In a world full of darkness, Alvin Garrett has found the light. As a pioneer of inspirational soul, the Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter is using his astonishing talents to encourage music enthusiasts to accept the love around them in order to appreciate and cherish the beauty that life has to offer.
Between the COVID-19 pandemic hanging over our heads, the racial inequality, and the spike in police brutality in America – Garrett channeled his internal emotions and started to pen music that reflected the harsh reality of our country today. His heavy heart and his unstoppable drive to demand change, generated a groundbreaking collection of ballads that emphasized the current climate of the world.
“After the George Floyd murder and being in a pandemic, I wrote an album called The Awakening. This record spoke directly to what I was feeling at that moment,” says the Alabama-bred artist.
Now, Alvin Garrett is taking a new approach and is putting the power of music to the test with his recently released seven-track album The Lightness of Love. “I decided I wanted to lift this heaviness. I don’t want this on me. I sang the music from The Awakening and that was very centered around social justice and those thoughts,” Garrett told Celeb Secrets in an exclusive interview.
“But I said, man… what can I put out? or what can I experience myself? That’s going to get this burden off me and it was love. It was The Lightness of Love that allowed me to say ‘you know what? I may be upset at the situation, but I can still show love. I can still find compassion.’ So, that’s the spirit I was in when I started making this music,” he adds.
Alvin’s diverse background shines through on The Lightness of Love album, as he blends soul, jazz, gospel, and R&B to create his unique sound called “inspirational soul.” However, what elevates the dynamic record is his knowledge and experience with the bass guitar. This specific instrument is a fundamental aspect in creating a successful soul piece, since its job is to hold down the groove.
When Celeb Secrets asked about his music career and how he found his sound, he explained it was all about trial and error to discover what works for him. “In the earlier portion of my songwriting career, I spent that time trying to get placements with other artists and trying to match the sound of the radio – but once I decided that I wanted to be an artist, I got away from that. I had to grow out of it and say ‘who am I? What’s my pure sound?’ That’s how I got here today to say ‘Hey, this is Alvin Garrett,’ I can sing the cute stuff, but I came to move the soul…that’s me,” says the award-winning soul musician.
With that being said, Celeb Secrets sat down (virtually) with Alvin to chat about his rise to fame as an artist and his new record The Lightness of Love. Throughout the exclusive interview, the happy-go-lucky performer teases an upcoming world tour, how the collaboration with Kim Scott came about, and he even leaked some juicy secrets about his recent project.
You can keep up with Alvin by giving him a follow on Instagram + Facebook + Spotify.
Celeb Secrets: Who is Alvin Garrett? Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Alvin Garrett: “One of my most distinguishing characteristics is my smile and I thinking coming out of a pandemic, so many people say ‘how do you come up with that smile? Why are you always smiling?’ and it just comes from my Southern roots coming up in the church. Being a preacher’s kid, getting into music and sports, and just growing in life – I was just taught to be grateful. So, I am grateful today…to be honest with you. I am grateful to be alive, grateful to have music, grateful to have a family. With all the challenges that we are facing, I focus on being grateful and that’s where I find my smile.
That’s what my music is all about – my latest project, The Lightness Of Love is all about being the light and spread the love. No matter what’s going on around us, because there are so many things that can depress us…we have to choose to let the light and the love come through us in every situation. I try to capture that in my music.”
Celeb Secrets: How would you describe your sound?
Alvin Garrett: “I’ve come up with a name for it, I call it ‘inspirational soul.’ So, it’s a blend of gospel, R&B, soul, and jazz. The sound that I have is coming from something that I feel, it’s something I want to share through the music. It takes a little something different in production and writing to capture the soul. So, I love to call it ‘inspirational soul.’”
CS: What inspired you to get into Soul?
AG: “I started in Church. I actually began as a bass guitarist…that’s my roots. So, from 11-years-old to even now, most people knew me as a bass guitarist. I will say no question about it, the bass is the most important man in the band – you’re holding down the groove. So, the soul of the band is in the base. So, once I started writing music and started coming up with my own songs and doing production, that post was always there. In the earlier portion of my songwriting career, I spent that time trying to get placements with other artists and trying to match the sound of the radio. But once I decided that I wanted to be an artist, I got away from that, I have to grow out of it and say ‘who am I? What’s my pure sound?’
