With a Special Performance by SEAL
Lupus LA is thrilled to feature multiple Grammy award winner Seal as the entertainer for Orange Ball 2008. London-born Seal released his fifth album, System, last November on Warner Bros. Records. With its shimmering melodies, glistening layers of synths and acoustic guitar, and up-tempo electronic beats, System “is a return to my roots,” Seal says. “My first album was upbeat music that you could dance to, and I kind of departed from that as time went by. I also wanted to return to the guitar, to the very first instrument I wrote ‘Crazy’ and ‘Killer’ on, and get back to the fundamentals of what I really love to do. What I care about now is the same thing I cared about back in 1990, which is songs.”
Though System is primarily up-tempo, those who are drawn to Seal for his emotional, romantic love songs, such as “Prayer For the Dying,” the Grammy-winning “Kiss From A Rose,” and “Don’t Cry” (all from 1994’s Seal II), and “Love’s Divine” (from 2003’s Seal IV), will also be delighted. Married since 2005 to Heidi Klum, with whom he has three young children, Seal says his newfound domestic bliss has certainly influenced his music, as can be heard on two ballads, the duet he performs with his wife, “Wedding Day,” which he wrote the morning he wed Klum, and the searching acoustic guitar and string-driven “Immaculate.”
“Family, my wife and children, that’s my reason for being,” Seal says. “Everything is done with them in mind, so perhaps that’s the reason this new album is up-tempo. It does feel like a celebration of life. I am finally in a content and happy place to the point where I feel like I need to sing about it. It’s made me want to address things that are close to home.”
It’s also part of the reason Seal titled the album System. “Myself and the people close to me are all part of a social system and we were being conditioned to accept the status quo. But on this album I’m saying it's time for us to take charge. We can change it. We can take control of our emotional system and be happy.”
“My point is,” Seal says, warming to his theme, “don’t just sit there and allow life to happen to you. Go out and take charge if you want change, but it begins closer to home.”
