[INTERVIEW] Eric Roberson: “Mr. Nice Guy Finishes First”
For the ten of you reading this who still listen to the radio, it may not even dawn on you that R&B is in a state of transition. The Trey Songz and Chris Brown‘s of the game are flexin’ their rap bravado alongside their panty-droppin’ anthems while the tried and true crooners of the game are finding more love on the road than on the airwaves. Looking to bridge the gap is New Jersey’s own, Eric Roberson. Also known simply as Erro, the singer-songwriter honed his skills at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and has since toured the world bringing his blend of audio-visual soul to the masses.
After penning songs for talented acts like Jill Scott and Musiq Soulchild, appearing alongside the talented DJ Spinna and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Erro is releasing his own material entitled Mr. Nice Guy. The fifteen track excursion into home-brewed soul is a continuing testimony to the path that Mr. Roberson has forged for the past 15 years. In our exclusive sit-down with the talented tenth performer, he talks about his humble beginnings, the benefits of staying dedicated to one’s craft while going for higher education, and how up-and-coming performers can learn a lot by trusting their “spidey senses.”
Interview by Kevin L. Clark (@DLYDJ)
The Well Versed: It’s a pleasure to chat with you, Eric. For the fans and people familiar with your sound and music—can you bring the uninitiated up to speed with what you’ve been up to for the past year or so?
Eric Roberson: Well, y’know, for the last year I’ve been recording my new album, which is entitled Mr. Nice Guy. It comes out next month and we all just had a great time with that. My wife and I also recently had a son, so we were waiting for him to come into the world, and celebrate his arrival. So, while I was at home twiddling my thumbs, I just turned the equipment on and started recording again. Now, I’m picking up with the shows again in hopes of letting the people hear the new album. We released a song called “Summertime Anthem” during the summer and we dropped a song called “Picture Perfect,” a few months ago, featuring Phonte from Little Brother, which is pretty much the single for the album.
TWV: What would you say was the signature thought behind calling the project Mr. Nice Guy? It’s kind of a unique statement to make in this day and age of music…
ER: [Laughs] Yeah, well I think the album is just a reflection of myself going in that direction. Myself and a lot of my homeboys all consider ourselves to be nice guys, y’know? We try to remember what our parents taught us and apply it to today’s world. A lot of the album was inspired by a spoken word piece by a good friend of mine named Wali from Columbus, Ohio—funnily enough. I always liked the piece, so when I was working on the album it inspired one of the songs, appropriately titled “Mr. Nice Guy,” and it set the tone of the direction of the album. This project has a little more of a comedic standpoint in certain areas. It’s a little looser and lighthearted than the other albums that I’ve previously released. It’s not necessarily too much of the “nice guys finish last” standpoint, but I wanted to put in that us nice guys can finish first, y’know what I mean?
TWV: [Laughs] That’s good to know! The kind of climate that R&B has been in for at least the last two or three years. There are song that would even make Marvin Gaye blush, y’know? Can you speak on where you see the music heading to from this current state? Where would you like R&B to go in the next few years?
ER: When you look at independent artists and their music versus the majors, I feel like it’s all in a good place. There’s so much amazing talent that I run into that I feel we are in good hands to carry the art form into the future. There are so many artist who I’m listening to and they haven’t even put out full-length albums yet. I do know that in the next couple of years, we have some amazing music in the front of us, just staring us in the face! I feel good about that. Concerning the business side of things, I think we need to rededicate ourselves into making sure we find the true R&B and continue to entertain the R&B fan of any age. My father is a huge music fan and the culture isn’t really catered to him anymore. They’re not directing any major airwaves towards him. Everything is not really even directed to people in our age group! I would hope that the business would try to be as open-minded and as dedicated with love as the artist are in R&B. One thing about Soul Music and R&B is that we never really follow too many rules. Even before hip-hop was out and about, we explained in song what was going on in our community and culture.
I think you could even get back to that. We see what’s going on. We know we have friends who are not doing too well. Whether it’s with their houses, or their jobs, going through a divorce, or whatever—y’know we can make inspiring music. Music to uplift the people! I think that that will become more contagious in the next years and in the future to come. Even with “Mr. Nice Guy,” the song salutes and tries to be uplifting, instead of just talking about how cool I am and how much I can drink for a day. That’s fine too, y’know?! Everybody just needs a balance of it all, in my opinion, and getting a well-balanced musical diet seems to be available in the independent R&B music movement. I just believe that it could be more balanced from the business perspective.
