Cris Cab is a 21-year old singer/songwriter from Miami, Florida whose single “Liar Liar,” which was co-written and produced by Pharrell is a huge hit in Europe and is about to hit radio waves here in the states.
I want to rewind to the beginning of your career, the beginning of Cris Cab. Tell me about the first time you realized you were musical?
I guess I started playing the guitar at the age of 10 years old. And I just played hours and hours and hours and eventually began to write and sing and somewhere along the way I was like “Wow, this is all I do and I really want to get serious about it.” And that was probably when I was about 14 or 15 and I was starting to record my own music in my bedroom.
And so do you consider yourself a self-taught guitarist?
Yeah, for sure self-taught pretty much in everything. I just play by ear.
Speak about making music in your room.
Yeah I was about 14 or 15 when I got my little 8-track recorder and that’s what I started with – just recording guitar on top of guitar and then bass line and sometimes drums.
Are your parents musical at all?
No, I mean my parents aren’t really musical. My mom actually drives in silence most times and my father, he did grow up playing a bunch of disco music from the Motown era and stuff like that.
So your dad was the more musical one.
Yeah for sure, have you seen “Saturday Night Fever”? He was like the young John Travolta.
Pharrell has been a big part of your career, how did you first link up with Pharrell?
I first met Pharrell, when I was about 15 years old and I was introduced to him by a friend of ours, a good friend in Miami. He actually wasn’t in the music industry at all, but he was nice enough to take me to studio and I was able to play Pharrell some of my music and that’s what I did. At first he just gave me advice, like focus on telling your story and figure out what you want to say and say it clearly and very descriptively. And then he was like focus on picking some great chords to make different feelings throughout the song and different emotions throughout the song and that comes through great chords. And then he told me that if I wanted to get into music that it was a sacrifice. It takes 100% of your time and energy and It has to be.
Did you keep in touch with Pharrell after that fist meeting?
Not really. After that I really focused on what he had said and eventually was able to get into a proper studio and started doing some real recordings. And eventually about a year, year and a half later, the word got back to him that I was still making music and he heard what I’d done and he was just really blown away and proud and impressed. He saw that I took his advice to heart, essentially. And since then he kind of took me under his wing and began to teach me about producing and writing and all that stuff.
Would you consider Pharrell a mentor?
Yeah I do consider him a mentor, a great teacher and a great friend of mine at this point.
And obviously he’s a musical collaborator because you’ve worked together on music.
Yeah we have a few songs together, actually.
In February 2012, you released the “Echo Boom EP” and it had some great collaborations like “Turn You On” (feat. Melanie Fiona and Shaggy) and “Echo Boom” (feat. Pharrell Williams).
Well that EP was we wanted to keep the fans engaged. At that point I had been on a few tours – I think like 3 or 4, and we wanted to keep the fans engaged and give some new music and I had some new music I was working on at the time and so we were able to get a lot of great artists on the project who really did it out of love and it was that kind of thing. I was able to get Wyclef on there and a few songs with Pharrell and Pharrell actually had a verse on one of the songs that I produced and wrote and it was just a great, great little mixtape.
Tell me about your singing style. I really like the texture of your voice.
Well first of all, I have a raspy voice that plays a huge part in the texture, the sound, the vocal, and also the kind of singers I grew up listening to were very emotional singers and showed a lot of the grit and a lot of the texture in their voice. They weren’t so smooth. They weren’t going for the smooth thing, they were going for emotion and to show what they were feeling. Bob Marley was a great inspiration for me, so he’s definitely someone I look after vocally on a huge level. And another inspiration for me was Marvin Gaye and two completely different styles, but so much to learn from both of them.
A lot of your music is reggae infused. Where did your passion for reggae come from? How did you discover it?
Well the passion for reggae comes from me growing up and spending a lot of time in the Bahamas, since I was like 7 or 8 years old, and we spent so much time there. And at one point we would be there like every other week and my father was a big fisherman and we were always over there fishing and doing that sort of thing. It was at a very early age.
It was just being on the island.
Yeah you know it was just being around the locals, hanging around the island. I remember one of the first songs I ever heard was “Jammin’” by Bob Marley and I just noticed how everyone was feeling so good to the song, and vibing and dancing. It was just a great song and that was something I felt, so it was just the first music that really captured me and Bob Marley was one of the first artists that I dug deep into and I really listened to a great deal of his music.
You’ve also collaborated with Wyclef. He remixed “Good Girls” featuring Big Sean and he’s featured on “She’s So Fly,” from your “Rise EP,” which was released in October 2012. Tell me tell me about working with Wyclef and how did you first connect to him?
