THE OBSERVATION BOOTH / By Andrea Dialect OP-ED
Portfolio Review
What is a soulful person?
A presence that is timeless, reliably calm and detached from the daily drama that pulls us in many directions. A person who can be in touch with the Self throughout most days is what we call a soulful person: a personality of inherent beauty and serenity.
What does it mean to have soul in singing?
Music that originated in African American gospel singing is closely related to rhythm and blues and is characterized by intensity of feeling and vocal embellishments.
What is a soulful song?
Something that is soulful expresses deep feelings, especially sadness or love.
The adjective soulful is used to describe things that express strong emotion, especially a kind of sadness or tenderness. You might enjoy soulful poetry – Andrea Dialect Googled That!
Powerful vocals and a soulful voice; wow what a combo. In all honesty, I felt that all the above pretty much encompasses the persona of the lovely Gail Campbell. She has a very earthly quality about herself and genuine appeal. All in-which resonates boldly in her life and her music. Here today in this space we get to take a peek into the world of Lady Gail!
SOULFUL SYNERGY…
Gail Campbell: Recording Artist, Songwriter, and Performer
Debut Album: Bloody Waters
Sophomore Album: due to drop June 11th Entitled: Let My People Go
Singing is a part of my identity and DNA. My mother is a singer, and we have other singers in our family. So I kind of grew up around singing. I grew up in Essex County throughout my life living in Newark, Irvington, and East Orange. When I started grade school, there was a choir and a chorus, and that’s when I started to sing. I think that’s also when I started to identify with being a singer. When I became a high schooler, I became a soloist in the school’s choir, which began to fortify my identity even more. It was around that time that I started singing professionally.
The first time I sang in front of an audience other than at the school was when I usta hang out with a bunch of rappers. We were like a collection of groups. At the time, I was in a group with a female rapper named Pretty Vain, and during that time, there were a lot of talent shows at clubs like Club Eighty-Eight and Elaganza and stuff like that. Rappers from the area would come on the nights of those talent shows. Those shows were where it began. But I wasn’t singing; I was rapping. The first time I sang in front of an audience was around my twenties.
Unlike most singers, I wasn’t raised in the church; for me, there was no church choir. My grandmother was saved and in the church and I went with her a few times but that was about it. But now, I can truly say that church has had the most profound impact on my life and my singing. I mean by its building me up as a person and a singer. I found Christ in my early thirties. I found God for myself, and I began to sing in church. In a short amount of time I realized that I was anointed, and God changed my voice from what it used to be. That’s when I learned how to worship with my gift.
The difference is what people hear now. You hear aspects of that change. Things started happening for me straight off as soon as I said yes. As soon as I decided that I was not going to be afraid anymore and I was going to pursue this. Once I got a yes from God, things started happening for me immediately. But it took decades to get that, yes; decades for me not to operate in fear and to trust. It took a lot for me to get to that point because I was a big talker and not a big doer. To know that God gave me something and my knowing that He was going to do it made all the difference.
I stepped into it when I did “Fire “with my husband Savior. That’s’ when I decided that I wasn’t going to let fear, doubt, people’s ideas, or anything else stop me and doors started opening, even though I was just coming on the scene. I was being looked at and respected as a veteran in this game. That’s because God was ready to do a quick work in me.
Whenever I sing weather in the studio or on stage, I pray beforehand, and I ask God to sing for me. The people that I record with… Danny Laporte DML Studios, My Producer Stanley Ipkiss, my husband. Anybody that has ever been in the studio with me, they know my process. Whenever I go into the booth, I close the door, and I get down on the floor, and I thank God for allowing me to live my dream. I thank God for giving me the ability to open my mouth and move people. I ask God in the name of Jesus to sing for me, through me, and I surrender to him; because I don’t have trust in my own ability.
I feel like I’m God’s instrument. Through me I let him express himself. I trust that he hears me and that He says yes. When I go into the studio, my songs are already written. I have the bones. A couple of times, depending on the song. The stuff that I can’t write down, those things in my head; for example, if I’m using a lot of adlibs. I’m able to do the more creative things in the booth, but for the most part, usually, the song is already written.
On a usual day my pastimes are full of leisure because my life is very full. Music is not the only thing going on in my life. I’m in ministry; I have a family, the music, and a day job. So because my life is so full when I have downtime, I take advantage of that. I shut all the way down because I’m always so busy. So when preparing for something or planning the next thing; whether it is a shoot, the next video, doing the next show, or preaching the next sermon.
