<\/p>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s not often that an artist\u2019s debut LP consists entirely of Christmas songs \u2013 but James Fauntleroy<\/a> is no ordinary artist. Nearly a decade after the release of the original Warmest Winter Ever<\/em>, the three-time Grammy Award-winning R&B singer-songwriter is making his formal debut as a lead solo artist with The Warmest Winter Ever<\/em>. The steamy new project compiles the first two Warmest Winter<\/em> projects with 10 brand new songs perfect for a sultry Christmas between the sheets.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe announcement of The Warmest Winter Ever<\/em> comes exactly one week<\/a> after Fauntleroy picked up his sixth career Grammy nomination. Recognized in best progressive R&B album for his bossa nova-inspired Nova<\/em> collab album with Terrace Martin<\/a>, the nod marks Fauntleroy\u2019s first Grammy nomination as an artist. The acclaimed musician has won four prior trophies thanks to his writing contributions to Justin Timberlake<\/a>\u2019s \u201cPusher Love Girl\u201d and Bruno Mars<\/a>\u2019 24K Magic<\/em> (\u201cThat\u2019s What I Like\u201d; \u201cFinesse\u201d). That\u2019s no small feat for someone who claims that \u201cfor the last 20 years,\u201d they\u2019ve \u201cbeen telling everybody I\u2019m not an artist constantly when they ask.\u201d With more previously released music making its way to DSPs soon, Fauntleroy is set to truly step into his own as an artist \u2013 and he\u2019s redefining holiday music as he swaggers down that path.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tFilled to the brim with jaw-dropping harmonies and hilariously sultry wordplay, The Warmest Winter Ever<\/em> finds Fauntleroy inviting his audience to expand their understanding of what holiday music can sound like. Why stop at \u201cO Holy Night\u201d and \u201cDeck the Halls,\u201d when you can croon \u201cbring that s\u2013t to Santa\u201d to your special someone? The first two Warmest Winter<\/em> projects primarily feature cozy, acoustic-forward arrangements, and the 10 new tracks broaden that soundscape into a wonderland of skittering bass and intimate a cappella joints. Take \u201cSleigh,\u201d a tongue-in-cheek harmonic rhapsody that answers the question: What would it sound like if James Fauntleroy took \u201cDance of the Sugar Plum Fairy\u201d and absolutely freaked it?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn a wide-ranging conversation with Billboard<\/em>, James Fauntleroy discusses the making of The Warmest Winter Ever, <\/em>why Mariah Carey<\/a> is \u201cone of the best writers in the history of man,\u201d working with Beyonc\u00e9<\/a> and the state of male R&B.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBillboard: What\u2019s up with you, man? How\u2019re you feeling?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tJames Fauntleroy: <\/strong>I\u2019m excited, man! I\u2019m happy and surprised that I\u2019m still in the game. Appreciative, you know, so I\u2019m feeling a lot of gratitude. I\u2019m going from my first artist-led project \u2014 \u2019cause the jazz album, or I guess R&B<\/em> album, was [with] Terrace \u2014 getting nominated for a Grammy to now my first album even though I\u2019m damn near 20 years in the game. This is gonna be my literal first album, so I\u2019m super excited. I\u2019m a new artist. This is my gonna be my first project.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhy is now the time to bring The Warmest Winter Ever <\/em>to DSPs?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWe had a meeting this morning, [and] I found this old tweet of Rihanna posting about the first [Warmest Winter<\/em>] project and because I knew it\u2019d been out for a while, I did the math and I was like, Damn, this was nine years ago!<\/em> The first project, I put out nine years ago, and I put out the other one sometime between then and now, and basically these projects are my first official releases.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve been putting music out the whole time, [but] there\u2019s one other project that I hear about all throughout the year, every year, even though it\u2019s like 13 years old. This is one that all year-round people are telling me it\u2019s July and [they\u2019re] still playing the Christmas album. It\u2019s so mind-blowing that music has the power to be something that people care or talk about after \u2014 especially now when s\u2013t comes out and you switch your playlist up the next f\u2013king day \u2013 a week. A big part of wanting to put these things on DSPs is just to show all my core fans appreciation because even though the s\u2013t\u2019s on SoundCloud, for whatever reason, they\u2019re always like, Please put this on Spotify, please put this on Apple Music!