Wyclef I connected to with when I was 18 years old, a little later. At this time a little later in my recording process, I’d been recording for a while. Actually a great friend of ours introduced me to his publicist and his publicist actually brought my music with her when she went to visit Wyclef, ended up playing him my music and him really enjoying and actually that same night he ended up sending me a little video on his iphone saying “Yo, I really loved your music, I wanna work with you and everything,” and I was blown away cause at this point I was a big fan of The Fugees and Wyclef.
He’s legendary.
Even Carlos Santana, another artist I enjoy, he’s done so much work together with Carlos, so at this point I was a huge fan and it was really amazing, just blown away, you know I felt so honored and so fortunate to be able to come to New York and to fly and go to his house and just learn from him. And at this point we were recording inside his movie theater. He had a little studio set up in his movie theater. That’s where he started teaching me a lot.
So tell me a little bit about your songwriting process, cause you obviously play the guitar. How do you like to make music?
Well for me it usually starts with the guitar, cause you know the guitar is almost like an instinct for me, it’s a way for me to express myself the easiest, since I’ve been playing for so long. So I would usually wake up really early. I feel very creative very early in the morning, like 8 or 9 AM, so that’s when I’ll start writing stuff, and riffing, and coming up with little ideas, and go from there to the studio, like at 12 or 1, and at that point I’ll come and have some voice notes on my phone of little riffs I played throughout the morning and even some melodies, or just some ideas, or even maybe have a concept and I’ll bring that into the studio. Usually I’ll link up with my production partner and start going through some drums and different drum sounds, and from there I’ll essentially start writing up my songs. Usually sometimes I freestyle some stuff or even write it. I’m very freestyle based and even playing the guitar and from there I’ll start free styling whatever comes to or whatever I’m feeling or whatever the emotion the chords bring out. Cause sometimes it’ll be a minor tone and from there I’ll just feel out what kind of stories the guitar is telling.
Now let’s talk about “Liar Liar,” which is a huge hit in Europe and about to hit radio waves in the States. Tell me about the inspiration for that song.
I wrote the song almost 3 years ago now. I wrote it with Pharrell and we essentially just wrote the song about a guy who finds a beautiful girl and starts to see her, but really doesn’t know her too well and gives her all his trust very quickly as guys do and eventually finds out that she’s sneaking around, misusing his trust, and he finds out her true personality. And that’s what the song is about and of course an amazing baseline that really takes you through the song. It’s a great baseline that Pharrell came up with and of course I’m playing guitar throughout the track and that’s really just a great collaboration between Pharrell and myself and Pharrell, what’s so great about him is that he just knows how to get inside what the artist is really about and what they want to come across or what message that they want to spread out and what their vision is and he is great about getting in there really and enhancing that.
Was he always going to sing background vocals on “Liar Liar”?
He really has a lot of backgrounds and his backgrounds are great. And what’s great when someone else is singing your background harmonies it gives it a completely different texture and a completely different vibe. He’s actually not so much on the hook, but he’s really on the bridge and you can hear his smooth harmonies throughout the bridge, especially at the end of the bridge going into the last hook, you can hear all these harmonies and you can get a lot of Pharrell, there’s like 5 Pharrell harmonies. Yeah and maybe one of mine you know. And his breathe is still in there as well and a few different things like that, you can definitely feel his presence.
Tell me what it’s like to work with Pharrell in studio?
Working with Pharrell is great, he’s very talented and very musically wise, that’s what he has. He’s almost like a Yoda in the music game. He’s been around for so long since such an early age, started in the marching band and then eventually worked with some great people like Teddy Riley and ended up producing and making some of the greatest songs that changed the music industry. So working in the studio with him is great cause he has all this knowledge and all this wisdom. And the cool thing about him is that he doesn’t try to dive too much and force … Like I said, he listens to what you are and what your vision is and is great about adding and bringing into that. Of course, you learn so much from working with him.
What have your travels been like in Europe, you’ve been doing radio, you’ve been doing all these gigs everywhere, how has that been?
It’s been amazing; the response has been really great to the song and to the album. I’m just seeing so many fans in places that I’ve never been. It’s really amazing, you know? It feels incredible just to have all these fans show up in places that you’ve never been. It’s really cool.
Artist-wise who would you like to collaborate with?
Artist-wise someone I’ve always wanted to collaborate with is Lenny Kravitz. I really enjoy his music and I just feel like what he does could complement my music in a great way, add something different in the same way Pharrell’s different style adds something to my music.
Who is another cool producer you have worked with?
Producer wise, someone else I’ve worked with greatly is Dallas Austin. He’s amazing, he’s definitely someone whose influenced music greatly. I just learned a great deal from him as well.
