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Pop’s original bad girl, Ford,
to play Hartford
Willa Ford has a new album, “Sexysexobsessive,”
due out in
early 2004.
More than two years after her debut
album caught fire with the
hot single "I Wanna Be Bad,”
Willa Ford is looking great and full
of energy as she trades verses with
rapper Lady May on her
brand new single and video, "A
Toast To Men,” a sorority
anthem that says, "(Heck with)
the men, let’s drink to us.”
But while the music is infectious
and Ford is clearly having a ball
taunting males with her sexy body,
the video clip is a far cry
from where the pop singer was as recently
as 6 months ago. For
several months starting in November
2002, Ford was chronically
fatigued from a variety of factors,
including her own tireless
work ethic.
Battling with her label to include
more rock elements in her
music wore on her, as did the poor
diet that often comes with
extensive touring. An abusive relationship
and another where a
guy cheated on her didn’t help
matters.
Ford, who was diagnosed with depression,
discussed her
experiences candidly in a Nov. 10
interview at Lava Records’ New
York City office. These days, the
singer — whose latest album,
"Sexysexobsessive,” is due
out in early 2004 — takes an
anti-depressant called Effexor SR.
Now, she’s back on track and
ready to perform at a radio show Wednesday
at Hartford’s
Meadows Music Centre.
"This is the other side of
Willa Ford,” said Ford, referring
to her
bout with depression. "It has
nothing to do with my music,
except for the fact that when you
listen to this (new) record,
there’s some deep places that
I was in and you can hear it
through my voice. You can’t tell
from meeting me, you can’t tell
from knowing me, you can’t tell
from being around me.
"I looked in the mirror and
I was like, ‘There are two ways
I can
go now. There’s the way I need
to go, that God would want me
to go. And there’s the way that
basically would just numb
everything,’Ÿ” she
added. "I chose the better path.
This is not
something that you want the public
necessarily to know. My goal
in telling people this is getting
the other 20-year-old chicks that
are going through this in college
to get help rather than turn to
drugs and alcohol or suicide.”
Born Amanda Lee Williford on Jan.
22, 1981, Ford grew up in
Ruskin, Fla., a country town outside
Tampa. Mother Donna
helped her husband, Ralph, work on
the family’s fruit and
vegetable farm. The family also includes
Ford’s half-brother,
Marcus, and half-sisters Heather and
Aleece, all now in their
early 30s.
"It was all tomatoes and strawberries,
peppers and stuff,” Ford
said of the farm. "I’m probably
the only chick in the music
business, as far as I know, who can
work a forklift and a tractor.
I’m talking the old-school tractors
— no air conditioning. I can
do all that kind of stuff. I just
learned from my father, growing
up. I was so interested. I was like,
‘What does this do?’Ÿ”
Ford began training as an opera
singer when she was 8. Three
years later, she joined a performing
arts troupe called
Entertainment Revue and later joined
FLA, an all-girl quartet.
Ford got into urban music by Jodeci,
Shai and The Fugees. A
gifted student at East Bay High School,
she had a 4.25 GPA.
Going under her nickname, Mandy,
she signed with MCA
Records in 1999. After changing her
stage name to Mandah,
she opened for the Backstreet Boys.
But MCA wanted to clean up Ford’s
image to make her more
wholesome, like Britney Spears was
at the time. Ford, who writes
her own lyrics and melodies, wasn’t
having it.
While her forthcoming album, “Sexysexobsessive,”
takes her
music in an industrial rock direction,
singer-songwriter Willa Ford
said she isn’t shying away from
pop music. “Pop music has
always been there,” she said.
“U2 was pop. I mean, pop is just
popular music. Why is everybody trying
to get away from being
pop?” Ford, who plays Wednesday
in Hartford, added, “I’m
pop
music. I’m proud of it. We sell
a lot of records. That’s what
the
game’s about.”
Instead, as Willa Ford, she released
the steamy, titillating video
for "I Wanna Be Bad” —
after Lava bought out her MCA contract.
Spears and Christina Aguilera followed
Ford’s lead several
months later, releasing risque videos
for "I’m a Slave 4 U”
and
"Dirrty,” respectively.
By this time, Ford had made her
mark with "I Wanna Be Bad,”
which reached the top 10 on the Top
40 Mainstream, Hot 100
Singles and Hot Dance Music Singles
charts. The song’s video
was a top 10 regular on MTV’s
"Total Request Live.” And
the CD
single sold more than 268,000 copies.
Meanwhile, Ford’s full-length
debut, "Willa Was Here”
—
released in July 2001 — sold
more than 152,000 copies.
"For a first album, I think
it did pretty damn well,” Ford
said. "I
like the idea of being able to grow
and get bigger rather than,
boom, and see ya.
"There are these huge Britney
Spears to overshadow and take
all those blows (in the press) and
there was me, creeping,
creeping, creeping. And when she’s
blown out, I creep my way to
the top. I’m a sneaker. I don’t
need to overexpose. I don’t
need to make Barbie dolls. There’s
time for everything —
everything in due time.”
As she made arousing videos for
subsequent singles "Did Ya’
Understand That” and "Santa
Baby (Gimme Gimme Gimme),”
Ford remained business savvy. When
pop stars followed her
lead into the less PG-realm, she took
it as a compliment.
But most of all, Ford recorded hundreds
of songs — including
roughly 200 for her sophomore album
alone. Most pop singers
don’t have more than a handful
of extra tracks from their
album sessions. Ford’s productivity
is, again, a testament to her
drive and work ethic.
She also writes songs that are deeper
and often darker than
those of most pop divas. The bout
with depression Ford had in
late 2001 after going through an abusive
relationship — among
other experiences — seem to fuel
her songwriting.
Without a doubt, Ford’s good
looks alone earned her spots on
magazine covers for Stuff and soon
FHM. She’ll also be
featured, though not nude, in a music
edition of Hustler.
But Ford’s new album, which
she originally wanted to call "Porn
Poetry,” will help her fan base
continue to grow. With live
instruments on every song, the album
addresses the world’s
obsession with sex on title cut "Sexysexobsessive.”
And the
song "Into My Bed” speaks
out about women being used for
sex through prostitution, on prom
night and in other situations.
"The album is a total venture
into my mind,” said Ford, who
has
four dogs and recently bought a house
on a lake in Valrico, Fla.
"It took 2 years to make. It
took the long time it took because
I was going through a lot personally
and, instead of just rushing
through things, when I went through
them I wrote about them.
"I dealt with the problems
and I dealt with my feelings right
off
the bat with the record,” she
added. "I even went through some
old past things that I hadn’t
dealt with and I went through those
on the record. Yet it’s a fun,
crazy, mood-swinging album. It’s
like a big mood-swing from start to
finish.”
By: David Friedman
Source: NewsTimes.com
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