That’s how I got here today to say ‘Hey, this is Alvin Garrett,’ I can sing the cute stuff, but I came to move the soul…that’s me.”
CS: Do you believe your work as a bass player has helped you as a singer and songwriter?
AG: “ABSOLUTELY! In terms of the rhythm. If you listen to my music, it’s just so in the pocket, you know what I’m saying? I got a metronome in my heart and it’s got to grow. You don’t have to hear it, you can feel it – it vibrates the wall and you can identify a song by the bass. I want people to feel my music, not just hear…but FEEL IT.”
CS: What was the inspiration behind your recent album The Lightness of Love?
AG: “So, I’ll take you back to last summer – after the George Floyd murder and being in a pandemic, I wrote an album called The Awakening. This record spoke directly to what I was feeling at that moment. So, you fast forward through the summer and the fall. Now, you got the election and everything was so heavy. So, I decided I wanted to lift this heaviness. I don’t want this on me. I sang the music from The Awakening and that was very centered around social justice and those thoughts. But I said, man… what can I put out? Or what can I experience myself? That’s going to get this burden off me and it was love. It was The Lightness of Love that allowed me to say ‘you know what? I may be upset at the situation, but I can still show love. I can still find compassion.’ So, that’s the spirit I was in when I started making this music. So, I just had the idea of The Lightness of Love.”
So like being in the presence of love, how can you feel heavy if you have love in your heart and how can you look at what’s going on in society and be burdened down if you find compassion for everybody. So, I say it in order for my own mental health, right? I’m going to allow love and light to shine through me for me first. That’s what came out, these bouncy cool light songs that make you feel good.
I’m going to change the world around me with this lightness. So, that’s a commitment I made, not that I don’t hurt. Not that I don’t cry, but I said ‘I’m going to wake up every day, committed to pushing the light in the love because that’s my choice.’ So, this album is that choice that I made to put out something in the world that could put a smile on somebody’s face in the middle of a pandemic in the midst of what’s still going on to this day.”
CS: Which track should we listen to first and why?
AG: “It’s called, ‘Hang with Me.’ I put this project together for you not to have to skip around. Start, press play and for 27 minutes, just get taken away. The first song is called ‘Hang With Me,’ You know what I mean? I’m saying, ‘hey, I’m a chill kind of guy. I was born with this smile and I don’t mind saying what I think.’”
CS: So, out of all seven tracks on the album, which song would you say was your favorite to write?
AG: “It’s a song called ‘In It.’ It says we can be under a bridge, in a house, or on a Hill – no matter where it is, as long as we’re in it together. In the song, you’ll hear us talking about love between two people, the type of love that’s eternal. My parents have been married for 45 years.I was blessed to see a man love a woman… like storybook love. Do you know what I mean? Not the fake stuff. So this song captures that feeling that we were meant to be together. We’re inseparable, but I am just a man that truly believes in togetherness and that we, as human beings need to see and feel our common humanity. So, that’s threaded into this song, even though it is a love song, it’s still my heart’s desire that we find commonality and togetherness with each other. So in it is sort of my favorites just very smooth, very sultry, and very sensitive.”
CS: Now, which was your least favorite song to write, or maybe what was the most challenging song to pen on The Lightness of Love?
AG: “None of them. I’ve been writing music for a long time and I’ve tried to write for other artists and I’ll say, ‘well, it’s hard to write for this person because you don’t know what space they’re in, or you don’t know where they’re going with their marketing plan, but this music was just there. I recorded, I wrote, and recorded four of the seven songs the week after Christmas. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, I wrote and recorded four songs. Each day I recorded and finished the song and anybody that knows music production will understand how rare if ever that can happen.
So I know how tough it is to capture great vocal performances. This album was honestly, I feel like it was divine because I just sat down, wrote the songs and sang them, and moved on to the next song… it wasn’t hard at all. I believe the feeling that I was having, it was just there to share.”
CS: What was it like to work with the chart-topping recording artist, Kim Scott? Could you walk us through the songwriting process for the track “The Lightness of Love”?
