E-mail a friendAmerie
airdate July 13, 2005
Amerie's musical tastes, ranging from jazz to hip-hop and R&B, are showcased on her newly released sophomore CD, 'Touch.' A 'military brat,' she's lived all over the world and has a view that's unique, compared to most singers in her genre. Amerie studied dance and started entering talent shows in third grade. She gained an appreciation of the classical arts from her mom and of R&B from her dad. She says she wants to put her Georgetown University English degree to good use one day by writing her life story.
Amerie
Tavis: Amerie is a talented and beautiful young R&B artist whose first CD, "All I Have," produced the hit song "Why Don't We Fall In Love?" Her sophomore CD's in stores now and is called "Touch." The CD features collaborations with Nazz, Eve, and 'Lil Jon. Here now some of the video for the title track 'Touch.'
Tavis: Amerie, nice to have you here. How are you?
Amerie: Thank you. I'm good. Thanks for having me.
Tavis: I'm glad to have you here. Those who watch this show regularly have heard me say this 1,000 times, so y'all forgive me, but my dad was in the Air Force for 37 years and one of the things I regretted I'm such a--I'm part of a large family. I have 9 brothers and sisters and I think it must have been an economic hardship that my parents and the Air Force knew they would engage in, so we didn't go nowhere, I started on one Air Force base, I stayed on one Air Force base all the way through school, didn't go nowhere.
Amerie: That is unheard of.
Tavis: It's unheard of when--when you got 10 kids, you can't afford to go nowhere anyway. The Air Force was like, "Naw, y'all got too many kids to move around," but enough about me. I raise that because you are an Army brat...
Amerie: Yes.
Tavis: And you went everywhere, so where all have you lived?
Amerie: Well, I was born in Massachusetts, but I was there for maybe 8 months, so I don't know how much that really counts, but Korea, Germany, all over the states, Texas, Alaska, I went to school in D.C., and Virginia, not school, but my parents were there. It's kind of weird 'cause when we started getting older, everyone kind of started going to their own place. My sister went to college, she went to Hampton, and I went to Georgetown in D.C. And my parents were in Virginia, so I've been all over the place.
Tavis: And you are of mixed race.
Amerie: Yes.
Tavis: Your father is...
Amerie: My father is black and my mom's Korean.
Tavis: I raise that for 2 reasons: one--I'll come back to that in a second.
Amerie: Here we go.
Tavis: No, no, no, put a pin in that for just a second. I want to come back to the issue of moving around, first of all. I've always believed that one of the best ways to be educated as most of us, I think understand, is to be exposed, to travel, to try and live different places and do different things, taste different foods, just to experience life in that way. As an artist specifically, what do you think that exposure has done or does for you on a regular basis?
Amerie: On a regular basis, I think, well, the main things is everything that you said. As an artist, you're travelling a lot. Instead of every 3 years, you're moving every 3 days, so it's a little different, but it does make that kind of--growing up in that way does make you more open-minded, I think. It makes you a lot more receptive to different foods, different people, and you're meeting so many different people all the time. I've been to Japan, where the culture is very different from western culture, you know, Europe, which is still different from America, the United States. It just makes you kind of more aware of your surroundings and more sensitive to other people and their culture.
Tavis: OK, speaking of culture--thanks for the segue. I appreciate that. We live in the most multi-cultural, multi-racial, multi-ethnic America ever. You've got fans all over the place of all races. Is there a particular thing you think you gain from being of mixed race in the world today especially? That's a Tiger Woods thing, you know.
Amerie: Oh, well, you know, I can say I've had the benefit of being able to get the best of both cultures, you know?
Tavis: Did your parents both press that into your upbringing?
Amerie: It's funny because when I was growing up, I never felt like I didn't belong and this is just my own experience. Of course, other people who are mixed, they sometimes feel like they're not one or the other, but I guess being in the military, your friends are all mixed up, so you don't feel like something's weird or you're strange or anything, but I was always taught that this is who you are, you are what you are. Your mother's Korean, your dad is black. You're both. You're not just one and if you were just one, you wouldn't be who you are.
