Shanice Wilson is a modern day R&B legend. She has been making beautiful music since she was a teenager. The R&B chanteuse is back with a new album titled Every Woman Dreams.


How long did it take you to record your new album "Every Woman Dreams?"
Shanice Wilson-What I did was the second half I recorded those songs after I had my daughter four years ago. The first half of the album it took me like maybe a month to record the first half. I was just in the studio everyday just writing and recording writing and recording every day. So it took a month or a little over a month to record the first half.

I was looking at your website while I was preparing for the interview and I notice that you have your own record label now and you mentioned the constraints of a major label. As an artist at a major label what kind of constraints did you face?
Shanice Wilson-Well for one thing when you have your own label you see money from day one, from your first record sales. When you are with a major label you are constantly recouping the money that they spent on the project. Sometimes they can spend millions of dollars on one project. You are just constantly paying back the record company all of the money that they spent and you don't make money until you pay them back all of their money. That was one thing and also I feel like having my own label I get to do things the way I want to do it. For instance I co-wrote on this album 12 songs and I co-produced half of the album and I just had total control over my image, the music, just everything. I just felt like for the first time in my career I was able to be myself. In the past I feel like some of those songs weren't me they were the label. So…those are things I kinda had to deal with.

The imaging and the styling and everything with this project just seems so on point. How did you go about assembling a team for this project?
Shanice Wilson-I feel like God just put every… everything just fell into place. I met with a writer her name is Freckles and she has written songs for Janet and R. Kelly just everybody and she hooked me up with the engineer that I worked with and she hooked me up with the stylist. The picture of me on the inside with my finger in my mouth, she hooked me up with the stylist who worked on that and the stylist hooked me up with the photographer. Everything just started falling right into place.

Will you go on the road to promote this new album?
Shanice Wilson-Yeah I've been on a promotional tour but I definitely want to go out there and do a live tour with a band this summer.

I had your fans send in questions and although slightly different most of them came back to the same thing. How will you manage going onto the road and mother hood?
Shanice Wilson-I've been thinking about that. Normally on the promo tour I'm on I'm gone for the weekend and then I am home for the week but when I do this tour for the summer maybe have my mom to tour with me because my daughter is going to be out of school for the summer, I have to have my kids with me. I can't be away from my kids.

The Dixie Chicks are taking their kids with them and they have like 6 or 7 kids between them.
Shanice Wilson-Yeah they will just have to roll with me I can't be away from my kids. When Flex was working on One on One I would take the kids down to the set so they could watch him working. I think it's kind of cool to include them.

One of your first songs I really remember because we are in the same age range is "I Love Your Smile." What was your career like at that time?
Shanice Wilson-Very, very, very busy. "I Love Your Smile" was number one is 17 countries and it was a really big song for me. I was never home. I was always on the road whether it be in Europe or Japan, I was just traveling a lot. Just busy, busy, busy.

I know you told me you recorded half of the album several years ago and half later on in between that time did you go in the studio or do any recording work?
Shanice Wilson-Yeah I kept writing I have a writer that I work with his name is Jamie Jazz and he actually worked with me on the second half of the album. Yeah I didn't just stop. I didn't like take a four year break and just start again. I kept writing songs just to write because I love writing.

How did you get back in such great shape after having children?
Shanice Wilson-I box twice a day. I took a boxing class and my class is very intense. It's a class that's an hour and a half and it's just straight boxing for an hour and a half. The music is really, really fast and you have to box to the beat and I mean I lost weight really fast in that class. Laila Ali took my class once and she told me my class was really hard and she is a professional boxer. I'm still not where I want to be so I have some more working out to get to where I want to be but that is how I lost the majority of the weight. I took carbs out of my diet. I stopped eating bread and no friend foods no fried foods. Grilled chicken, grilled fish, vegetables you have to eat every two to three hours to keep your metabolism going so you have to eat to keep it up.

You've been doing this since you were a teenager and now obviously you are an adult. What is the difference between doing this as a teenager and now as an adult?
Shanice Wilson-Well the difference is when I was a teenager all I wanted to do was sing. I didn't care about the business part of it I just wanted to be up on stage and that was it. Now that I am an adult I am more involved on the business end. It's challenging. Back then I didn't care about anything but singing.

Is it a challenge being a part of a celebrity couple in the entertainment industry?
Shanice Wilson-For us no. My husband and I before we got married and got together we were best friends. We only officially dated for four months before we got married. We had such a good friendship and we still have that same friendship that we had before we got married and I think that's important. We pray a lot together and I think prayer is what holds any marriage together. We are in the industry but we are not of the industry. We don't let the industry phase us.

This is a fan submitted question I don't know if you will remember this but they said "Ask her if the song she did with Darius ever came into fruition from the Family Matters episode."
Shanice Wilson-Oh yeah. No we just did it on that one show and that was it. As a matter of fact I just saw Darius recently at a funeral and his uncle actually wrote the song and he brought it up to me not too long ago but we never recorded it.

Do you actually have time to write back all the fans who write you or do you try? (fan submitted question)
Shanice Wilson-I try. On my Myspace I actually take some of the messages and I talk to them on camera so that I can get back to everyone.

I think I know the answer to this because I saw it on the website. You did some acting in the 90's is this something that you plan to pursue again?
Shanice Wilson-Yes. I've done Broadway, television appearances actually I did a BET movie called One Special Moment. I definitely want to do more acting. I would love to do acting in film. When the right script comes along I am definitely going to take the opportunity.

What was it like working with Sheila E for the remix on this current project?
Shanice Wilson-She played percussions on the first song and it was so exciting for me because when I grew up I was the biggest Sheila E fan. I saw the movie Krush Groove and I wanted my hair like her and everything. So to have her on my album was exciting. I was trying to act cool in front of her but once she left I called all my friends like, "Oh my God I just worked with Sheila E." It was exciting. She is so down to earth and she is very spiritual and before we even started recording we prayed together and it was just very pleasant working with her.

Do you have any plans in the future to manage or produce any other artists?
Shanice Wilson-Well we have our own label so I definitely want to sign other artists. I don't know if I would have the time to manage an artist but I would definitely like to sign them to my label.

The last question. Your first album Discovery was 19 years ago. What have you learned being in the industry this long?
Shanice Wilson-The main thing that I have learned is that you have gotta have and you have got to be yourself. Don't try to be something that you are not. I say this all the time I am just so happy that with this project I can just be who I am. Over the years I have always tried to please the record label there were always songs they tried to force on me or certain looks they tried to force on me and I think I have learned it's very important to be yourself and back in the day I was so shy I was scared to tell them I didn't like this song or I didn't like this look I feel like it's important to be who you are and not be forced into something that you don't want to do.

Listen to Shanice discuss what she has learned

Related Links-http://www.shaniceonline.com/
www.myspace.com/imeshanice

Shanice Wilson interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, and Thabiz.com 2006
Dorrie Williams-Wheeler is the author of Be My Sorority Sister Under Pressure and the Unplanned Pregnancy Book for Teens and College Students. She is the founder of Thabiz.com and Imissthe80s.com and writes for the Rap, Teen, and 1980s section at Bellaonline.com. She is an ASCAP member as a writer and a publisher. Please contact Dorrie for advertising inquiries, lyric writing inquiries, reprint rights, paying entertainment jobs, or general comments.
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Shanice Wilson interview may not be reprinted, copied or distribute without permission. You may link to this interview.Interview copyright Dorrie Williams-Wheeler, thabiz.com June 2006.