It's a few minutes past one in the morning. Inside a dimly lit, chestnut colored club, a comfy lil spot. Smoke drifts through the air and drinks are flowing at the bar as rare grooves crackle through the speakers and mix with the chatter from the people. A group of stage hands have been setting up for a live performance by Warner Brothers recording artist D'Mello.
Folks in the club are buzzed. They've obviously been briefed beforehand, "This girl is unique.. believe me, she's got the stuff."
That "stuff" would be talent. Publicists will tell you anything to make their artists sound and look good, that's their job. I, like most everyone here, have come to bear witness to the good stuff. To judge for ourselves.
About a half hour later, the stage is set and the host for the night gets onstage to get things rolling. With the aid of a virgin drink [it's the middle of the week] I'm all ears, ready to make an honest evaluation.
This is how it should be done
Before she even hit the stage, I had to click off two points on the mental scoreboard for the live band setup. There would be no pre-recorded instrumentals running in the background tonight.
The band consisting of two keyboard players, a drummer, a bass player, and a guitar player have already warmed up. Then from the side of the stage, out come three singers dressed in various black outfits. The backup singers I suppose. The band is playing and the girls run through some chorus lines, shoo bopping in tune to the music. Then out comes D'Mello dressed in black pants and a brown top with a striped tie loosely dangling around her neck. [Don't know if I captured that] It's a good look. Feminine and stylish.
For a 22-year-old newcomer to the biz, she seems very comfortable onstage. Giving the audience an authentically warm, "Hi guyyyys." After a brief improv, she promptly gets into the first song. Where's my scoreboard? *Click* The girl can sing. Her voice is clear and more powerful than I expected. The audience was digging the interplay between songs as she talked a bit about each song before getting into it. At the tail end of one joint, she branched off into a Minnie Ripperton riff from "Inside My Love."
That was it.. she won over the audience with that, performing it flawlessly. People started clapping and thang. I think they were remembering the riff from a Tribe Called Quest who sampled it on "Lyrics To Go," I know I did. In any case, so you can get the flavor.. this is Minnie Ripperton's version. Imagine D'Mello hitting that note live and unplugged.
On a plane from the West Indies
Born and raised in the small, rural province of Trinidad known as Phoenix Park, Winsome 'D'Mello' Singh grew up listening to Calypso and Reggae.
But it was the sounds coming from the United States that got her interested in a career in music. She counts Pattie Labelle, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey as her biggest inspirations. "When I first heard Mariah's "Vision of Love." I just knew what I had to do and that was the kind of music I wanted to sing," D'Mello recalls.
In High School she participated in a number of musicals and on Sundays put it down in the church choir. It was around this time that she discovered the opera song "Waltz Without End" and was captivated by the mixture of classical singing techniques and the dark and dramatic elements of the piece. "I was drawn to opera because it was different. I like new ways of developing my voice."
After graduating from High School at the young age of 15, she set out for the United States with dreams of getting a record deal.
Moving to Coney Island, New York City to live with family, she worked part-time in retail to make ends meet. The majority of her time was spent honing her craft. She joined a local church choir and hit Manhattan's studio session scene.
Grindin
It was there that she met a producer who introduced her to Adeka Stupart, a songwriter signed to Universal Records.
"The very first night we met we wrote a song together and realized we had chemistry," D'Mello says.
The ups and downs of the road to success can make you lose focus. D'Mello and Adeka wound up doing their own thing for a few years, no email, no phone contact with each other. One day D'Mello got back in touch with Adeka and they realized that the chemistry was still there, they quickly made up for lost time. "We wrote about a hundred songs in eight months," she says.
With the help of a music industry veteran Andrew "Dice" Ramdhanny, they scored a publishing deal and shortly after D'Mello got a recording contract with Warner Brothers Records. She didn't stop there, working with Adeka she wrote songs one of them being 3LW's "I Do Wanna Get Close To You."
Work then began on her debut album Best Love Story.
The music
I told you how she sounds live (great), if the album can capture that performance on records she'll be in good shape. The first single from the album is titled "Best Love Story" a collaboration with Mobb Deep.
The full album, due this spring, will include songs like "Fakin Me" an anthem for female empowerment.
D'Mello explains, "It's me letting those guys know that I can see through their lies and that I know the game and what they're really about."
Her favorite song "Honey Baby," is a ballad that speaks to the good men out there (ehem.. we're all good).. "It's special because there aren't enough songs that uplift the good guys and good relationships. I'm very honest like that. If it's bad I'll tell you, but if it's good I'll tell you that too."
What does she want people to get from the album? "I hope when people listen to my CD, they will feel and appreciate my music. Good music touches the soul and that's the goal I want my music to achieve."
Check out this D'Mello interview with
Ed Lover of Power105 FM