TWV: Just for the record, you’re an Howard University alum, right? How do you feel school has given you the style or characteristics to be able to navigate the entertainment industry—which is totally another school of thought?
ER: Definitely! HU! Stand up everywhere! Howard University—you know! Not Hampton… not Grambling! I’m a Howard man! I remember the day when I was walking down the hallway and I said, “Man, Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack walked down this hallway!” They probably sang while walking down it! I came in the year after P. Diddy came, so just off that energy alone, there’s a level of confidence that is embedded in those hallways. Not to mention, so much talent from singers, actors, and entrepreneurs make Howard University have such a good vibe. I learned so much musically while there, but at the same time, a lot of the relationships, musically, that I built there—I still have now. On this new album, as well as a lot of my previous work, there are guys that I met my freshman year. We all had our little keyboards in our dorm room. We still work together. We still have a tight-knit bond in this business. That’s the one thing I know I can’t say other schools necessarily have and, specifically with music, it’s a really, really strong point. You’re going somewhere in life and you know people have been signed to deals from the school you’ve attended. That’s a major stepping stone that culminates in following your dreams and getting the education to boot.
When you have that kind of history and that kind of potential, there’s a level of work ethic that comes along with it. There are guys that are pretty much working in studios in-between class, having equipment stored in tier dorm rooms, and that’s part of the culture. It was there before I got there, it was there when I left, and it’ll be there when I am gone. That’s the good thing! At Howard University, there’s just this great camaraderie of creativity that’s prevalent there.
TWV: Since you brought up creativity, we have to mention your work with former Kent State University student Blitz the Ambassador. Have you two been able to catch up since then?
ER: It’s funny you said that ’cause he did my show at Soul Village! That’s where I actually first met him and we became good friends. I haven’t spoken to him in a while, quite honestly, I think it’s only been once this year. We definitely keep up from time to time. We usually see each other on the road. He’s a very talented guy. You talk about good energy? Well, he’s a good guy all around, and you just know that he’s going to be around in the business for a long time.
TWV: True, true… It was in those beginning moments of working alongside him where “Couldn’t Hear Me Over The Music” was being played on high! What were some of the most exciting moments in that time leading up to The Vault 1.0 and 1.5, respectively?
ER: At that time, I was just really trying to understand the business. Like many others who get into this game, I’ve had my fair share of ups and downs, and they’ve made an impact on my life. There have been some promising months and years, and some very cold and broke months, as well. So, a lot of that time was just me rededicating my focus. I wanted to find myself, but ended meeting myself in so many different ways. I had already built a nice career as a song writer and it got to a point where you know most of the A&R’s in the business. Most of them had no interest in signing me as an artist because “that’s Eric Roberson—the song writer.” It was a really big learning lesson for how I had to reinvest in my own career to get myself to a different place in life.
I wasn’t satisfied with where I was at musically, so I started buying equipment. I slowly started building it all up. It was an exciting time at that moment because I became a more intense studio rat. I would spend days, weeks, months at a time just in the studio creating. I don’t have that luxury anymore now that we got kids and tour schedules to take care of. But to discover a song like “Couldn’t Hear Me Over The Music,” which I wrote in the shower, I learned the impact of how a good song makes somebody feel. It was just a good time, man. I poured a lot of myself into my music wholeheartedly in every aspect of the word. I still follow that same process to this day, but those were just good times! To really discover myself and for fans to learn who I was gave me a challenge to do more. Honestly, after my first album Esoteric, I was just going back to producing and songwriting again, but the people wanted more from it. Now, we got our eighth album coming out.
TWV: So, can you talk about what else is on the album, who else you worked with? That type of rigamarole?
ER: I worked with a lot of different producers on this album. Rich Harrison, who I went to Howard with, actually did the title track “Mr. Nice Guy.” Denaun Porter of D12 absolutely loves soul music. So, Phonte introduced me to him, and he started sending me stuff. We did some collaborations together. Jean Baylor from Zhane and I did a song called, “How Would I Feel?” There’s also a group from Chicago that I’m extremely excited about people hearing. They’re called The Ones and we did a song called “Come With Me,” it just feels really good. One of my heroes growing up, Chubb Rock, collaborated with me on a song called “Summertime Anthem,” which was a dream come true. There’s a whole bunch of collaborations on this album. Hezekiah was one of the producers on the album, but he also did a song with me. He’s an amazing MC from Philadelphia. So, while it may not have been ginormous names or anything like that, this album is full of people who I feel are extremely talented. We were able to get together and do some real nice music.
