Over the phone, Seal exudes every bit of cool one might attach to the lauded pop and soul singer. First off, he’s thoughtful. He listens to the questions we ask about his upcoming tour to celebrate Seal and Seal II, the albums released some 30 years ago, filled with songs which made him a household name. He takes his time to respond and is deliberate with his words, which are delivered by one of pop music’s most distinct voices.
The tour stops at Bayou Music Center on Friday, April 28 and ahead of that show the Grammy-winning artist told the Houston Press it’s been five or six years since his last dedicated tour. He has performed the songs live lately and doesn’t feel he’ll have to shake off any rust before the tour bus starts rolling.
The tour should navigate much more smoothly since it’ll be co-piloted by Trevor Horn, whose legendary new wave band The Buggles will open the shows. Horn produced the albums being showcased on the tour, discs which spawned hits like “Crazy,” “Killer” and “Kiss From a Rose,” the global chart-topper and Record and Song of the Year at the 1996 Grammy Awards. Horn will serve as the tour’s musical director.
“I tend to perform a fair amount of those songs anyway because people request them and luckily for me Trevor made, I guess, what people perceive as timeless records. I mean that was always his agenda going into making records. We always tried to avoid time-stamping records so we stayed true to kind of doing our own thing as opposed to following or including anything that happened to be sort of fashionable at the time. We always approached the records from the standpoint of making them for ourselves first and foremost and then hopefully if we liked them then hopefully the general public would,” Seal said.
“This is going to be quite unusual, this tour, in that Trevor is MD-ing [musical directing], as I’m sure you’ve heard. And him being the one that produced the records, I guess the objective is to try and recreate the record live as it was recorded in the studio so the listeners can hopefully submerge themselves in the live performance, in this concert, in the same way that they did when they listened to the records. And I’ve never done that before.
“Will I be following the same arrangements of the records? Yes. I will be. Of course, there will be surprises along the way but for the most part hopefully people will be able to submerge themselves in the live show in the same way that they did in the record,” Seal added. “We’re kind of toying with the idea of actually following the running order of the actual record. That would go a long way to contributing to reliving that experience of at what point in your life were you when you were listening, essentially I guess soundtracks to that chapter of your life. If we could keep the running order that would go a long way into creating that.”
As thoughtful as Seal is to the questions asked, he’s takes an extra beat to consider our questions about Horn, searching for the best words to discuss the impact his friend and mentor made on his career.
“Trevor was perhaps the most influential figure, person, in my life for the period of time we were working together up until being one of the most influential people in my life to this point, in every way – not just as a producer but as a kind of elder brother that I never had. As somebody who I was able to communicate with, a lot of the times with an unspoken communication,” he shared.
“And then I always felt safe as an artist knowing that I was in Trevor’s care. When you think of being artistically creative or adventurous you don’t necessarily think of being safe. In fact, it was Bowie who once told me when you are unsure about what you’re doing artistically and there are doubts and you feel unsafe, you’re generally in just about the right place.
“When I use the word safe, what I mean is when you have a producer that is first of all a brilliant producer and secondly an experienced producer, when you have someone like that who’s got your back, who doesn’t shoot down your ideas no matter how wacky they are, then, as an artist, that encourages you to be free. It encourages you to try anything because you’re never really presented with the roadblock of, ‘Well, no, you can’t do that,’ or ‘No, that doesn’t work,’ or ‘Actually that’s not technically right.’ I mean, those words never passed Trevor’s lips ever. That’s what it was like.”
Horn’s influence may have fostered Seal’s own passion for mentoring. He’s been a coach on The Voice Australia and enjoys helping young artists find their paths to success.
“I’d like to say I’m putting it forward or kind of doing it solely for the purpose of music. And I am doing it for those reasons but first and foremost the idea of mentoring is mainly because I love it. I love being able to look at an artist the same way that I’d be looking down a corridor of time, maybe some 20 or 30 years ago, and see myself. If there is a hurdle or a block in that young artist’s journey that they can’t see, more often than not I find that I can and I love being able to help them transcend that block by just telling them things that I wish people had said to me and in some cases they did say to me.
