, everything is on the computer. That's so much better that way.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Omar. He's joining us for a listening party for his latest album titled Brighter The Days. Let's listen to another song. This is called Holding On To Life. We can talk about it on the other side.

Omar: Sure.

[MUSIC - Omar: Holding On To Life]

I want to know

When there are seeds to sew

Positivity makes all sense

Let's make a plan

So we can understand

I can't believe that we can't begin again

I want to be your friend

Let's see where this ends

Holding onto life

Let's expand our minds

There's no mystery

Know your history

Holding onto life

Let's expand our minds

This universe

Is meant for us to grow

Every living soul moves to a beat, yeah, yeah

Help me begin

Maybe feel love again

Try a different way

There's so much more to life

I want to be your friend

Let's see where this ends

Alison Stewart: Who are we listening to?

Omar: That's Ledisi. The wonderful, wonderful Ledisi. She reached out to me. She DMed me, actually, on Instagram and just wrote, "Have you got a song for us?" I was like, "Wow, okay." Talk about direct. At that point, I was actually working on that song, the music you can hear in the background. I was working on that. I was thinking, actually, but I was thinking of another son, but then when she reached out, I was like, "Oh, actually, I could write something for the two of us." She just sounds amazing on there. I'm very, very honored and happy that she could be on the album.

Alison Stewart: I love the full circle on this, that your first professional gig was playing with Paul Weller's Style Council in '89, and he's on the record.

Omar: He's on the record, yes.

Alison Stewart: That's so amazing.

Omar: I was just very lucky to reunite with him, because we hadn't seen each other in a long while, and I went to see him in concert, backstage, I was like, "Let's do something." He goes, "Yes, man, come to the studio." I'm indebted to him so much because I used his studio for a month, and he didn't charge me hardly anything to use the studio. A lot of the record is made at his studio called Black Barn. Yes, to get the songs that we did, because you're hearing one of three. There's another two to hear as well, but it was just amazing. He's the most humblest superstar that I know, let me put it that way. He's the modfather, you know what I mean? It was great.

Alison Stewart: We're going to hear a track titled On My Own, featuring Paul Weller and Daru Jones.

Omar: Daru Jones is on drums, and also, Ronnie Foster on organ as well.

Alison Stewart: Let's take a listen.

Omar: Cool.

[MUSIC - Omar: On My Own]

The city streets that I walk along on my own

Taking time to straighten things on my own

Got no plans, I got no dreams

It's a feeling inside, yeah, yeah, yeah

I find I get a clearer head on my own

Can't nobody pressure me, truth be told

Oh, I got my feelings, got my pride

It's a feeling inside

Up above the houses in my mind

Alison Stewart: That's called On My Own from Omar. It's from the album Brighter The Days. Let's roll back to your debut album, There's Nothing Like This. What stands out to you now about that time in your life?

Omar: About that time? I was five singles in when that album came out, because that was 1990. The first single I released was '85, as I said. I released a single every year after that. It was on my father's label. My dad had his own record label called Congo Dance because he was a drummer in the '60s and '70s, played with Doris Troy, Bob Andy, Marcia Griffiths, but then he had his own reggae band, so he wanted to release music independently. Also, my little brothers had a band, but they had no soul music. Here I come along, start making my music as well, using the studio.

Then when we got to 1990, he was like, "Well, we need to do an album." I had all these songs put together except the one that everybody knows, There's Nothing Like This. That came out of nowhere because I went to his record collection, and I came across a band called the Ohio Players, album called Skin Tight.

Alison Stewart: Oh, the best.

Omar: Yes. There's a song called, Heaven Must Be Like This. That's the direct inspiration for There's Nothing Like This. I made a demo of it, and just a cassette. Look it up. Go, boys and girls, cassettes. Just repeated that one song over and over again and didn't get bored of it. Played it with other people, same thing. Yes, the rest is history.

Alison Stewart: The last track we're going to hear from the album is titled Love Is Like. It features India Arie. Tell us a little bit about this song.

Alison Stewart: The wonderful India Arie. We've been trying to work on getting a song together for the last 25 years, I think. I started it with my friend Stuart Zender, used to play bass for Jamiroquai. We got this groove going together, and I'm like, "I think somebody could be singing on this." I asked India if she was interested. She said yes. Then, I'll just leave it there. Listen to the track. It's fantastic.

Alison Stewart: The name of the album is Brighter The Days. I've been speaking with singer Omar. Thank you so much for coming to the studio.

Omar: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Alison Stewart: This is Love Is Like from Brighter The Days.

[MUSIC - Omar: Love Is Like]

Just me and you forever

This ain't going to change it through and through

It's just me and you forever

This ain't going to change, change, change

This fascination that I have for you

Drives me so damn wild

You got me thinking

I don't know what to do

As for tomorrow, will I still be the same?

Damn straight, we got the love

That's right, we ain't playing no losing game

Come on, now

And that's what love is like

If I ever fall down

I know you'll be the one to catch me

Making sure that I am never alone

You're the one who saves me

This dedication that I have to you

You just inspire me--