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 Abie Lena: For the RecordI met Abie Lena a year ago in an award show, where she was awarded with four statues all voted for fans around the whole world, I must say she was an extremely different person than she is today, well from that day until now she was gone through a very uncertain time where she said she was closer to pass away. How does a situation like that change someone’s life? How far she went to be close to die? What was going on her mind? Well her third studio album ‘The End Starts Now’ released last week sort of explained a lot from what happened to Abie, but it left us with several questions unanswered and that’s what I’ll be searching for, in this interview.
First let’s take an insight on Abie’s Career:
Abie started out her career after a performance that she gave in a very famous festival, where she performed a single song in a space where her famous sibling reserved for her, so she would be able to show her potential and later on sign a two album deal with one of the most successful record labels of the industry, the big Studio60 Records. After three months of that performance Abie released her debut album entitled ‘Love and Heartbreak’, which managed to pick at number two and sell over 4 million copies worldwide, two of its four singles released were extremely successful, who doesn’t remember the empowering track ‘Pimp’s Tears’ and the sad old jazz inspired ‘Fake Plastic Life’?
She later supported Cassie Valentine on her Pink Romance Tour and after she finished the tour, she released a special DVD produced by MTV World Stage series with distribution by Studio60, this DVD is listed as one of the most sold video albums of the world, and it sold over 4 million copies. Abie still had one studio album to release under Studio60 and all her emotions and struggles from the year that she spent touring, made her able to write ‘Seasons’ her biggest success in the industry so far. This album spawned three hit single, two of them manage to peak at number one on radio and digital charts they were ‘Cold Spring’ and ‘The Same Tear’. The album sold over 7 million copies worldwide and made Abie establish herself as a world famous pop star. But what was really going on with Abie on that time? Right after the incredible reception of ‘Seasons’ Studio60 signed a multi-million contract with Abie for four albums and three world tours, one of these tours was supposed to serve as the promotion for ‘Seasons’ but when Abie was begging to rehearse, she found out that she was sick, and by the way very sick!
I went to meet Abie in a Studi60’s recording studio based on L.A. where Abie was spending most of her time from the past four months preparing this new album launched recently. So the interview you’re about to watch was done in the end of the creation process of this album. If you want to know what’s inside Abie’s mind and heart, you’re about to find out.
I have to say first that you’re not the Abie I met a year ago, I think it’s been already one year since we met at the FCA? Is that right?
Yes, that’s right, it’s been a while. I guess I’m not the same Abie, not only physically but mentally too.
Well I hope this is for the best, I mean, I know it’s for the best. Well a lot of things are happening Abie, first I wanna talk about the album. You’ve been officially working on it for four months now and it comes out next month. How’s the excitement?
I guess I’m more anxious about performing than releasing the songs, it’s crazy because it doesn’t seem too long since I released my last album, I think it’s been just one year and a half only. But I’ve been away from a stage for like a century I guess. But of course, it’s a new era, new music, new sound, it’s exciting as well.
I’ve been in one of your concerts at the Pink Romance Tour and I can tell you, you’re an incredible singer. What do you think people will expect from you when you go out to tour this album?
That’s frightening, I really don’t know, I wish I know, but it’s hard to say. I think most of people will go to watch me sing the old songs. The hits, like ‘Cold Spring’ and for that I’m obeyed to sing old songs, despite I feel like singing the song I’m working on right now, because it fits more of what I’m feeling at this moment of my life, but as an entertainer I have to give my fans what they want to hear and I do love the old songs.
The songs I’ve listened so far from this new album, sound a lot more theatrical and Broadway than anything you did in the past. It’s a risk sound I have to say, well obviously you have the blessing of Studio60’s head Gia Rose-Hilton.
Yes they are hardly different.
What made them sound so orchestral and lyrical?
Death, I found a way to sing about what I was going through in a more sophisticated form than just a piano or guitar song. I think that increasing those lyrics I was writing with violins, orchestras and progressive drums would make them sound cooler and funnier. It may sound contradictory, especially because we’re are talking about life and death and everything that’ in between this transition, but it’s the reality and I wanted my fans to feel it but not the way I felt it, I wanted them to feel it like if they were in a Broadway show where everything looks magical and idyllic. That was my goal, songs like ‘You make me die’ and ‘Dead for a Reason’ they could be very dramatic and over depressing if they were sung in my old style and not that I abandon that sound, but I think it’s cooler and bigger the way I sing now. As an artist I feel like we need to grow, Gia showed me that.
