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Julia Wade, Julie Gold and Peter Link

Two-time Tony nominee, Peter Link, Grammy Award winner Julie Gold and Watchfire music’s #1 seller, Julia Wade talk with us about their inspirational CD project, “Goin Home,” which features artists such as Jenny Burton, Margaret Dorn, Angela Clemmons, Keith Fluitt, and more.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Tell us about the project of the “Goin’ Home” CD that you are all working on.

PETER LINK:
“Goin’ Home,” subtitle “On Heaven And Beyond” is a new CD to be released in November of 2011.

It’s a CD that promises to be a joyful, in-depth look at a subject that many of us spend most of our lives avoiding, which is essentially the transition from this world to the next.

What is joyful about it, with the subject that often is not joyful for people, is that it’s a celebration of life. The CD is basically a gospel/pop CD. It’s sometimes funny, it’s sometimes poignant, and it’s an exploration of the transition from this world to the next.

JULIA WADE:
The album takes great new arrangements of African-American spirituals and mixes them with beautiful, new, cutting-edge, contemporary music [and] original songs. It’s this wonderful, huge mixture of tradition and original new stuff.

JULIE GOLD:
In a nutshell, I would call this a concept record that celebrates the final fantastic journey. And it celebrates it in such a rich and diverse and respectful, but celebratory way. It’s not a somber record. It’s a thoughtful record.

THE STAR SCOOP:
What appealed to you about this project, and what made you feel so strongly about getting involved?

JULIA WADE:
I love that it makes this concept symbolic or metaphorical for all parts of our lives and the struggles that we overcome, the things that we’re going through.

When I think about inspirational music, I think about, how is that music? Whether it’s purely instrumental or it’s a combination of words. It’s also a combination of the composer and the lyrics and the singer or singers. Everybody who is there to put that message forward.

The message is universal. It’s well-done. It will have a specific meaning and carry a specific message to each heart that listens.

PETER LINK:
And I must say, the message is universal. We have no philosophy to advance. We take all different aspects of looking at life and passing. And we just look at them. We don’t tell you how to think.

That’s why we try to make it funny sometimes, fun sometimes. It’s not even necessarily a Christian philosophy. It’s just looking at passing and sometimes we put it tongue-in-cheek when it comes to Heaven.

I wrote a song that says, I don’t believe in angels sitting on clouds playing harps…that Heaven for me is more of a state of mind. But the singer always tries to say, it is for me this, it is for me that.

Watchfire Music, the record company that will be putting this out, is an inspirational online record company and online store. And it’s absolutely trans-denominational. It advances no spiritual philosophy. What we’re really trying to do is unify religions and spiritual seekers.

THE STAR SCOOP:
How did the three of you come together for the “Goin Home” CD?

JULIE GOLD:
I have admired Peter and Julia for many, many years now as individuals and as also, very gifted and connected musicians. And by connected I mean to the great source of inspiration, not to Clive Davis or whoever [laughs]. To a great source of creativity.

Also, Julia has honored me by recording a couple songs of mine, so we’ve had this mutual, truly mutual admiration for one another over the years.

And they came to hear me do one of my little shows, and I was introducing a new song of mine, called “Come To Me As a Bird.” And they were kind enough to wait and tell me after the show that the song deeply affected them.

A year and a half later, Peter tells me that they’re working on this project, and he explains it to me, and it sounds, as all his projects, fascinating and inspired. And he said, we were going to end with this particular song, but then it struck me that your song, “Come To Me As a Bird” would be really the way we want to end it. So, we’re asking you if that’s okay. We’d like to end this project with “Come To Me As a Bird,” [with] Julia Wade singing it.

And I said, are you kidding? That’s fantastic! I get to be a jewel in a crown of jewels and I didn’t have to fight for it. It just came my way. It’s a real gift.

JULIA WADE:
I have been a fan of Julie Gold forever. The opportunity to get to sing some of her music at different points has been and continues to be an absolute honor and a highlight in my musical journey.

THE STAR SCOOP:
The CD has support in the form of a Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/174116135/peter-link-goin-home-cd-and-concert-tour. Tell us about that.

PETER LINK:
This Kickstarter concept has filled up our lives in the past two or three weeks, thinking about it and how to approach people. I’ve certainly raised money for shows and albums and companies before, but I’ve never done it in this way. Because it’s really not raising money through investment, it’s really raising money through donations.

The truth is, this is putting together a community of people who want to support inspirational music, who want to maybe support this concept of ideas or want to support these terrific people who are working together on this.

I think we’re in good shape now.

JULIA WADE:
The Kickstarter project has been a really interesting and new idea for us. I think, as Peter was saying, it has created a really interesting sense of community. We’re always trying to expand our community and reach out to people who might not have heard about the kind of music that we do, the music that comes out of Watchfire, the music that Peter Link writes and so forth.

Part of the plan is to just continue expanding that circle by talking to you, and to all kinds of folks to get the word out there. These are donations, but the incentives are really neat.

When people pledge, they get something very substantial back. They get a part of the music, whether it’s an entire CD, or several CDs, or if they’ve given one, two, five, ten dollars, they’re going to get a part of the new album through digital download. I think that’s really important to know.

THE STAR SCOOP:
Is there anything else that you would like people to know about the project?

PETER LINK:
I think that the cast of players here is an exceptional group of people.

We are very fortunate to live in New York City and be surrounded with really the top talent in the world in terms of studio singers. I’ve been a producer for many, many years and have had the great opportunity to work with the cream of the crop, or what is affectionately called the A-team of studio singers. I would say we have that A-team on this album. These are people who have sung with just about every major star in the music business, from Celine Dion to Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Sting, Bobby McFerrin. The list goes on and on.

[Artists include Jenny Burton, Margaret Dorn, Angela Clemmons, Keith Fluitt, John James, Kevin Osborne, Catherine Russell, Vaneese Thomas, Darryl Tookes, with guest-artists Julia Wade, Tom Tipton, and Barry Danielian.]

JULIA WADE:
I think that’s what makes this album so exciting in concept, even before it is heard. When you look at that list of artists, there’s a lot of singing styles coming at you and they all come together in this wonderful mix. From song to song, things change up and it really offers a lot of content in a lot of ways to reach all kinds of people.

I think what glues the whole thing together, what makes it very cohesive and unified is the artist Peter Link. Because as the producer and as the orchestrator and arranger, his music, his artistry is what keeps it in a unified whole. You get great variety, great richness, humor, depth, but it is a unified sound.

JULIE GOLD:
My experience with Peter is that he goes for excellence. He won’t cut a corner…he has the best people and the concept is a supremely motivated one, a supremely inspired one. It’s not just a fundraiser-help-me-make-my-record…People that are involved in Kickstarter feel like they’re contributing to…a greater good.