So, Saturday night during the performance of “We Are On The Move”… Phonte and I decided to pay a bit of impromptu tribute to one of the greatest live routines of all-time. Shouts to @rtst on IG for capturing this “acting uppedness” on stage…
Tag Archives: We Are On The Move
“We Are On The Move” Debuts on Vh1 Soul!!
It feels pretty good to now have two videos from ManMade in rotation on VH1 Soul now (“Count To Five” being the first)… “We Are On The Move” is definitely my most popular video to date and I’m happy to see that it’s finally getting a bit of television shine… Click the picture to see the video.
Zo! “We Are On The Move (Black Coffee Remix)” b/w “A Choice Of Weapons”
“We Are On The Move (Black Coffee Remix)” b/w “A Choice of Weapons” is the new single in promotion of Zo!’s ManMade album. The single bundle is available for purchase on iTunes now and includes the Black Coffee Remix of “We Are On The Move” feat. Eric Roberson & Phonte as well as non-album B-Side “A Choice of Weapons” feat. Nicholas Ryan Gant & Carmen Rodgers.
ManMade is available now on +FE Music.
01. We Are On The Move (Black Coffee Remix)
featuring Eric Roberson
Background Vocals by Gwen Bunn, Sy Smith & Phonte
Remix Produced by Black Coffee
02. A Choice Of Weapons
featuring Nicholas Ryan Gant & Carmen Rodgers
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI) and Phonte for The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP) and Nicholas Ryan Gant for Ghetto Falsetto (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Nicolas Ryan Gant
Background Vocals by Carmen Rodgers & Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Zo! – “We Are On The Move” featuring Eric Roberson and Phonte (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
There are only two rules I have for watching this new video:
1. Leave your cool at the door…
2. HAVE SOME FUN.
The day before this video shoot, I was catching up with Eric Roberson in the car where we had the heat blasting as it was cold as shit outside (of course with today’s ‘Polar Vortex’, it probably seems like nothing now). Anyway, as we were talking… almost in mid-sentence Erro stops and said, “Hol’lup, we’re shooting (the video) outside tomorrow?” …To which I responded, “Yeah.” It was supposed to be 30-35 degrees (F) in the morning and top off at about 40 in the afternoon. We all met up at around 7:30a the next morning, threw a couple of dance moves together, looked at each other like, “It’s cold as hell, but we’re out here… Let’s have some damn fun.” And that is EXACTLY what happened…. Enjoy!!!
Zo! “We Are On The Move” featuring Eric Roberson & Phonte (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Directed by: Kenneth Price
Purchase ManMade HERE • Or on iTunes
+FE Music Is For the Children…
Sent to me last night from @missmalumo from South Africa… This is her niece Zawadi Lalah who has decided to pick up her pink microphone, introduce herself, groove to the intro music some and then sing the first 7-8 bars of “We Are On The Move”….
Maybe I need to consider having Zawadi on the next album…. I love it!!
The 2013 SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards Finalists Announced!!
The 2013 SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards finalists were announced the other night and it looks like I made the list in two categories…
Independent Album Of The Year
Zo! – ManMade
and
Song Of The Year
Zo! featuring Eric Roberson – “We Are On The Move”
Make sure you click here to subscribe and VOTE between October 18th and 30th of 2013. The winners will be announced via international broadcast on December 9th. Let’s make it happen! Thanks y’all…
Studio Campfire Stories: ‘ManMade’ Edition – “We Are On The Move” (feat. Eric Roberson, Gwen Bunn & Sy Smith)
Those who know me and my preferred musical tastes are fully aware of how much love the music catalog of the great Leon Sylvers III. As a kid, there were two albums that I would run REPEATEDLY… Shalamar’s “Three For Love” and “Friends” where Mr. Sylvers was the producer on both. Matter of fact, I used to love anything on that Solar Records label ….Why? Because not only was there some great music being released through them, but I used to get a kick out of how dope the vinyl label looked as it was spinning around on the turntable. That alone would fascinate me for at least a song or two… Once I got older, picked up the bass guitar and revisited some of these songs that I grew up with I noticed that the basslines within Leon Sylvers’ production work were pretty challenging. The bass is so noticeable that instead of playing a supportive role, it’s damn near carrying the entire tune. When I found out that he was also the one playing these lines?!… I got SUPER inspired. So much so that his work was added to my “go to” list in regards to shedding on the bass (Jamerson’s work, some disco jams, and various mid and up-tempo 70’s/80’s songs are my other “go tos”). So one day I was messing around on the bass and kinda thought to myself, “I don’t even have an uptempo ‘jheri curl jam’ in my catalog… It would at least be FUN to try and construct one.”