Speaking of working with Gia, did she help you enough in the recording process?
Oh my God, absolutely! It’s funny, because I’m on Studio60 since the very beginning of my career. It’s been almost four years now and I always admired Gia’s skills as a producer and manager but I never had the privilege to work with her.
How did you guys ended up working together?
When I first discovered I was sick, she was one of the people who called me and came to visit me while I was in the rehab. So she said that I could take the time I wanted to come back to work even though I was schedule to release a new album by the mid of January of this year. She was a sweet girl, so we kept in touch the whole recovery process I went through and everytime I felt inspired to wrote a song I used to show her, because I really wanted to show the label that so kindly signed me when I was starting and gave me so much money and prestige that I was worried about my career even though their support. In the end she ended up being the executive producer of the album. Thinking about it now, it was like inevitable for me to have her producing me, she needed to do that.
Abie discovered she had Type 2 diabetes after she fainted while she was rehearsing to tour with her second studio album ‘Seasons’. She went to a doctor and made all the exams and the diagnosis was that she was in severe crisis of a chronic illness she had. She was obeyed to stop to get healthy, she was obeyed to change her life style, her feed habits and drinking and smoking and all that she was used to do, if not she would probably be dead in a couple of months.
When you received the diagnosis, what did you feel?
The shock was not when I found out that I had diabetes, it was to know that I would need to change my life otherwise I would be dead soon. That was the hardest pain I’ve ever felt in my life, one of the things I always praised in life was my ability to do whatever I wanted to do, my freedom was the most important aspect of my life and in that particular day it was taken away from me. I had to find other ways to believe that I should get better and healthy again. In the end I realize that the wish to live was stronger inside of me.
You chose to be hospitalized in a rehabilitation clinic, why did you decide that?
It was easy for me to take that decision, I knew that I just couldn’t go home and deny to myself that I would follow all the prescriptions and recommendations the doctor said to me. I’m a very lazy woman, so I remember I called my sister to come home that I needed to talk with her and my mom. They came and I announced them my decision, I was thinking that if I had all this money, I would not go through this transition alone. The Rehab was the lightest way I found to re-educate myself. I had to abandon everything I loved to eat.
You lost 15 pounds, was that your intentions?
Yes it was, I had to, it’s crazy because I was always the one to say to my fans that we didn’t need to be thin and that we should just be ourselves and didn’t matter what people would say, but the truth is that when it’s about health and be healthy, you have to make it right, and lost that weight was one of the goals I had to achieve.
Is there still anything you keep doing from that old life you had?
Oh, I still smoke, my doctor will kill me for revealing that, but can’t fight it, I mean, I eat healthy, I took medicines I don’t drink anymore, and guess what? I don’t even fuck anymore, so at least I can smoke!
What were the reactions from your mom and your sister, actually I think no one ever asked you this before, how is your relationship with your sister Magie?
They were very complacent about my illness, very supportive and gave me the strength and love I needed, well they love me so much. Magie and I have five years of age differences, in our childhood we were like normal kids, so we used to fight a lot but we love each other so much, now that we’re adults she’s like my best friend and a helper too, she writes songs with me and I write songs with her too, it’s good.
You grow up surrounded by the success of ElectroDeath, was that one of the reasons you wanted to become a singer?
Yeah, I saw them rise to fame and I became sort of friend to Julia and Lilly too. I used to go to their studio sections, whenever I could and even their concerts and video sets, all of that was a rich and favorable experience for me to create within my heart the desire to be in this business and to be successful just like they once were. I guess I was blessed, but music is in our family blood, my dada used to write songs for Brazilian acts, he was a composer too, so we were often with him in his job and we were the first people to listen his creations.
By the age of 10 years you lost your father for Cancer. I believe it was a shock both for you and Magie, how was your relationship with him?
The best relationship ever, actually when he passed away I felt so bad, because I was not sued to say I loved him, but he was the bravest man I ever met. Magie had some feuds with him, maybe because of her age at that time, she was fifteen years old when he died, but we all loved him so much and he was a good dad.
