14/09/2024 – When I had a talk with George Brown, with him explaining about the celebration of the 60 years of Kool & the Gang, I could not imagine that it would have been one of his last interviews; almost one year later, we have however the opportunity to finally listen to his first solo album, Where I’m Coming From. A unique chance to listen to him with a sound showing different colours. And while we would all have wanted to know directly from him what this meant to him, this work comes posthumous. Yet, there is a person who can offer some invaluable insights about the artist, someone who lived the last decades with him, sharing so much of his life: that’s his wife Hahn, whom we had the opportunity to interview.
But first, a few words about Where I’m Coming From and its songs. If, on the other hand, you would like to skip to the interview, please click here.
Kool & the Gang: 60 years in the pursuit of happiness – interview with Robert and George
George Brown was a founding member of the legendary band Kool & the Gang, and of course the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. That’s a very “physical” work. Yet it would be very simplistic to stop ourselves at this. Where I’m Coming From certainly shows some similarities with what we can hear with Kool & the Gang, yet here George Brown also has the possibility to play his music in different ways, and sound very different.
Thus we may find quite a few slower ballads, which still feel very good for dancing, funky songs, tracks that are perfect for those chill moments. All in all, Where I’m Coming From is an excellent choice if you just want some beautiful relaxing music.
Among all these tracks, there is one song that stands out from the rest, and that’s What If. It’s the kind of song that, if you’re listening to it for the first time, might go unnoticed. And then you will find yourself singing it or thinking about its lyrics.
Some songs in this solo album feel like they were made “the old way”, not following some current, market-driven musical tendencies. You may read what Hahn Brown said about this in the following interview.
Where I’m Coming From also sports an amazing executive producer, Claude Ismael (who previously worked with artists such as Toni Braxton, Aaliyah, Barry White, JoJo, Frank Zappa, Youssou N’Dour, Rita Marley).
There is not much to be found online about his life and biography, thus we at XtraCult are grateful to Hahn Brown for answering our questions and sharing something about him, about their life together.
During the interview, Hahn Brown very often used the present, when talking about George, as if he were still alive. We kept the past throughout the whole interview, for uniformity and clarity purposes, but would like to share this nuance with our readers.
1) What kind of person was George?
On stage, he was a showman. He was truly a showman, who was there to entertain the people.
At home, he was a private, reserved person. A family man, a loving man, in many ways.
Music was his art, and he still carried that home.
He was very spiritual, truly, deeply, and he just didn’t have one religion, although he believed there’s only one God. But above all it was about learning for him, in every aspect. He studied Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, he studied everything. From there he had educators: I remember him, when he would sit with a rabbi to show him the path.
And that’s who he really was, a man of faith. And that kept him humble. But he also was an educator and passed his knowledge on to his peers and students, to the musicians he worked with.
He also loved to talk and share his knowledge. I remember George and I would sit and he would share with me his wealth of stories. He was such a wealth of information. That is for sure.
2) How were things in his last months? Did anything change?
In the last part of his life he continued to believe and feel that he needed to be back on the road. He wanted to be out there with Kool, he wanted to be supporting Kool, as he was his brother. Even up to the very last day of his life, he thought about his partner. And you know, he still looked forward to be on stage, he wanted to be better. He didn’t change, and never gave up. That was something.
It stuck to his heart and to his core. Until the very last minute, he wanted to get better.
3) How much did you peer into his creative process? How much did he partake of that with his family?
George was a gifted person, and he wrote from experience. He felt that the greatest songs are experience and life challenges and what’s out there, so that people can relate.
So throughout his time, if he wrote a song about me or his family, especially if it was me, he would come in and say: “hey, I wrote a song about you, honey.” And I would say: “oh, really? Let me hear it.” And I would ask: “why did you write that? What made you write that?”
But if it was something personal, if it was something about what he went through – as George was a private man – he would not share his deep feelings or his sadness. And the only way he could express that was through his music. And it was from the soul. His soul.
And he wanted people to understand and see that side of him. Basically, he was telling people: “hey, I’m human. I do hurt. I do feel. I’m not that kind of rock star that people imagine that I don’t feel anything, living in a fantasy world. That fantasy world is only on stage. And at home, I still suffer. I still feel pain. I go through exactly what you go through. I have a family that I’m not always there for. And that hurts.”
He couldn’t be home for his children. He couldn’t see his children. Most people would say: “oh, I can see my first child, his first steps”. He wasn’t there for all of that. So it’s painful.
So he expressed that through his lyrics. And there are some happy moments as well.
That was our life. Before the children, that was young love. And so he was able to share that. And I think besides his first marriage, which he shared with his first wife, and as life went through, leading up to me, he was able to share a lot of that, since that was almost 30 years of our life together.
You know, there were a lot of changes in his life, and he went through a lot of challenges of a more mature stage of life. So he kept writing, he shared life experiences, what he went through, those who influenced him, his grandmother, the love he had for his girlfriend prior to me, his love for religion.
4) When did George start working on his solo career?
It started over 20 years ago. It started with his dear friend David, who was his lawyer in his younger days. David saw the gifted person in George, his creativity and amazing writing.
And David said: “Hey George, you should try, you should think about making your own solo album”. And I think George took that to heart.
And that was over 20 years ago or beyond, you know, I think it was a long time in the making.
You know, artists and musicians, very often they are very insecure, questioning their own gift.
So George started writing and all his creative work just stayed in the vault (or the can), as he, we would call it.
So he would write pieces and then come in and say: “oh, listen to this, listen to that”.