“We Are On The Move” began on the bass… It was actually the only song on ManMade that I wrote on the bass guitar. I wanted the bassline to move, be playful….but remain funky – I wanted it to “carry” the record. A good number of uptempo records from the late 70’s/early 80’s have very memorable basslines and I wanted this one to be no different… PLUS, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to show off my bass playing a little bit. A lot of folks aren’t aware that I play anything outside of the keys. ……Soooooo with that being said, I wanted to make sure to add in a guitar part in there as well. What it ended up becoming was 30 seconds of me playing two instruments that most of my listeners don’t even know I play… bass and guitar. Once the keys roll up into the first chord, that’s a clear indication of jheri curl juice beginning to be flung freely from that “yellow bottle” saturated moistness of a hairdo a/k/a …the official start of the party.
The original instrumental for this joint was titled “Eighty Three” as in the year 1983 for obvious reasons. The music for the joint literally took me back to that particular era. I can remember playing this one for everybody in The Foreign Exchange live collective at my house the night before we hit the Capital Jazz Fest stage last year and from their reactions to the just the music, I could tell that I had something pretty special on my hands. Once the crew and I returned hom from that early/mid June 2012 +FE run, Phonte and I got to work. Phonte was sent the instrumental and immediately sent me a vocal referenced version back. We had ideas…. We had HUGE ideas. And they seemed to come through for this one piece by piece….
First of all, I think I let out a clear, “OH SHIT!!” when I heard Gwen Bunn hit that “Get ready!!” on the hook because I didn’t tell Phonte exactly where I pulled inspiration from to create the music, yet he wrote an almost Shalamar-inspired hook for it providing me with further evidence as to why we work so well in that studio. We had a couple of challenges in getting a lead vocalist, that is until we turned to the brotha Eric Roberson. Now as busy as Erro remains with EVERYTHING, he always seems to have time for our music and it’s a blessing to have a kat that talented in your corner – especially since I was a fan of his before we started working together. Now he has appeared on my last THREE albums (ManMade, …just visiting three & SunStorm). Phonte hit Erro up with the reference and he turned it around in less than a week… I mean, the dude is a PROFESSIONAL and I love working with him for that very reason. He simply gets the music, walks in a studio, murders it, sends it back to you, and keeps it moving like nothing ever happened…. But right before the final lead vocal was done on it, Phonte said, “Ive got an idea for the ending… just give me a minute.” …..Ok, bet. Now, I admit I can be a bit impatient sometimes. So I created an ending of my own…. One that has a few percussion instruments on it and once the song is completely over, it breaks off into a SECOND part… and that was cool. But one morning at about 6am, I got one of those, “G MUTHAFUCKIN MAIL” texts from Phonte and I already KNEW what the deal was. I opened the email and there was a new version of the song. I played it through and didn’t notice anything different…..UNTIL
*chiiiiiimes* into……. *conga playing*
“Wait…… Hol’lup. Who?……. What the f…… YOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!”
Phonte had gotten Brevan Hampden to add some live percussion playing at the end of the song and it took on a whole new LIFE. I think I played that shit about 25 times in a row that morning. From there, I added a synth line and rhodes key chops at the very end of it so that the joint would in the words of Phonte, “go out in a blaze of glory”. We wanted the listener to be PARTYING by the end of the song. And then to hear Sy Smith, Erro and Phonte go back and forth as if all three of them are on stage together clowning out…. maaaaan, that was a treat for me. And when Erro says, “Come on, come ON, Come OWN, COME OWWWN!!!!” …That’s when the stage is set for a full out “dance as if you could give a damn about ANYthing else in your life right now.” Brotha was tryna bring some MJ to the table on this joint… We hear you brotha Erro, we hear you.
Purchase ManMade HERE • Or on iTunes
Zo! – ‘ManMade’ (2013) FULL Album Credits
Zo!