<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m just slowly starting to put all these songs on DSPs, but also give them something new, because another part of my compulsion to release is that while I do it because I love it and I get paid to do it, it\u2019s also because I know so many people study me from them telling me and also from my ears. That was a big part of why I started my school called the 1500 Sound Academy. I also feel compelled to take it to the next level for people who I\u2019ve inspired. A friend of mine [named] August<\/a> 08<\/a> \u2014 he just got caught in the crossfire in the hood, a couple of [months] ago and passed away \u2014 I met him when he literally ran up to me in the airport and he was like, \u201cOh my God, I\u2019m such a huge fan, I never even thought about making music until I heard your music and I got your album cover tattooed on my leg!\u201d He opened up his jeans because they were already ripped and I didn\u2019t even say nothing yet, and he said all of this. Then he went on to have success as a writer, got signed to Def Jam, had a song with Jhen\u00e9 Aiko<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI think about that kind of thing especially as the Internet and life and music go through growing pains. I\u2019m always trying to think about maintaining the art form and pushing the envelope forward. Maybe everybody on Earth doesn\u2019t listen to it, but if it gets to the right person and has an impact on them, then you know that makes it worth it. So those are all the reasons. And then I found\u00a0the right team, honestly. Everybody thinks I\u2019m trying to be mysterious, but really I\u2019ve been waiting for the right time, the right platform, and the right team to put something out that is giving my audience the level of quality that they expect from what my music sounds like.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tDoes it feel weird having your first official solo album be a Christmas record?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNo, it feels natural to me because when I\u2019m thinking about it in terms of my legacy \u2014 not what I\u2019m trying to build, but where I\u2019ve come to at this point \u2014 I think that it\u2019s so unusual to have your first album be your Christmas album, but considering all the s\u2013t I make, it makes it the perfect first album. I\u2019m always trying to find ways to express that there\u2019s more, that you know that I\u2019m different, that I\u2019m doing something. As a writer \u2014 that\u2019ll always be the core of what I\u2019m doing \u2014 I love it because why I even started doing it was it was never about trying to f\u2013king take a small percentage of that Mariah Carey money, which, oh my God, I\u2019d love to have some of that, but it was really about finding new ways to tell stories. It\u2019s just an opportunity to have a new topic; finding something new to wrap the art around is my primary method of coming up with new art. This project, it\u2019s 25 Christmas songs, like, is it really 25 things about Christmas to sing about?! I don\u2019t even know. [Laughs<\/em>].\u00a0 They\u2019re all about Christmas, but they\u2019re all so different from any Christmas music I\u2019ve heard, so they\u2019re doing their job of helping me push myself forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI had a lot of fun making all this s\u2013t. It\u2019s so fun to make music with no pressure. I produced, I think, every song on here. Maybe there\u2019s like a few that I brought in some talented musicians, and there\u2019s\u00a0two songs with other people\u2019s voices on them. I just had a blast doing what I wanted and trying to figure out how to do something different from what I have done in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThis record has some steamy joints on there. What inspired the sonic world of The Warmest Winter Ever<\/em>, and what was it like to return to that place for a third installment?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhen I\u2019m thinking about where I want to draw inspiration from my projects, at its core, it\u2019s all about drawing from references. There\u2019s Stevie Wonder all the way up to the Timbaland-Missy s\u2013t. There\u2019s a bunch of different references technically. As far as the artistic inspiration, it\u2019s less music and more film.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn the song \u201cNeck,\u201d you know,\u00a0I\u2019m imagining the movie Elf. \u201c<\/em>Christmas List,\u201d that\u2019s a song where I\u2019m talking about picking up a gun, and that\u2019s a different kind of movie. But then you also have \u201cMiracle,\u201d where in the second verse, I was thinking about The Santa Clause<\/em>. I\u2019m thinking about Black movies like Soul Food <\/em>because when I\u2019m thinking of a song,\u00a0I\u2019m doing a lot of visualizing, which is\u00a0where I\u2019m pulling a lot of the descriptive lyrics like, \u201cShe\u2019s Grand Theft Auto 5<\/em> stars bad\u201d \u2014 I was laughing while I wrote that. It\u2019s really just trying to create a movie because that\u2019s how I view music. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSounds like you were in a very cinematic headspace. Any music videos on the horizon?