And, you know, it was amazing. And I would ask him: “hey, when are you going to release that? Are you going to compile 10 songs or 12 songs and put it out there for the world?”
And he would be like: “no, I’m not ready for that”. Or he would say, “it will come and time will come”.
And I would always wait. I’d keep waiting and waiting.
Also, when writing songs, he would say whether he would save it for the band or for himself.
And so I think the project started, like I said, over 20 years ago. And it just stayed.
The second single, Shawty’s got, he wrote it over 20 years ago. The first one, What If, it was more recent.
But in this solo album there are songs that have been there for a while.
And there are more songs that have been in there.
And then especially his jazz album, there are songs that have been sitting there.
So it’s just a compilation of work through the years of his life.
George decided to keep this to himself, because he wasn’t sure how it would be received.
5) Considering the first single coming from this album, What If, we immediately feel the spiritual side of George. But when we keep on listening, we realize that this is also a very “physical” work, very much in the tradition of Kool & the Gang. So it feels as if George always managed to keep these two sides of him alive.
Yes, he did. You know, when I first met him being on stage, being a performer, he told me you have to be open and you have to keep certain parts of your life private.
That’s because people, when they came to see art, they just came to see art. They came there to hear the music that made them feel good. So that it was nothing but a neutral ground so they could enjoy that freedom.
And I think that’s why people didn’t see that spiritual side of George. But underneath all that showbiz, underneath all those costumes he had in his necklace, he would have the star of David. He would have the cross. He would have the AUM sign. He would have all sorts of religions.
So even though he could express it to the world and what type of man he was and all that spiritual side he had about him, he decided that he was there to entertain people. It was about the people. It wasn’t about him. They didn’t come there to see his spiritual side.
And then at home, working on this solo album, what he created, it was named This is where I’m coming from. I think this title is perfect, because that’s what he is and what he was and where he came from was about the spiritual side, the love and and that’s what he also wanted to share.
Underneath all that writing, what you saw of him on stage and what people didn’t see, this is who he is or who he was. And he was a family man at the end of it all.
6) Did he let you in about what he was trying to achieve with this new album?
George was trying to achieve the creative side of him, what he has to give. And there was a lot to give.
Being with a band, and in general when you’re collaborating with partners, you necessarily have to leave a little bit out so the others can add.
And then, like I said, it wasn’t about himself. He was always thinking about all the others.
George wasn’t a very selfish man. He would always say, you know, you gotta give. It’s better to give than to take. And those were his words of wisdom, it’s better to give than to take.
Therefore, this album allowed him to express himself to the world, to show his gift, to show this different creative side of him, that he wanted to share.
As his mother or grandmother would say, this child is gonna make something out of himself.
So now you can listen to his whole self, him as a whole, not just leaving a little glimpse behind.
And this is why the sound is so different.
7) When I had that talk with George, in our interview, and asked him about the pandemic, he explained everything he did to have people around them safe. Indeed, I really had the impression of a very caring person
Yes, he was. The last album under Kool and the Gang, was truly brought, with what he wrote and produced, with people in mind.
He wanted, you know, because of COVID, he wanted to come back with the music, because everybody went silent for two years. We all went silent, the world went silent for two years.
And with everything coming back, he wanted people to go out and have fun.
You know, we all needed to come together and and enjoy life again.
And that’s what the album was written for. It was to get everybody back to share and live life and not to be afraid, because COVID got us all to be afraid.
And we, everyone lost so many people, many loved ones that, you know, it took us backwards.
It took us in a hole. And so he wanted people to come back out and say: “hey, you know what, let’s put out something that people can have fun with until people live”.
So enjoy.
And even at that moment, you can see he was thinking about the people, he was thinking about the world and that album was meant for the people who want to have fun.
8) As much as in the last album with Kool and the Gang, for which he explained how these generations were intertwined, in this solo album we can hear some young artists as well
George didn’t like to write alone. For years, he told me that. Ever since I met him, he could go in a room and write a song in a few minutes. And we’re really talking about a few minutes.
It was already in his head how it was going to come out.
But he explained me that, you know, it makes an album very dull and makes you sounding the same if you don’t collaborate with people.
You know, he was a visionary man.
Especially Shawty’s got, it’s a song that is over 20 years or so, and is still very modern sounding, meaning that he could hear and see what the future holds. So that was very impressive.
I was amazed by that, what he could see in the future. So he collaborated with a lot of young folks.
And I mean, being around young people, it was not just a matter of young or old to him.
I think it was more of the creative side of that person, that’s what drew him to the individuals.
And George explained music today is not like what it was for him, decades ago, when many classic hits were created. But he would collaborate with them to hear them, to see what they have.
So he would always bring in talented musicians.
9) Was he particularly attached to some specific tracks in particular, for some specific reasons?
The What If song has been written for the world.
I think that’s what he wrote because there was so much going on in the world at that time, with the war in Europe and what’s going on in Ukraine. It really touched his heart and it was just sad.
And since George was such a sentimental man, that affected him a lot, such was his the pain of seeing people suffer, losing their home and children passing. It really hurt him.
So I think he went in to write that song for that reason, for the war in Europe.
And through his own pain and suffering, through his own turmoils and changes, and through his most painful moment, he reflected back on his grandmother.
And he wrote music for me, as you would listen to the album, bits and pieces of it. As for me, I can pinpoint where he was coming from.
So, that’s what I would have to say about this: there’s moments of pain, moments of joy, and moments of reflection.
I think he wrote it all from the heart. It was his heart that he poured out. But some songs touched him more than others.
Related articles:
Kool & the Gang: 60 years in the pursuit of happiness – interview with Robert and George