THAheadline Highlights: Roy Hamilton III - Legacy, Music, and The Singers Company
As Black Music Month comes to a close, THAheadline is revisiting a conversation held with Roy Hamilton III. Roy Hamilton III considers himself an artist, musician, patron of the arts, an advocate, as well as a professional listener and friend to singers. With a long legacy in the music industry, Roy Hamilton III found success as a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated music producer and A&R executive, working with mega superstars like Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, and Justin Beiber. In 2019, Hamilton started The Singers Company as an agency to assist singers on their musical journey. In our conversation, we discussed his musical legacy and lineage, the importance of The Singers Company, his unforeseen connection to Beyoncé, and whether or not anyone could be a singer.
Check out our interview below --
THAheadline: Music producer, songwriter, A & R executive. One of your accolades is also having 70 million records sold. What has influenced and motivated that success?
Roy Hamilton III: Early on the motivation was to just be successful. From childhood, since I could remember, I was always around music, and I would always watch my dad and my mom as they worked toward their goal of keeping my grandfather's music and his legacy alive. Also, my dad working on his own musical journey, and watching that struggle and what that was like gave me a lot of motivation to pursue music professionally. Around 14 and 15, I remember going to the studio with my dad to work on some songs for his record, and I sang backup vocals. I remember it was really stressful and nerve-wracking. I got the opportunity to go into the main control room afterwards with the producers and the engineers and I remember this sense of calm and this sense of awareness that I hadn't really felt before. I was like, ‘Wow, whatever these guys are doing, this is what I want to do.’ As a kid, I was diagnosed with ADHD because I was very hyperactive and didn't really like to sit still. So, school was a struggle. I remember going to this studio and it was the first time when I sat in that control room where I could actually just be still and just concentrate. It's one of those kinds of feelings that you never forget when it happens to you.
T: Talk to me more about The Singing Company, what influenced its inception, and particularly why it is important.
RH: The Singers company started in 2019. I was in Toronto working with a recording studio, helping them build out their artist development division. The owner wanted to move to Buffalo, and I was like, ‘Well. I like it here. I think I'm gonna stick around, and it's a lot more. I feel like I can add to the music scene here and kind of continue building bridges between the US and Canada musically.’ So I decided to stay. Top of 2019, I just got this idea. I kept asking myself, ‘Who do you know better than anyone else? Within music, what is your specialty? What is your specialization?’ Then, going back to when I was a kid, listening to my grandfather's songs and listening to my grandmom sing, and my dad sing, and my uncles and everyone around me were singers. Going to visit BB King all the time. He's a relative of ours. All these people around me are singers. That's who I know! It started out as literally an agency to just assist singers with their transition from whether they’re just starting out singing covers or singing in church or singing wherever and want to make their own music. I know the steps, and the people we work with know the steps. So we just wanted to build a company around helping artists do that. If you're already established as an artist, and if you're kind of looking to reinvent your sound, reinvent yourself, that's something that we help with, too, in terms of the music. Some artists have recorded a lot of stuff but they haven't really found their voice or their style yet. That takes a lot of effort. You have to have people that not only know how to be real with you but also communicate with you to help you find it. In 5 years, we've really done exactly that! Not just the US and Canada, but we have artists that we've helped launch from all over the world at this point. It's really a special thing, and I love it. I love what we do.
T: You've seen the impact, or rather the transition that has come from the Internet and the music industry, and how that plays a part in not only discovering artists but also artists blowing up because of it. What are your thoughts on how artists leverage the digital space?
RH: It's all been really good because artists, entrepreneurs, anyone in the arts. You do have a much better chance of meeting people directly and building relationships, and controlling your time better, too, which I think is always important. Before, artists didn't really have that much control. Recording artists didn't really have that much control over their time. You would just get handed an itinerary and a schedule, and that was pretty much it. Whereas now, if you're an independent artist, you can actually think about your own mental health and wellbeing when you're planning a tour or media run and plan for it that way. If you don't want to go out on the road, now you can even do your concerts from your living room and invite your fans to pay per-view to support you that way. All of those little things, I think,
are great for the world we live in now, and that wasn't really a thing 15 years ago. It's a much healthier business, a much more independent-minded business now, and I like that a lot.
T: As a consumer, we don't see the artists' development that we once saw in the 90s and the early 2000s of artists working and doing proper rollouts. Have you also noticed these changes?