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI have so many ideas! Do I have enough money to do all those things? Absolutely not. So it\u2019s really based on how people respond to it. \u201cSleigh,\u201d for instance, which is maybe my favorite song on the whole thing, is actually about imagining that Santa Claus worked at FedEx and he\u2019s about to go out to do a shipment and he has Mrs. Claus with him and his manager or whatever, he\u2019s like You can\u2019t take this lady out<\/em>. He\u2019s like What?! If she don\u2019t go in there, we ain\u2019t going nowhere.<\/em> This is how I do it. <\/em>The message is about a relationship that empowers you and strengthens you and gives you the ability to do magic. If I could do a video, it would be UPS Santa with a real ultra-bad Mrs. Claus with her arms folded. [Laughs<\/em>].\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSleigh\u201d is also one of my favorites. Talk to me about crafting your vocal arrangements and background harmonies? Who are you building on and emulating?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe goal of the song is the same as the goal of the arrangements, but the arrangements are the primary. The lyrics are really important, but those tend to hit you after the third or fourth listen.\u00a0The first goal is to catch you with the arrangement and the music. My number one goal before streaming, but especially now, is you really need these motherf\u2013kers to play that s\u2013t more than once. My goal is to make a song that you want to hear again. What is the use of this song? How is this of service to people you know?\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tTypically, the use I\u2019m aiming for is that it makes you feel good. It gives you an escape out of the moment you\u2019re in, makes you feel good about yourself, and makes you think about something differently, it\u2019s world-building.<\/p>\n \n\tOn the technical side, there\u2019s more and more s\u2013t going on. There\u2019s more and more parts coming in. I tell my students and people this all the time, I usually think about the different notes in the harmonies as different people. They\u2019re different background singers, so sometimes I\u2019ll pronounce what I\u2019m saying a little differently. I might use a different dynamic. On \u201cSleigh,\u201d I really overtly did it. In the second verse, the way I sang the first line and the way I sang the second line is two different people. The first line is all soft and pretty, and then the next one I\u2019m singing three times louder. It\u2019s just all these dynamics that I\u2019m trying to turn your attention to.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNow, I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t ask this since you do sing \u201cSleigh like Beyonc\u00e9\u201d in the song, so have you worked with Queen Bey recently? <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe last thing we did was that song with Nas and Jay-Z [DJ Khaled\u2019s \u201cSorry Not Sorry\u201d]. I sang the hook. That was the first song I ever put out that I didn\u2019t write, actually. They sent that to me done already and just asked me to put my voice on it and [there\u2019s] Beyonc\u00e9 at the end which sounds epic.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAs I was saying earlier about service, it\u2019s really to make whoever is playing Beyonc\u00e9, the listener who is Beyonc\u00e9 in that moment, have the opportunity to feel that. I\u2019m always gon f\u2013k with Beyonc\u00e9 on whatever s\u2013t she\u2019s doing, but the idea came into my mind because of what she represents.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tSince that Nas song, I\u2019ve worked on some s\u2013t for her, I\u2019ll say. But nobody knows what\u2019s coming out except for her, so I really have no idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe new tracks sort of depart from the cozier, more acoustically intimate vibe of the first two projects. Was that an intentional choice or was that simply where your heart was during the creative process?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tNo, it\u2019s super intentional because\u00a0if you listen to the first [project]\u00a0and the second one, you can hear my progression as a producer because I\u2019m just starting to take beats seriously. I love when I look back at these projects that they\u2019re time capsules of where I was in that moment, what I thought was cool, and what my capabilities were. Literally, the first one, I\u2019m playing the guitar and I don\u2019t know how to play the guitar. [Laughs<\/em>]. I\u2019m also playing the guitar on this one, but it\u2019s 10 years later. So I still don\u2019t know how to play the guitar, but you can hear the growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tWhat are some of your favorite original contemporary Christmas songs? How about the classics?