Smitty: Yeah. I love the melodies with the lyrics. I mean, it just blends and flows, and it really sort of bends the mind to really think about your surroundings. It’s very cool.
MS: I’m glad you like that. I mean, I was trying to write like a bluesier song. And blues evokes to me usually a consciousness about someone’s being and well being, which is usually having not the greatest of moments. That’s what the blues is about. It’s speaking from your soul usually. And I’m glad you like that for that because that’s talking about people that are real to me, I mean my neighborhood.
Smitty: Yeah.
MS: People I hear talking and it’s the truth and just put that into a kind of a bluesier way that I think that everybody can relate.
Smitty: I just like that reflective vibe where you can listen to some great music and reflect.
MS: Oh, that’s cool.
Smitty: I think it’s very cool. Speaking of great players, you don’t go anywhere without George Duke and I don’t blame you.
MS: Hey, you know what? I’m one lucky girl and I’m blessed every time I come over to his house and say “Gosh, George, could you help me on this?” (Both laughing) He’s always got such open arms constantly and his wife Corinne, they have been great motivators to me spiritually and in friendship, and it’s just a wonderful gift that they’ve always given me, whether they could just be friends or they could help me through my musical times.
Smitty: And it transcends very well in the music. You can feel that, and George’s presence.
MS: I do too. I hear that too.
Smitty: Yeah. And George has such great presence musically, you know? As a person he’s just a great cat, you know?
MS: You feel it no matter what, exactly, me too.
Smitty: And Russell (Ferrante) and Jimmy (Haslip) are two of my favorite musicians ever.
MS: Because they’re so good. I’m so blessed to be with them.
Smitty: Yes.
MS: All these years too, you know?
Smitty: I know, yeah, you are so blessed because they bring so much to the table as people and musicians.
MS: And we laugh about everything, you know? We did this song called “Icebox” and it’s a serious subject about people, maybe they were dissed in life with a bad love affair or a bad marriage or something like that, and then they take everything they have and they put it way back inside them, you know.
Smitty: Yeah.
MS: They lock it up, you know? But at the same time we were going “Okay, how do we do this?” and Jimmy goes “Well, there’s like a bass line that’s like, you know, ‘Love Supreme’” and we have fun, it’s just really a lot of fun to write with him.
Smitty: Yeah. Speaking of that song, it’s got that nice bebop kind of feel.
MS: Exactly.
Smitty: I try to understand where you’re coming from when I’m listening to your music. You know, I say “Okay, let me think about what she’s saying here,” “How can I apply that to me when I’m listening to your music?” But then I find myself sort of snapping my fingers and sort of dancing around a little bit. It’s like oKAY…
MS: Yeah, okay.
Smitty: Oh, that is so cool.
MS: Can’t have one without the other.
Smitty: Exactly, yeah, man oh man. Now, the title.
MS: Yes?
Smitty: Talk about why this title was chosen because I thought about this title, Innocent of Nothing, and I was just thinking, does this mean that you’re innocent of not sitting back and watching the world go by without talking about it?
MS: Well, it comes from the lyrics in “Moods,” which is a song on this piece, and it’s really about that, I’m innocent of nothing, I’m guilty of everything that I did on here, and I’m happy to do it. And I’m happy to make some choices that maybe some people are gonna say “Well, it kinda goes from one thing to the other,” but I think music is just universal and there’s no reason why a person can’t feel all these things and try to put a thread that puts them all together a little bit, then that becomes who they are no matter what. So I’m guilty of everything that’s on here and if someone is like very questionable about whether it’s good or bad, well, I take responsibility. I’m glad I did it, I’ll probably do it again, and that’s what makes up me and it comes from the lyric “Moods” it’s in the lyric “Moods”….and it’s about sometimes your moods are innocent of nothing, you know.
