Parlé: What is the meaning of your song “Sharks in the Water”?
VV Brown: I was trying to be cool and create some kind of street lingo. If you have a problem or your anxious about your boyfriend cheating on you or perhaps your best friend is sleeping with your boyfriend or you don’t quite trust your business partner any type of paranoia you would then use the phrase maybe there are “Sharks in the Water”. That is generally what the song is about.
Parlé: What is your favorite track on the album?
VV Brown: My favorite track is “Back in Time”, it shows a more serious side of me because the album is very playful and melodic, but “Back in Time” is very intense and it is a window in to what my second album will be. It will be a little more adult, a little more mature sound rather than a very fun sound.
Parlé: Do you feel like a celebrity?
VV Brown: I don’t believe in celebrity. I believe in human beings and I believe we all shit, vomit, sleep, wake, live and die. I’m a very real person and I will never be a celebrity. I will tell every one that I’m human and I’m just like a doctor or nurse in fact they are better than me because they save lives, I just make music. So, I don’t feel like a celebrity I just feel like VV.
Parlé: Which artists in the industry would you like to work with?
VV Brown: I’d love to work with Imogen Heap, Will.I.Am, Damon Albarn from the Gorillaz and Outkast’s Andre 3000. I think it is important to work with artist that may be different from me to create interest in me. Maybe Andre 3000 isn’t a good collaboration for me, it be too obvious. But Will.I.Am I can’t deny is dope. I think we would be really great together. I actually wrote him a letter when my album went #1 in France. He was staying in the same hotel as me but I don’t know if he got it.
Parlé: How did your parents feel about you becoming a musician and not attending college.
VV Brown: They were worried. I think the thing that was on their side is being Caribbean and living in England setting up your own business from nothing especially in a time where there was a lot of racism. My parents have a very successful school in England and they came from nothing so they know the hussle because they know how it feels to have people tell you that you’re crazy, what are you doing opening a school in England and you’re two black people, but they saw the entrepreneurial thing in me so they couldn’t tell me no because they have gone through it. Now they are excited and relieved because I’ve been trying to do this for a very long time. I gave up a place at Oxford. I was going to study law, but I gave it up to do music. I had my first music deal which didn’t work out. I lost everything, I bought a house back then and I lost it. I’ve been through so much this hasn’t happened for me overnight. So, I think my parents are more relieved that things are starting to happen.
Parlé: Let’s switch gears, Who is your celebrity crush?
VV Brown: I have a huge celebrity crush but I can’t say his name because I know him. I have to say no comment because if he reads it, I won’t be able to be friends with him anymore, but I adore him.
Parlé: Maybe we can hook it up?
VV Brown: It’s not going to happen that’s why I don’t want to say his name because I don’t want to cause trouble and the thing is even if he wasn’t a celebrity I mean as you can tell from getting to know me that actually puts me off. If he was walking down the street homeless and I sat down next to him on a bench it would be the spirit.
Parlé: Are you addicted to any online social networks?
VV Brown: I used to be addicted to Twitter but I’m on strike because I feel like we are consuming ourselves with ourselves massaging the ego and constantly talking about our present state of mind, I think it is unhealthy. It is great for promotion but the whole idea of saying I’m eating a burrito is scary to me. I’m doing a comic book at the moment called “The City of Abacus” and it is very much about that. How technology is numbing the mind causing us to be less socially active with each other.
Parlé: One final question, where can we go to listen to your music?
VV Brown: You can go to Itunes and buy the album or VVBROWN.com, Youtube.com and to read more about the comic book go to www.thecityofabacus.com
image 2 by Peter Garcia for Parlé Magazine
Written by Shanique Byrd
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