If you ask anyone what’s the fastest way to look into a person’s soul, they’ll tell you through the person’s eyes. If you ask an artist what’s the best way to pour out that heart and soul— they’ll tell you through their music.
(more after break)
That’s what 29-year-old songstress Dana Williams, better known as YahZarah, (which means, “Queen mother is the brightest star”) has been doing ever since she retired her role as one of Erykah Badu’s backup singers, and embarked on a career of her own dating back to 2001 with her debut album, Hear Me; and then her sophomore effort Blackstar in 2002.
From there, the Washington DC native virtually disappeared from the scene until once again embracing her true calling with 2008’s EP The Prelude, and now the woman capable of making any song cry fully returns with her latest album, The Ballad Of Purple St. James; and she’s also back to fill you in on everything in between. So let the spiritual journey begin.
YahZarah: Well, my mother said I was singing right when I could talk, so yes; I would say that it was in me since I was born. I came up through the church where I had a spiritual relationship, and that allowed me to open up and do music.
YahZarah: We all went to school together me, him, and 9th Wonder; we went to college together… We went to North Carolina Central University, and we were in a class together where we had a class project…
After that, I ended up doing some hooks for them, and then they continued to grow, and then Little Brother got signed, put out their record, and they still kept in touch… Me and Phonte have been writing together for the last ten years…
YahZarah: I came out with Hear Me when I was really young, and I was finding my voice, and the producer I was working with at the time had another direction and approach… I had one idea, and the label had another, and that’s a project that I didn’t feel emotionally connected to…
YahZarah: [Laughs]… You can’t ask me that, it’s so unfair… I love my own record, and I love the songs on it… I’m connected to each song on the record intimately… But I’ll tell you one that stands out to me, and it’s ‘All My Days’ with Darien Brockington, because it’s a classic love song…
‘Starship’ is really close to my heart because it’s the first song that I even recorded for The Ballad [Of Purple St. James], and that got me back towards making records again, and to pick up a new story away from the whole experience from Blackstar and the corporate experience of making music…
YahZarah: I actually quit music for a little while after my experience with the Blackstar album… I wouldn’t say the album, but it was the corporate experience, and it wasn’t a really good thing for me… I wasn’t with people who believed in my talent, and they just kind of saw me as a product…
So they signed me just to profit off me… It was really hard for me, I almost lost my voice permanently, and I thought that if this is what the industry has to offer me, then maybe I should get out… So went and got a job, and I would go to work, and people like Anthony Hamilton would say, “What are you doing working?!” “You need to be making records…”
The first time around was such a bad experience, that I couldn’t even write, so I just went to doing hooks… Then my writing partner was telling me that I couldn’t hide my voice anymore… So I just took my time to reintroduce myself, and also to create some new fans, and that’s how I started putting The Ballad [Of Purple St. James] together…
YahZarah: I definitely think The Ballad [Of Purple St. James] is a trip into my mind… There is stuff that I’ve gone through that I haven’t written about yet… There’s a big punctuation mark to my story… I’ve fell in love, I’ve lost love, I found me, and I became a woman that’s not afraid to do what she wants, and says what she likes…