So tell me how you linked up with Dallas?
Dallas, he actually started working for the label and they showed him my music at the time when I was still in the recording process. He really dug the vibe and at the time I was meeting a bunch of producers in LA and someone from the label called me like, “Oh Dallas just started working here at the label, you should go by and see if you guys vibe.” And that’s what I did, I went by and met Dallas and it was really cool and we instantly just hit it off. Went to go work with him in Atlanta at first, then I went back to LA and just came up with 3 great songs for the album, actually.
Oh so he did 3 songs for the new album?
He did some post-production on “Liar Liar” actually and he helped me produce and write “Fables” and also “Loves Me Not.”
Tell me about collaborating with him in the studio and what his process is like?
Dallas is really great, man. He likes to have fun a lot. That’s what I learned from Dallas. You gotta have fun and experience a lot of fun stuff. Go out and have a great time and bring that back to the studio and use that energy to write and make great music. In the case of “Loves Me Not,” it happened so smooth and so chill, we were all in a vibe. Sometimes it takes a little bit, we made 8 or 10 songs in total together,
Your progression seems to be the reverse because although you’re an American artist your song “Liar Liar” has become popular in Europe before the US. Are you excited to be bringing the single to the US?
Well my whole career we’ve had this natural approach on it and not try to rush anything and that’s what we did with the single as well. We were like let’s make a great music video and let’s just make a great song and worry about that. Just worry about that the music and the music video and put it out there. And then wherever we saw smoke per say, run and attack that and that’s what we did. Took off in the Netherlands and started playing everywhere and really took off in Holland. And you know everywhere else really followed after that. France, Germany, and Italy, so that’s what we did, we attacked it right away, as soon as we saw something happening … We went out and we started seeing all the radio stations and all the magazines and all the local press. We really spent the last 6 months there … playing in front of anybody.
You’ve also opened for a lot of cool acts like Lorde?
I’ve played at a show with Lorde … also Ellie Goulding was someone I got to open up for over there and I’ve played with Stromae a few times. He’s like a Broadway performer, he acts and sing.
And so what has that experience been opening for acts like Ellie Goulding?
It’s been amazing, working with all these people, and seeing them perform. Just having the opportunity to reach out to their fans was really amazing.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned on the road?
Sleep as much as you can … it’s difficult and then sometimes you load up. Some days I get like 12 hours and 13 hours of sleep, some days I’ll have none.
Are you based in Florida still?
Still in Florida, Miami. Lot of family there and I grew up there and it’s so close to the Bahamas as well. I just really enjoy that. Eventually I think that I’m going to travel and switch around where I’m living for a while.
So your album “Where I Belong” what inspired the title?
The album was named after one of the tracks, but the reason why I decided to carry it over and name it the title of the album as well is because I feel like it really represents the period of time that I spent working on the album and recording and it was from 17 or 18 till now, 21, and I felt like it was a time of learning and growth and also discovering who I was and what I wanted to represent, what kind of music I wanted to make, so it was definitely a period of self-discovery. I think that title was so fitting for it.
So you feel like you’re where you belong now?
Not yet. At least I want to show people where I’ve been.
Okay so we’ve talked about Dallas Austin, we’ve talked about Wyclef, we’ve talked about Pharrell, but producer-wise who else would like to get in the studio with?
Producer-wise someone I’ve always wanted to work with is the dude who does all the Dave Matthews and Aerosmith stuff Steve Lillywhite, I’m a fan of all the stuff he’s worked on and such … Tell him to come out to the Bahamas and let’s make it happen
Do you have a studio in the Bahamas, too?
No not currently, but we are working on a portable recording studio and my family, has some property out there.
What was the inspiration for your new album?
The inspiration for the album was showing people who I was and where I belong, you know it was a lot of songs about heartbreak; love, of course finding yourself. “Fables” is a great song that talks about life and how it is when you’re young, you got to risk it all to have a great time and just discover who you are. There are a lot of songs like that on there, mostly what I try to carry into my music is positivity and spread that kind of message.
Since “Liar Liar” became a hit in Europe has Pharrell congratulated you?
Yeah he’s great. He’s always in touch and that’s the cool thing about Pharrell, he’s very thoughtful even though he’s always so busy, he’s so quick to respond and everything.
Cool sitting down with you. Any final thoughts?
No, just make sure to follow me on Instagram, on Twitter, and on Facebook, you know just Cris Cab no H please, C-R-I-S C-A-B. I know that’s a shocker, but the H doesn’t make any sound anyways so I got rid of that. It’s more efficient. Efficient names! That’s the way of the future.
