Joe: Who? [Interview - Blues & Soul]
Published WorkPublished March 11, 2008 at 11:23 PM No Comments
Joe Thomas is throwing his last name out there in a conscious bid to join the ranks of first-and-last-name soul legends whom we lovingly refer to as Marvin, Stevie, Luther; because Gaye, Wonder, and Vandross helped to pave the way. The influence of Marvin Gaye is apparent in Joe’s ad-libs and he cites “I Want You” as his favourite Marvin album, explaining “That’s the same one with (the track from which we sampled) “I Wanna Get To Know You” on it. When they played the record for me I said ‘It’s an honour to do this’, I’d been waiting for someone to give me a Marvin Gaye track to be on. His style was just unmatched.” That 2004 collaboration, which used the addictive chorus of Marvin’s “Come Live With Me Angel”, had soul purists grudgingly slipping the G-Unit track into their assorted playlists.
Talking more about his inspirations, Joe divulges: “My mentors were the artists before me. I started listening to more Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder records, listening to the differences between the two and what made each one special. What made Marvin special to me was his simplicity; he didn’t do all the extra riffs but he had a lot of soul and a lot of passion. And Stevie, in a sense, gave a more technical offering. You really had to be good to cover Stevie stuff. He’s a one-off. He gives it to you and it’s not gonna be done again, ever again this way. You can’t possibly match the way he sang his records. With Marvin you could kinda get it, you could probably match his tone – but what you can’t get from Marvin was his soul, his vibe.”