Tavis: So, mama, daddy, nobody had the upper hand in pushing the thing on you...
Amerie: No, but--no, no. Well, Korean was my first language, actually, 'cause I lived in Korea at the beginning of my life. So, I spoke only Korean, didn't speak any English until I was a few years old. And that's only because my mother stopped speaking Korean when we moved to the States so I could learn English, you know. But culturally, we ate Korean food. We didn't wear shoes in the house. My mother says my mannerisms are really Korean. That's what she says.
Tavis: Can you still speak Korean since you stopped so many years ago?
Amerie: Yeah, a little bit.
Tavis: Yeah, don't start, now come on, now. Don't embarrass me on my own show, just you can speak Korean and I can't.
Amerie: There aren't that many sentences that come after that. The conversation's really short after that, but you know, I learned a lot about Korean culture. My mother's very Korean. She's not extremely Americanized; however, Korea is very much Western. It's kind of changed a lot, but obviously, my friends were pretty much black, most of them. I had mixed friends, though, as well. I had some friends who were white, Asian, White-and-Asian, Spanish, Hawaiian, Islander and black, Islander and Asian, just everything, you know? But I had definitely a great upbringing. I never felt like I had to choose one.
Tavis: Somebody was on this program the other day and they were just putting out their sophomore album as well, and I asked them the same question I'll ask you now. How do you avoid that sophomore jinx because that's what everybody's afraid of, that second one in trying to do as well as the first one?
Amerie: Yeah, that is true. Actually, there were 3 years in between...
Tavis: That's a nice, long break, especially for the kind of music that you do because the stuff changes so quick--what you did yesterday, ain't nobody tryin' to hear today or tomorrow.
Amerie: That's true. The fads and just the trends with music, that's changed a lot and 3 years in entertainment time, 3 years is like a lifetime.
Tavis: That's like dog years or something.
Amerie: Yeah, it's like dog years, but I took some great opportunities. I had an opportunity to do "The Center" on BET I did that for a few months, I did a movie with Forest Whitaker and Michael Keaton and Katie Holmes called "First Daughter."
Tavis: Stop right quick before my time runs out. You gotta tell me the audition story for the Forest Whitaker movie is hilarious. I read about this. Come on, go on and play yourself, play yourself right quick. You tried to play me speakin' Korean, now play yourself.
Amerie: I went to a reading and, you know, OK, I guess a lot of people who are in the acting world know this, but I didn't know that.
Tavis: You didn't know what a reading was. What did you think reading was?
Amerie: You go in and you read the piece of paper. I thought that you go in and read the piece of paper like you're in it, so I went the first day and I had the paper and I'm just like--they're like, "Are you ready?" "Mm-hmm, I'm ready." I'm like... "I can't believe they da-da-da-da-da," and like, the whole time, just getting all into the character, but I'm here.
Tavis: You didn't memorize nothin'.
Amerie: And then I was done. I was like... and he was like, "You know--" 'cause Forest has a very distinctive personality. He was like, "It was really good, you know, but I think...you're doing yourself a disservice, you know, if you can just maybe come back and you kind of memorize..." and I was like, "I thought it was a reading." I thought you read at the reading.
Tavis: All right, I ain't gonna let you play yourself no more. I'm gonna end this conversation right now. Anyway, she's figured that out and now, she can do whatever she wants to do on the screen, anywhere on the scene, now on this, the new CD from Amerie. It's called "Touch," in stores as we speak. Nice to have you on the program.
Amerie: Thank you so much.
Tavis: Nice to meet you. All the best to you. That's our show for tonight. I'll catch you--you can catch me, for that matter on public radio this weekend, PRI, Public Radio International. See you back here next time on PBS. Thanks for watching. Good night and keep the faith.
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