ManMade
PURCHASE ALBUM
-Listed at #3 on CentricTV’s Best R&B Albums of 2013-
“…the album maintains an easy elegance and never derails.” -AllMusic.com
01. The Train featuring Sy Smith
Produced by Zo! for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music (BMI)
Written by Sy Smith for Sybersong Publishing (ASCAP)
Vocals Recorded and Mixed by Grant “G-Nick” Nicholas
All Vocals by Sy Smith
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and Rumbo Studios, Winnetka, CA
02. Count To Five featuring Gwen Bunn
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Gwen Bunn
Background Vocals by Phonte and Gwen Bunn
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
03. New In Town (Happy) featuring 1-O.A.K. and Carlitta Durand
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP) and Carlitta Durand for Durand Music Group (ASCAP)
Lead and Background Vocals by 1-O.A.K. and Carlitta Durand
Additional Background Vocals by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
04. Making Time featuring Phonte and Choklate
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP) and Choklate for Chokolesta Music (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Phonte
Background Vocals by Choklate and Phonte
Trumpet by Al Strong IV
Trombone by Andrew Kleindienst
All Other Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
05. Tell Me Something New featuring Jeanne Jolly
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
All Vocals by Jeanne Jolly
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
06. ManMade featuring Phonte
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
All Vocals by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
07. We Are On The Move featuring Eric Roberson
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Eric Roberson
Background Vocals by Gwen Bunn, Phonte and Sy Smith
Congas, Timbales and Other Percussion by Brevan Hampden
All Other Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
08. Show Me The Way featuring Anthony David and Carmen Rodgers
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP) and Walter Baker for Songs For The Rebel (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Anthony David
Background Vocals by Carmen Rodgers
Additional Background Vocals by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
09. For Tina
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
All Vocals by Sy Smith
Flute by Claudia Hayden
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
10. Out In The World featuring Choklate
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Choklate for Chokolesta Music (ASCAP) and Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Choklate
Additional Background Vocals and Rap by Phonte
All Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
11. Body Rock featuring Sy Smith
Produced by Zo! & Phonte for Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC/The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
Written by Phonte Coleman for Daddy’s New Bowtie (ASCAP)
Lead Vocals by Sy Smith
Background Vocals by Sy Smith and Phonte
Flute by Tim Smith
All Other Instruments by Zo!
Recorded at East Wing Studios, Silver Spring, MD and The Peanut Gallery, Raleigh, NC
Mixed and Mastered by Chris Boerner at The Burlap Palace, Raleigh, NC
© 2013 The Foreign Exchange Music, LLC
P.O. Box 12208
Wilmington, NC 28405
Zo! – ManMade
The sophomore release from producer/keyboardist Zo! of The Foreign Exchange’s +FE Music family. Includes appearances from Phonte, Eric Roberson, Sy Smith, Jeanne Jolly, Carmen Rodgers, Anthony David and more.
1. The Train feat. Sy Smith
2. Count To Five feat. Gwen Bunn (VIDEO)
3. New In Town (Happy) feat. 1-O.A.K. & Carlitta Durand
4. Making Time feat. Phonte & Choklate
5. Tell Me Something New feat. Jeanne Jolly
6. ManMade feat. Phonte
7. We Are On The Move feat. Eric Roberson (VIDEO)
8. Show Me The Way feat. Anthony David & Carmen Rodgers
9. For Tina
10. Out In The World feat. Choklate & Phonte
11. Body Rock feat. Sy Smith
PURCHASE CD DIGIPAK + FREE MP3 DOWNLOAD
• #3 Best R&B Album of 2013 by CentricTV
• “ManMade is a complete work — his best creation yet.” -Andy Kellman, AllMusic.com
PRE-ORDER your SIGNED copy of ‘ManMade’!!!!
Zo!’s upcoming album ManMade will hit stores May 21. If you pre-order your copy NOW from the +FE Music Store, not only will you be the first to receive the album, but your copy will be SIGNED by Zo!
CLICK HERE TO PREORDER MANMADE
1. The Train feat. Sy Smith
2. Count To Five feat. Gwen Bunn
3. New In Town (Happy) feat. 1-O.A.K. & Carlitta Durand
4. Making Time feat. Phonte & Choklate
5. Tell Me Something New feat. Jeanne Jolly
6. ManMade feat. Phonte
7. We Are On The Move feat. Eric Roberson
8. Show Me The Way feat. Anthony David & Carmen Rodgers
9. For Tina
10. Out In The World feat. Choklate & Phonte
11. Body Rock feat. Sy Smith