Anyone who has attended any of Clay's concerts -- the Independent Tour, the Solo Tour, or the Joyful Noise Tour -- has been charmed by the voice of Angela Fisher, one of the vocalists who sings with Clay on tour. She plans on touring with Clay this fall. Angie's greatest influence has been her parents. Both parents are church vocalists and simply music enthusiasts. They exposed her to gospel, soul and jazz music on a consistent basis. Angie was called to music at the tender age of four years old and twenty years later she is still singing. “I'm passionately in love with music. My gift is my voice. As long as I am blessed to sing, I will sing for a crowd of thousands or in an intimate setting for two. I just love to sing!” she beams.
Angie is an integral part of the American Idol family, she has also recorded background vocals and toured with Fantasia Barrino, Ruben Studdard, Kelly Clarkson, Tamyra Gray and Justin Guarini. Angie voice has been heard on numerous commercials over the past decade as well a background singer for Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Missy Elliot and Brian McKnight. She has also participated in performances on the BET Awards, The Tonight Show, Stellar Awards, Good Morning America, Image Awards and the American Music Awards.
Angela did an interview with Clay News Network and gave Clay fans some more interesting information about herself. Here is a little more about her...The following questions are copied from that interview:
CNN: You've been singing since you were 4 years old. How did you get started?
A: I started singing in church at a young age, and then from there just basically got my training from church. Never really had a vocal coach or anything like that. Just being in church you kind of pick up different styles and listening to different artists all the time... my parents are very musically inclined. They sing as well, so I always had music around me. I wanted to pursue [music] so I just did everything that was necessary to get involved with music, whether it was singing on somebody's album or doing commercials… I just wanted to sing.
CNN: How long have you been singing professionally?
A: Professionally, 13 years. I've been in the industry a while and I just had a great opportunity to work with a lot of different artists from different areas, from rap to R&B, to pop and jazz.
CNN: Do you have a particular genre you like to sing the most?
A: I like it all. Whether it's singing pop or jazz, I love to sing, period. I'm more or less leaning on the R&B and jazz side of it, but for the most part I like all different kinds of music.
CNN: Who do you consider to be your musical influences?
A: I would have to say Donnie Hathaway, Patti LaBelle, and Aretha Franklin. There are so many different artists who have influenced me, everybody, pretty much, from gospel - Mahalia Jackson – from that to Jazz - Ella Fitzgerald. A lot of artists have influenced me, so I just take bits and pieces of their style of music and kind of create my own.
CNN: In the past year you've been on television, the recording studio, and you've performed in arenas, small theaters, state fairs, etc. Do you have a preference or is there something to love about each of those?
A: I don't have a preference, I love it all. You get a good feel and a good vibe from every place whether it's a theater, whether it's an arena... No, I take that back. I think I would have to go more or less on the arena. Only because with the arena, the more energized the crowd is the better. There's more space, the stage is a little bigger, wider, longer. I love arenas but I also love theaters as well. (laughs) As long as I'm on stage and I have a mic in my hand, that's all that matters.
CNN: On stage you're feeding off the audience. Is it difficult to keep that energy level up when you're in the recording studio?
A: I know what works for me. I like to go in in the morning, because I'm a morning person. I can be up at 6 am and be ready to go. I just enjoy that because I am more energized in the morning. I can get maybe a song or two done within, you know, five hours, and then let's work on another one.
At times it can be difficult because you know, you have your good days and your bad days. Some days you don't feel like doing it and other days you're like ‘lets go' – you've just got to work with everybody's schedule.
CNN: Do you teach voice as well as perform?
A: I have helped out a few people. – it's been awhile now. Certain people, they want vocal training but they may not know exactly how to go about getting it. I do [teach] from breathing techniques to holding out certain notes...
CNN: You could tell that on the tour!
A: Exactly!
CNN: How did those note holding contests come about?
A: You know what? Clay is such a fun person and one night, it was just like on a whim, he just started holding notes out, and we just said "okay, well if you're going to hold out your note, we're going to hold our notes too. We'll see how long..." It was like a competition type of thing. It was still a fun type of… it was just good. It was just good for all of us.
CNN: And you started winning!
A: I know! I did! That was hard too, 'cause Clay's a good one. But it was fun, just being on stage and enjoying. I mean, we were working, and we're on stage and we're doing what we do best but we still like to have fun.
CNN: You all seem to have a lot of fun onstage.
A: We do. We're a big family. We just enjoy each other's talents and we respect each other as artists and we just try to make the best of it every night.
CNN: Part of what made that concert series so much fun was how much fun you were having on stage. It almost didn't seem like work.
A: Oh, yeah, (laughing) it's work.
CNN: Especially when you have to wear those high heels.
A: Oh my goodness. Quiana and I said we can't do it any more. Our. Feet. Hurt. Maybe if we were standing still the whole night it would be different, but we're moving constantly. We're going up the steps and going down the steps and moving to the side, and walking backstage and coming back on stage.
That's a lot of moving and when you're in those heels – three inch heels! – you know, your feet are hurting. And you still have to stay on your note – but you're concentrating so much on your feet you're like ‘now I'm really off balance.' I'm glad that they were like "you guys can wear your sandals, it's okay."
CNN: Was [the moment when Clay let you take your shoes off onstage] as impromptu as it appeared to be?
A: It was! It was! Oh yes. Because we kept complaining. We were just like ‘our feet hurt -- we love the shoes, but our feet are killing us.' After the first week, Quiana's toes were like…they were going inward. I don't know what my shoes were doing… I said ‘I have to get out of these babies.'
CNN: Who arranged the medleys on the tour?
A: You know what, I believe that was just Clay's idea on how it was going to be arranged. They pretty much told us what was going to take place and so we just said okay. He wanted us to do whatever we wanted to do when it came time for us to sing our part. He said ‘you guys feel free to switch it up, change it up, do whatever you want to do for your part.'
CNN: Who arranged the harmonies? Or did you just work those out yourself?
A: We all just kind of thought of how to switch it up. For instance, with Quiana's song, I helped out with that and Clay and I decided ‘okay we needed to make it a little more jazzy…a little bit more feeling to it,' so added the ‘ oooos ' and different ' ahhh's ' with that, to make it a little more exciting. I guess for us if anything.
CNN: Did that translate into the Christmas album? Because you're so used to singing together? Or did you lay down your parts separately?
A: We did it all together, but we didn't have any take in the arrangement of the Christmas album at all.
CNN: All of you are just fabulous – you and Jacob and Quiana have amazing voices. Fans have said "as soon as they drop an album I'm buying it."
A: Oh, wow. I thank you so much for your support. I really do. It means so much, it really does. You guys will never know how much you guys keep us going. Because we enjoy doing what we love to do. At times it is tiring, but when people can push you, the excitement and the whole…. You never know – because we see people in the crowd every night. And you never know…you may see a face that is you know, feeling kinda down and by the end of the night they're smiling and they're up on their feet, and they're jumping. And I've seen so many women and even little kids cry and you have some people that are just excited the whole show. And that's what makes our day because now we can say you know , we've done our job. It wasn't in vain. We really put forth the effort – along with Clay – to make every show a success every night. And so that's what keeps us going. We thank you, we really appreciate all of you guys.