RH: Yeah. I see a lot of artists are constantly putting out music, trying to capture market share. That is a strategy. I don't know many artists that have done that strategy successfully. I think it's a much wiser move to take your time putting an EP or a project together and then give each song a real chance to circulate around the Internet. That takes time. I don't think that can happen when you know you're putting out a song a week or someone's putting out a song a month because I don't see how the quality can even be there if you're making songs that fast. Artist development definitely is something that's rare. Speaking to the point of why we want The Singer's Company to continue to grow is because we want people to understand what an artist development process is and that there are companies that exist that specialize in that and can help bring that experience back to singers and to artists because it's needed. I think it's important. I KNOW it's important.
T: You come from a long musical legacy, like your grandfather, who is credited with influencing Elvis Presley's sound. Those are very tall shoulders to stand on, so how do you maintain the legacy while also carving out your own lane?
RH: When starting The Singers Company, my mind immediately went to my grandfather because of the amazing voice that he had and how he influenced a lot of artists in his day.
I utilize what I understand about the voice, about the mechanics of the voice, the technical aspects of the human voice, and the psychology and the mindset of what it needs to be an artist and a singer. It's a whole different way of thinking. When you get on stage and perform for people for a living, it literally changes your brain. I understand all of this. I'm standing on the shoulders of my grandfather and a lot of other amazing forerunners and people who personally mentor me and help me to be a great producer and a great musician. I'm doing that through paying it forward by mentoring other artists and producers as well, songwriters. You have to pay it forward giving opportunities to people creating jobs and creating careers. That's what I'm doing.
T: Your grandfather's song was used recently in Beyoncé's promo. So tell me, how did that feel when you heard that playing?
RH: Actually, my parents called me because they look after my grandfather's estate. I was like, ‘Wow, that's huge’. I felt very excited and felt very happy and grateful. I haven't seen Beyoncé so it was interesting to see that she actually is aware of my GrandPops music because I didn't know that. You know that really meant a lot and means so much to my mom and dad. They're still happy about that. So much other cool stuff has been happening just because of that. People are contacting them left and right. They're starting to return pictures and artifacts. I'm grateful about it. It's cool.
T: With what Beyoncé is doing, so many are saying she's genre-bending, so to speak, because, with Renaissance, most people would classify it as a dance album, and even with Cowboy Carter, they're saying it's country. Although she’s been country, do you believe that genres are limiting and often sometimes constraining? What can artists do to shatter those boxes?
RH: This is a great question. First of all, I love the Cowboy Carter album, the entire album, as a body of work. I think it's brilliant. I think it's beautiful. I had a bunch of goosebump moments listening to that record. I got emotional on American Requiem and those words and what she's saying. It's a lot of meaning. Let me just say that first. But what comes to mind about genres is something that I was reading in Quincy Jones's book, Q on Producing. Quincy Jones is another huge influence on me and a mentor as well. He was quoting what Ray Charles said to him. Genres are important because there's this essence and a spirit within a genre right? In genres, certain instruments are accentuated. Certain chords are used dominantly in certain genres, and all of that helps the songwriter and the singer articulate in a certain way. For instance, you wouldn't sing a gospel song the same way you would sing a rock and roll song. There would be different phrasing, different chord structures, different moments, and things like this. Now, where you can bend the rules a little bit is if you got a gospel song where you use electric guitars in the rifts. I've heard Aretha Franklin on her gospel album. There's moments in there where she's wailing, screaming. I feel like there's some overlap and some fusion that happens just in general. But I do believe genres should remain and exist because there's a lot in a genre specifically that makes it that kind of music. So, in my opinion, she made a great country album. It's not the country album that people would have expected because it has a lot of soul elements and hip-hop drums, but it's still country. Still got that country feel to it.
T: Lastly, can anybody be a singer?
RH: Yeah, absolutely. I think it takes skill and development, and growth to become a recording artist. That's a different thing. Anybody with a voice whether you can sing on key or off key sing. You're a singer. I think everyone should sing when they wanna sing because it feels really good just to open your mouth to express yourself, but not everyone's a recording artist. That takes skill and practice, voice lessons, and an investment of your time, effort, and energy. There’s techniques you have to learn to become a recording artist.
THAheadline thanks Roy Hamilton III for his willingness to participate in this conversation. Be sure to stay in THA know!
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