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tAs far as contemporary \u2014 I can\u2019t wait to hear [this one] because\u00a0you asked me about harmonies and the core of all that is Brandy<\/a>. Let\u2019s just keep it real, that\u2019s the\u00a0basis of my style in general \u2013 I\u2019m super excited to hear Brandy\u2019s <\/em>Christmas album.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019ve heard some good Christmas rap songs over the years. I\u2019ve heard some good contemporary [songs], but I\u2019m trying to think of something other than this Brandy s\u2013t. I think my favorite contemporary Christmas songs are my own. As far as my favorite classics, of course, Mariah Carey. I\u2019ve had the pleasure of working with her a couple of times, and she\u2019s always pretty upset that nobody acknowledges that she\u2019s one of the best writers in the history of man. When I hear her snapping about that s\u2013t, I\u2019d be like You right, man. F\u2013k that!<\/em> because they is not putting nearly enough respect on this motherf\u2013ker\u2019s name. Not even close, bro. And then when I worked with her, I was like, Oh, [she] really does write?<\/em> She\u2019s not just an artist who wants to write to get the money, she\u2019s an actual writer who can just sing her a\u2013 off. She\u2019ll always be number one, literally and figuratively and philosophically.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u00a0really love [Paul McCartney<\/a>\u2019s] \u201cWonderful Christmastime.\u201d \u201cThis Christmas,\u201d that\u2019s a classic. The modern Christmas song Chris Brown<\/a> put out called \u201cIt\u2019s Giving Christmas,\u201d I like that one too.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tYou just picked up your first Grammy nomination as an artist and your first Grammy nom this decade. How does that feel? Especially in relation to your career longevity?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMan, I can\u2019t believe it. I\u2019ll tell people all the time, that the typical lifespan for a person like me in the business, it\u2019s like one to three years. Even for a big act, if you get one year, you did it.\u00a0I\u2019ve been doing this s\u2014t for like 18 years. I was not expecting to get nominated for a f\u2014king Grammy as an artist because I\u2019ve been telling everybody under the sun for 18 years or however long that I\u2019m not an artist. I am an artist, but I\u2019m not a professional recording artist. It\u2019s extremely exciting to still be in the game at all.\u00a0A month ago, Saturday Night Live<\/em> had a Donald Trump joke about\u00a0\u201cNo Air,\u201d and I\u2019m like Yo, that was my first hit song!<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tFor people to still\u00a0give any amount of attention or conversation or anything for anything I\u2019m doing is such a big deal to me because that\u2019s the part that never gets old\u00a0because they just don\u2019t have to do that. That means it really had an impact on them. To be this late in the game and still have new achievements and new opportunities and new possibilities happening is really such an honor. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tR&B has been in a great space lately with artists like Victoria Mon\u00e9t, Coco Jones and SZA killing it both critically and commercially. Where would you like to see the journey go next?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMy hope is if you listen to SZA<\/a>\u2019s development over the years, it\u2019s gotten to a quality level that I think is really admirable and respectable and serious \u2013 and still, she\u2019s growing. Every genre experiences a point where it goes off of the tracks of the mainstream and it kind of turns into this isolated place where it can just develop on its own, and typically that means people pay attention to it differently. But it also means that the genre has the freedom to develop without the pressure of success, so the creators are not thinking about it like that. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tR&B hit that point. I\u2019m more really thinking about R&B as it relates to gospel because gospel music has been able to develop so much that you have \u2014 even since the \u201990s, but from the \u201990s till now \u2014\u00a0this gospel tangent that\u2019s actually jazz. Kim Burrell<\/a>\u2018s doing jazz s\u2014t up and down, left and right. All these kinds of singers are, not just her, but like the whole genre of gospel that she started, it\u2019s all heavily jazz-based. I feel like R&B went through a bunch of different growing pains trying to figure out what was going to happen when it wasn\u2019t the Confessions <\/em>era \u2014 that\u2019s pop at this point, we\u2019re only calling it R&B because Usher<\/a>\u2019s Black, but\u00a0that\u2019s another conversation. It was at the height, and then it experienced what every genre that reaches that level experiences, which is too many opinions from people who aren\u2019t in it, because now it\u2019s making so much money. When [R&B] went through the struggles it went through, it had an opportunity to evolve and I think what it turned into is gangster rap.