Abie had a long relationship with her childhood friend when she was releasing her debut album, but due to her touring and lack of time to spend with him, they broke up when she was touring at the Pink Romance tour. After this relationship, Abie didn’t date anyone else until today. But she’s been one of the best broke up writers of the business so far, her last album ‘Seasons’ were wrote about her relationship with her first boyfriend.
You didn’t have so many relationships, but you had a very intense one which by the way was responsible for your last album themes. What do you think you could do different to be in a long relationship?
That’s awkward to answer, the truth is that I had this man with me for almost two years, but I kind of committed to music while I was dating him, so most of my time was dedicated to music and he started to feel like he was being neglected. It was not happening that way, but I do blame my career for my messed love life. It complicated because I have to dedicate time and always be traveling and all of that stuffs that comes with fame and he didn’t want to abandon his like to live my life. So we ended up breaking up. I don’t regret breaking up with him, but I think I could’ve be more persistent, who knows what would happen if I had told him that I loved him and I wanted to be with him that time. But I don’t feel anything for him today than just a fellow feeling.
You’ve been single for a while now, do you plan to find a man for yourself?
I’m in a very narcissist period in my life. After I recovered my healthy and I did this record and I’m about to tour the world with my songs, I’m loving myself, I don’t really need any man to be with me right now, but of course, I can’t be alone forever and I do miss someone to call my love. But I’ll let things flow naturally, I’m gonna search anyone, I’m complicated.
Abie is going to tour with Tisha Jackson she also has a duet with her in this new record. Before Tisha she never sung a duet with anyone else, but she did some other kind of collaborations on music industry, first she toured with Cassie Valentine, than she shared love messages with Alicia Lena, she often seem to talk with Kourtney and Jennifer Armstrong. It’s safe to say that Abie is one of the most loved singers in the business.
Once you shared some love with Alicia Lena, you even sung a cover of one of Alicia’s classic singles in your DVD, but you’re not a singer who’s been doing so many duets in the music industry. Can you tell us why?
I can’t, I think duets must happen from wishes to sing with people you admire. Alicia is one of my main influences in music, I love her artistry and generosity and her voice is gorgeous, I used to say were like sisters, I mean her surname is Lena too. I wanted to sing with Tisha for a long time, she’s one of a few divas that has been releasing music and making success for a long period of time and I think that’s where I want to be after five, six or maybe ten years of career. But I do like to listen what’s on the mainstream, I like to compliment artists who frequently keep releasing good music and there are lots of them right now. I think we’re living one of the best moments of music in ten years.
You write music for other singers, do you plan to write more often?
I don’t write music intentionally, most of the writer credits I get on other singers music are ideas I had but they remained incomplete. My manager is also manager of a lot of other artists so whenever he can offer some of my ideas for others fellow singers who’re under his management, he does it. And people seem to like them and make them happen. It’s cool for me.
Abie is a star on its perfect form, she’s been releasing good music, most of them acclaimed by critics and musicians from all over the world, we don’t know much about her private life except what she lets us to ask and be answered back from her. There are no scandals and no deviations on her path to success. With two albums on her shoulders, she’s ready to grow with her music and to communicate with her fans through this music. It’s a new Abie Lena in a new style and sound. Her album debuted at number five, not an extraordinary debut for someone who tasted the number one spot with her two previous efforts, but it’s quite a mark for a third album with a number one single already.
Do you fear that someday all this success could be taken away from you? Do you fear ostracism?
I fear, but not because of the fame, I could live without the fame, I just couldn’t leave without being heard. Without fans relating to me, right now I feel like I’m not the only one in this world, I feel welcomed, I feel warmed by so much love and respect I gained from my audience. That frights me if I can’t have that. My manager said that I can relax now, I’m in appoint on my career where I’m building up my own fan army. They’re planning to continue with their support and while there will be people out in the world listening to me, I’ll keep making music.
For the future, Abie plans to tour with Tisha Jackson on USA and Europe, but she also plans to tour by herself until the end of this year.
What can we expect from you in a couple of months forward?
Well I plan to be touring a lot! I plan to have this record spread in the whole world, I plan to release more singles, to make more videos, to perform on every way possible I can. I’m enjoying it, believe me, after all that happened with me, I’m enjoying life as if every day is the last one! And I plan to be living this way until I breathe no more.
I bet we’re gonna be hearing about Abie for a long time in the future and while her lungs allow her to sing, her voice will be heard. The emerging star.
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