Afterward, I’m simply doing something that will build up my spirit. If I’m not doing any of those things, I shut myself down. I close myself in my room; get in my bed, and rest. I understand the value of rest and, I don’t want to burn myself out.
My advice to anyone in pursuit of anything is that you get there, when you get there, and you have to be honest with yourself. The weird thing about fear is that many of us aren’t willing to admit it. So many of us live in denial, and so we have a bunch of excuses for why we’re not doing this at this time and were not aware that it’s fear or procrastination. It was those things for me, and I couldn’t put the cart before the horse.
When I started to pursue a relationship with God, he revealed these things in me when I was ready to hear it and admit it and say, okay, God, what we do. That took a pretty long time for me. It may not take that long for other people, but I had to do things in order. So there were other things that I had to get right. There were something’s that God wanted right with me before I could even think about going on with singing and all.
So by the time I got on the scene, God had fortified me in so many ways and had done so many things in me, now I’m ready. Because it is not about me being brave enough to go on stage. The question was, am I strong enough to use my voice and to deal with the business aspect of things? Do I know who I am? Do I know how I want to create? Am I strong enough to stand on that, or am I going to be a pushover like I was for so many years when letting other people’s vision take precedence over what I know I want to do in my heart?
When starting your journey or wants just go for it, don’t give up, and let God do what he wants to do in you. For me, it wasn’t about the singing. The singing was the byproduct of all the other work that had to be done. So that I could have a song to sing and I could handle what I was asking God for. He’s not going to say yes to me, and I get in those rooms in front of those quote great men, unquote that my gift made room for, and then I can’t handle the room. Or I could sing, but I don’t have any confidence in myself, or I have no integrity. God did a holistic thing with me.
Now I know my true identity. I know that people know me as a singer, but that’s not who I am. That’s one of the things I do as an artist, and I know now. Because if we don’t know, we can get trapped by personas and other people’s expectations, and when it’s time for a new season to come, we won’t do it. Because we’ve locked ourselves into an identity and we don’t’ know who we are. People are going to think that you’re stalling, but you’re doing the spirit work, and they’re not going to understand. Be okay with that. I had to get things in my life in order for this time, for when I got on the scene. Now I’m ready.
The Gail that I was in my so-called prime like the industry would want. You know twentyish. When they’d think I was marketable, it wasn’t the time for me. The Gail that I was then was not strong enough. I didn’t have the belief in God or myself at the time, and I believe that the industry would have chewed me up and spit me out. I can’t argue with the reception that I’ve gotten. How many people take to me and believe in me and are down for me with the support.
I would sometimes ask God, “Why are you doing this in this stage of my life?” I know its God because no one’s concerned about my not being twenty. You know me and the Lord had this conversation, and he said to me, “Now you know who you are, and this industry isn’t going to chew you up. Do you know how many of your peers came to me and had the same prayer. And they made promises to me and they got into this industry and it did them dirty and they ended up turning from me. Because of their choices, their lifestyles, they became conflicted. So many put their trust in money and things. So many put their trust in other people, and they used them up. But that’s not going to happen to you because you’ve wrapped yourself in me and not man!
I want the riches, yet so many have gotten rich, but they didn’t get the real riches. If I have to wait like the children of Israel before I can go in and occupy, then so be it. No industry person, no rules about what I’m supposed to look like can stop me if God is for me. I thank God that we said yes, you and I, and we agreed to have a life full of art, beauty, and creativity.
One day I was talking to a friend Al Jacobs aka Al Boog (Black World Films); he’s doing a documentary on me. I said to Al how dope it is that we get to play for the rest of our lives. I mentioned how some get to play when they’re children, and they don’t play anymore when they grow up.
We get to play dress-up; we get to shoot videos; we get to do this dope, fun, creative. We get to live our lives and be surrounded by art. I said what’s better than that, and he smiled. Many say art, that’s not realistic. For Gail, it’s what makes it bearable for me to go to my day job every day. Just because I know that I have all these interesting things that I do and, that I love.
When they see us out there doing stuff, many people are in awe of it. They say you really came out in these streets to do something dope. They don’t understand that they could do the same. I didn’t realize it or understand that I could do it for myself either for many years. But, now in all honesty, I can say. Yes, you too can do it!