“You know I’ve been really fortunate in my career. I’ve always had great guides and timely guides that have come to me and helped me in the most uniquely surprising ways. And that’s kind of really highlighted the collaborative aspect of music for me,” he continued. “I’ve often said that it doesn’t really matter whose name is on the marquee. If you look deep enough you’ll find that whatever it is you’re listening to or looking at or enjoying a performance of it’s a collaborative process, a whole team of people from managers, producers, coworkers, engineers, family, friends, strangers, passersby, unlikely participants- the whole thing is a collaborative effort.”
That group effort creates great music. We turn our attention to Seal’s biggest hit, “Kiss From a Rose” from Seal II. After its release, Seal created more music, taking some brilliant turns into classic soul and pop standards. But “Kiss From a Rose” was such a hit – bolstered by its use in a Batman film – that we have to spend a few minutes discussing the track. I share an anecdote about how it was played for at least a year on repeat at our house. It was the first song my son truly loved and impacted his own career as a musician.
At first, Seal actually did not love it, he said. He pondered the song for a moment and, in his cool, measured, distinctive voice, said this about his biggest hit:
“You are lucky in that you come from a country that has this incredible concept, it’s a rare concept known as The American Dream, which is basically the thing that makes us all function – it’s aspiration, it’s dreams, it’s hope, it’s wanting for something better, something magical, something else.
“It’s one of the things that attracted me to America before I got here,” he continued, “and I was just so amazed to experience or benefit from that dream by coming to this country. So this is why I feel whilst you don’t necessarily have to be a philanthropic kind of Mother Teresa as an artist- I mean, we can all get carried away as artists, ‘Oh, we’re saving the world and blah blah blah,’ and ‘Oh, how important what we do is,’ – you know, I don’t know about that. I don’t really take it that seriously. After all, it’s only music.
“However, I do believe that it’s really important, if you were lucky enough to benefit from that dream, meaning wherever you are in the world, however you came to prominence, if you’re lucky enough to transcend things that could possibly hold you back by way of creating something or being part of a creation that has brought you so much success and so much happiness and so much satisfaction and achievement- if you’ve benefited from that by way of the public, it’s really important to keep that dream alive.
“It’s really important that you don’t disappoint, that you don’t disrespect that dream, that you don’t break or destroy that concept,” he added. “And I’ve always felt really strongly about that which is kind of why it upsets me when I see artists who kind of throw it away for whatever reason or who get there and feel that the whole thing is free, that I have a right to be an asshole or I have a right to disrespect it or to throw it away. Sure, everyone has a right to what they do with their lives but there’s also a responsibility that comes with that dream and it is to let people like your son be influenced.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wasn’t always fond of that song, ‘Kiss From a Rose.’ I didn’t really feel it was representative of my style or what I was aiming for as an artist. This is of course before it got really successful and then I changed my tune,” he noted. “But I was never really a fan of it, I didn’t think it was that good and you know, as fate would have it, it ends up being the thing that kind of turned me into a household name and has brought me so much happiness. And I never used to like performing it, you know, before that.
“Over the years I’ve come to love it and understand how fortunate I am to just have one of those songs that affects people in that way. So when I do perform it I do think of how it is affecting people or how it has the potential to make a difference in that one person’s life no matter how many times I’ve been singing it. It still has the potential to do something, to keep people dreaming. And I think as artists we could all kind of benefit from that, from perhaps looking at our great fortune that way.
“It’s not entirely free, there is a responsibility that comes with it and it’s really simple. All you’ve got to kind of do is keep your nose clean and not be a jerk. You don’t have to do anything out of the ordinary, you just have to – even on those days when you’re not feeling it – you’ve got to remember the person who has bought your piece of music or loves your piece of music or who’s coming to see you, you’ve got to remember that’s not their problem. They’re coming to see you because they’re dreaming about something and they want to see if its real. And all you’ve got to do is just sing the damn song. That’s all you’ve got to do.”
Seal performs hits from Seal, Seal II and other songs from a 36-year career Friday, April 28 at Bayou Music Center, 520 Texas. With The Buggles. 8 p.m. $49.50 and up.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