AG: “So, I finished “The Lightness of Love” and I was like ‘this is the Summer jam, but something is missing’ and it was the lightness. So, I live in Birmingham, Alabama and Kim Scott is my neighbor – In terms of her living in this community, we are both in the music family here. I said, ‘oh my God if I could get Kim Scott on’ I know she’s really popular in the jazz world. I said ‘I need you on this song and the tour!’ she said yes and the rest was history.
It was just the right touch of lightness that I was looking for. I was like ‘now it’s finished.’ I couldn’t close the song out without her touch. I just felt it and I’m so excited and people love it!”
CS: While working with Kim Scott, have you learned anything special that you would take with you throughout your career?
AG: “What I’ve learned about the jazz world, cause this is actually my first time promoting any music on the jazz format. What I’ve learned is that the jazz world is so family-oriented and a community. I’ve met so many people just by them seeing her name on the song. It opened up a lot of inquiry as to who I am. So I appreciated her, you know… lending not only her talent but her lightness to introduce me to the genre. So, I’ve received a lot of other inquiries for production and writing.
CS: How was writing a soul and jazz album different th an writing a gospel or R&B LP?
AG: “To me, nothing is different because I have a template and I’ve actually created a songwriting curriculum from my personal template. I call it, the ‘musical GPS.’ I teach a class on how to think through a song before you get to the production. I’ll give it to you real quick. Cause it’s very elementary…
Number one: What are you talking about? Like, what is your topic?
Number two: Who’s your audience? That’s so important.
Number three: Why? Why are you speaking to this audience?
Those three things are so important before you ever jump into the house, which is the production. So for every song, every project I work on, I sit down with that GPS and I say, ‘who’s this album targeting.’ If it’s gospel, I know who they are. I know their language. I know that audience. So, I can steer my house and my process into that lane. So, that I’m not out here searching in the world, infinite world of creativity. I know if I can figure out who’s listening to this, who do I want to connect with this music? How do I want them to feel? what thoughts do I want them to have? And most creative people don’t like to sit down and go through the technical thought process like that, but it works.
So, that’s a part of what I teach in my curriculum to other aspiring songwriters.”
CS: How does it feel to be a Grammy-nominated songwriter?
AG: “It’s a pinch-me moment! So, I was tossing my baby girl at the time, Grace. She was about 3-years-old, tossing up into bed, hanging out, watching TV, and my good buddy, Ruben Studdard from American Idol called and he’s like ‘Man, you’re nominated for a Grammy.’ I’m like ‘WHAT!’ it was that pinch-me moment. So, when we hung up – I was like, ‘okay, let me keep playing with my kid.’ But, once I put the news on social media, and I saw the response that was sort of this pressure. That means I can’t screw up anymore. Like, I can’t put out a bad song anymore.
I felt the pressure that if I’m gonna put this in my bio if I’m going to put this in front of my name, I got to raise it up. I got to go harder, because now I got to live up to that distinction of being a Grammy-nominated songwriter. So, it pushed me harder to get better and to go just really dive into my craft.”
CS: Could we expect to see you on tour with this album?
AG: “I’m already putting it together. I’ve been talking with my musical director and with my team. We are coming up with concepts and I don’t even mind telling you what I believe the name of the tour is going to be because it starts here – It’s called The Light And Love Tour. let’s go be the light and spread the love all over the world. So, my music’s playing really heavily in the UK. I am getting played in Germany to Australia. So in my mind, I’m planning and hoping for maybe a world tour! I’ve never toured as an artist, I’ve only toured as a musician. I know how the world of touring works, but as an artist it is different. The tour is my post-pandemic dream and to perform this music all around the world.
CS: Since we are Celebs Secrets, do you have any behind the scene secrets about your The Lightness of Love record that might surprise some of your fans?
AG: “My daughters are my ANR department. I did not put a song on the album that they didn’t approve. I would play every song for them and asked them, ‘did you like it?’ If they did like it – I would record it!
I wanted adults to be able to play it around their children. Motown music is so appreciated by so many different generations, right? And it just lives on and on and on. I think with the R&B now you can’t play it around your kids. I want to make music and write sexy songs that the parents know what I am talking about, but the kids just hear good music. So, I made sure that every lyric I wrote was poetic enough if I was talking about intimacy. I would play every song for my kids and if I felt comfortable with my kids hearing it, we were good to go! So, they were my ANR department. I mean, just being honest!”
