When Mya began conceptualizing what would become her ninth album “Retrospect,” she knew she needed to subsume herself in a sound that both played to her performance strengths and spoke to where she’s at in life. “I wanted to turn it up a notch,” she tells Variety of the funk-powered record that arrived last Friday. “I feel like in my career I haven’t had the type of tempo music that supports one of the greatest assets of Mya. I’m a party girl, but people wouldn’t know it because I’m so laid back. I’m still the same girl from ‘Case of the Ex.’ I’m just in my grown era.”
“Retrospect” forgoes the languid pace of Mya’s last album, 2018’s “T.K.O. (The Knock Out),” in favor of the R&B and funk of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Now 46, the singer draws inspiration from the music that inspired her, name-checking Prince and the Gap Band, for a spate of upbeat tunes dotted by glittery synths, pummeling 808s and plucky bass notes. On the Snoop Dogg-featuring standout “No Pressure,” for instance, Mya invokes the carefree feeling of loping around a roller rink as she sings of taking things slow with someone she just met, horns blasting alongside her.
Mya recorded the lot of “Retrospect” in Los Angeles, amassing songs that she tinkered with over the course of several years. She co-executive produced the album alongside Lamar “MyGuyMars” Edwards, a member of 1500 or Nothin’ who has worked with everyone from T.I. and Snoop Dogg to Jay-Z and Drake. Now an independent artist — she released her first four albums through Interscope and Universal Motown, up until 2008’s “Sugar & Spice” via her own shingle Planet 9 — Mya revels in being completely hands-on, producing her own vocals and managing day-to-day operations like booking studio sessions and selecting press photos.
Exercising that control, she says, has been an ethos applied to all her projects for nearly two decades. “When I didn’t necessarily have the creative freedom over, I’ll say, control of the files, I tended to be very dissatisfied with the outcome,” she explains. She points to her 2003 album “Moodring” as an example where her vocals were often “processed” or had “too much Auto-Tune,” and that she prefers “imperfections.” “When I went independent, I began playing in a space of being satisfied with the work. And I would not come out or put anything out into the universe until it was the way I wanted it. Being independent empowers me to say, alright, we’re good here.”
Prince played a significant role as inspiration for Mya on “Retrospect,” as the sound of Minneapolis Funk casts a long shadow over the record. From the pulsating bass lines on “Masterpiece” to the clattering synth notes of “Life Is What You Make It,” “Retrospect” pays homage to the Purple One, who once imparted wisdom to Mya on navigating her career as an indie artist.
“Obviously, the independence, he was a huge advocate for it,” she recalls. “There was a sense of protection in some of those conversations and protecting your art. There was also investment in living below your means, not going after materialism but truly building a space as an athlete would to train as a recording artist, having your own studio, having your own place where you can rehearse so that you can literally pour into your craft because the outcome is based on what you’re putting in. And that’s just investment, practicing. He comes from a school where there are no shortcuts.”
Mya, of course, has taken the long road to arrive at such a contented creative space. Since debuting with her self-titled album in 1998, she carved a path for herself by playing the major label game, sending hits like “Case of the Ex” and “My Love Is Like… Wo” to the upper reaches of the charts. But after her label bungled the release of her fourth album “Liberation,” she took the reins of her career and charged onward, learning how to sharpen her business acumen in real time.
“The world is yours. It’s a free playground where you can experiment and explore in your own time, really deep dive,” she says. “Test records before you invest, develop relationships that last a long time, build teams, offer opportunities, internships, etcetera. You’re literally learning so many things as you go, but also meeting so many people because you are in need of those who can move the needle. And it’s a wonderful thing to have those moments and then build upon that.”
“Retrospect” was initially intended as a precursor to an opening slot on Pussycat Dolls’ reunion tour, “PCD Forever,” but the North American trek was canceled in early May, with some attributing it to ticket sales. Mya says it’s a “bummer” that the tour was called off, but that she wasn’t aware of a specific reason for its cancellation. (“I’m kind of in the dark with everything right now,” she said in this interview, which took place the morning after the announcement. “I haven’t gotten into the nuts and bolts.”)
Instead, she’s eyeing a fall tour for “Retrospect,” which had always been part of the game plan. After all, “Retrospect” is the culmination of years of fine-tuning and crafting a cohesive vision. For Mya, it’s a testament to her creative spirit and drive, something that’s still as strong as it was when she embarked on this journey decades ago.
“There are so many aspects of music that it touches on for life and the human experience, and for me, that’s everything. It can instantly bring healing. It can instantly be a room picker-upper,” she says. “If we truly pay attention, some sounds can heal and raise your vibration and others can lower it. And so to affect the state of others and hopefully have the positive intention and be on the right side of that is what keeps me going — love, healing, all the good things in life that we need to survive.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com ’