TWV: Speaking of Philly, some of the most interesting people you’ve collaborated with from there are Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, and DJ Jazzy Jeff! Talk about what it was like to work with “A Touch of Jazz.” What were some of the things that you learned during the development of those albums?
ER: Yeah, man! “Touch of Jazz“… I can’t say enough for how much it helped me to develop who I am and who I’m set to become. It started with the artistic freedom that I was allowed to have there and just blossomed in those four fully equipped studio rooms. We just worked, y’know what I mean? We worked for years down in that basement of a building and we weren’t really landing any songs at the time. We were just developing ourselves; names like Dre and Vidal, Carvin, Ivan—they are all huge producers. It really shows you that there was such a camaraderie down there, but the development of talent was so important. I remember when Jill walked in for the first time, I remember when she just walked in the door. We all fell in love with her. I remember when Musiq walked in for the first time. I remember seeing Raheem DeVaughn cut his first song there.
There are all these amazing memories from that time and Jeff is always so creative and amazing at managing all the egos in the room. We are still very good friends to this day and I’m really appreciative of that time. I don’t know if we will ever have that moment again, but it was just a beautiful period, and I feel honored and privileged to have been a part of Jill’s album, Musiq’s album—all that. Just to be around while they were creating those albums was one of my greatest gifts that I received from music.
TWV: If you had to give an aspiring musician a “Top 5 Do Or Die” rule handbook on what to do and what not to do while making your first album—what would you say?
ER: Well, you know, I think step one is following your heart. You polish your craft, first and foremost, I can’t speak enough on how we worked very hard to perfect what we do and practiced. It helps a lot! So that when it’s time to write and to perform, you’re as prepared as you possibly can be! When it’s time to do your album, make sure to follow your heart! Trust your Spidey senses. If something doesn’t feel right—don’t do it! If it feels right to you, dive in and give yourself wholeheartedly to it! At the same time, understand that this is a business and always talk while creating. There’s no problem when after finishing a song discussing who did what. I can’t tell you how many people can get any four guys in a room, each one picks up an instrument, and then three or four months later—the song becomes a hit. Now everybody has to remember what they did, which is bad for business. You know there’s that one guy who just sat there and played PlayStation.
It doesn’t hurt to understand that this is a music business and it’s not bad to talk about the particulars—especially if you’re all friends. I have seen so many friendships get ruined over a penny. A simple conversation of who did what would have alleviated any future expectations. Another misconception while making an album is that you know because it’s a good album that talking good business isn’t healthy talking points. No, it would be a disservice to not talk business.
TWV: Congratulations again on the birth of your child, Eric! Has there been a point like that in your career where something unexpected happened? How did you react to it?
ER: I have had some amazing moments. I haven’t had a DJ Spinna/Stevie Wonder moment, but I’ll tell you something that’s funny. I travel to London every year to participate in a Stevie Wonder tribute around his birthday where myself and several other artist perform his songs. The last one we did, which wasn’t too long ago actually, we killed it. I don’t know what I would have done if Stevie actually had showed up. That would’ve been crazy! Another unexpected experience was again in London when I was performing and the crowd sang along to “Change From You.” They were so loud that I started hearing them and eventually I just took a step back and just listened to them sing the whole song to me. That feeling, man… You can’t bottle that up! It was one of the most humble moments in my career. To have your music sung back to you by the crowd that you’re performing for, it’s an amazing experience.
I was literally the fan watching them perform! It was such a good feeling, man. I recall when I met Kelly Price, whom I am a huge fan of, and she knows my music and has an appreciation for it. You just can’t trade those things in for anything else. I’m also a huge fan of Lalah Hathaway and when I first met her, as a fan, I was just mute. Now, that’s my friend… I have a duet with her and, y’know, it’s crazy to think about that stuff sometimes. That type of energy is just unheard of these days. I pinch myself at the opportunities that I’m allowed to have and I’m really thankful for it.
TWV: That brings us to the last question, E! If you could have a picture perfect moment musically — whether it be a feature or collaboration — what would it be? How would you describe the experience in one word?
ER: For me, it’s really been about the balance of my family, as well as my career. My son is a year old. He’s already been to London with me; he’s been to Los Angeles twice with me and Atlanta. I bring him with me as much as I can. A picture perfect moment would be to be performing in front of a sold out crowd with my son, my wife, and my family all in attendance. I can be on the road, I can sign CD’s, I can even hug and share stories with my fans, but I can still tuck my son in and wake up with him in the morning. That, to me, is the musically picture perfect vision I have.
Make sure to follow @TheWellVersed and @IAmEricRoberson on Twitter! “Mr. Nice Guy” is in stores today. Go cop that!