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tFuture<\/a>, Migos<\/a>, Drake<\/a> is the most overt because he\u2019s actually singing, but that\u2019s what happened to R&B, bro. It turned into gangster rap on one arm and it turned into [what] they call progressive R&B at the Grammys. But is that what is actually? It\u2019s just the freedom that the genre is allowed when it\u2019s not under the scrutiny of the machine to develop to such a point that it can focus on the quality. I think that that\u2019s where we\u2019re at. I think it\u2019s been happening. It was happening the whole time, like when the industry stopped f\u2014king with it, it didn\u2019t go away. I really feel like what we\u2019re going to experience going forward is a mixture of both. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tMusic has been going on in the industry since the 1920s and even though the hit songs have changed over the years, tempos, topics, whatever, the point of the music hasn\u2019t changed. It\u2019s to make people feel a certain way and these are the ingredients that I think are going to give us more diverse and more interesting forms of R&B going forward, and so I\u2019m personally going to continue to put that s\u2014t in my music and show as many people as possible that there\u2019s more.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI named only women in my previous question because I wanted to dig into your take on the state of male R&B, specifically in relation to women\u2019s dominance in the genre for much of the young decade.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \n\tThey gotta start talking to women, bro. I can\u2019t say it any simpler than Drake is the biggest n\u2014a, and who is his demographic? Which of his songs are the best ones? Because he got a lot of songs talking to n\u2014as, but which ones matter the most? Which ones make him Drake? It\u2019s just being aware of who you\u2019re talking to. I won\u2019t name their legendary names \u2014\u00a0but I talked to a lot of legendary people about when it happened and why it changed and, basically, when gangster rap came in, they all started saying the same thing. Women were like \u201cWe don\u2019t want that soft s\u2013t no more.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tStill, women are having such a big impact on what men are doing. You have to look past the statistics. You have to look past what the data is telling you people want and think about first, who are you? They need to focus on what we know is right.\u00a0Yes, you can make money giving people the world to escape into where they can be Scarface and be going extra hard on h\u2013s and beating people up and killing them and s\u2013t and that could be fun.\u00a0But you could also just watch Taken. <\/em>You\u2019re not gonna get the same feeling out of your target, which is women. There\u2019s two women for every man, and you\u2019re not gonna get the same response out of a woman that watches Taken <\/em>versus The Notebook.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI think that\u2019s part of the reason why the male artists are struggling. We need more. It should just be who you are. And I think that\u2019s really the issue with any modern artist, it\u2019s like, Are you doing something that\u2019s gonna matter? Are you doing something that\u2019s going to set you apart? Or are you doing what you heard yesterday?<\/em> Because in today\u2019s world, that\u2019s just not going to be acceptable. You don\u2019t want to be a replaceable slot in the playlist to have a long career, so I think the R&B guys are figuring that out, but it\u2019s going to be a process.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tLooking beyond the holiday season \u2013 once the decorations are taken down \u2013 what can fans expect from you in the new year?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tI\u2019m about to really be an artist, bro. How else can I show the people [who] supported me and made my life\u00a0into what it is, my appreciation? I put my full power, mind, creativity and energy into giving them what they\u2019re asking for. I\u2019m really about to be putting out music and doing shows \u2014 I just did the first show I\u2019ve done in years at a jazz festival with Terrace singing some of the Nova songs a couple of days ago. It\u2019s time. There\u2019s some more music that\u2019s been out that I\u2019m gonna finally put on DSPs. I did a joint album with someone that I think people are gonna be really surprised and excited about, and it\u2019s done. I\u2019m really about to start giving everybody my interpretation of what albums should sound like in the world I\u2019m trying to create and we\u2019ll see how it goes, but\u00a0I\u2019m excited!<\/p>\n \n\tHere\u2019s the full tracklist for The Warmest Winter Ever:<\/em><\/p>\n \n\t*previously unreleased<\/p>\n \n\t1. Unwrapped*<\/p>\n \n\t2. Bad Bad Bad*<\/p>\n \n\t3. Magic*<\/p>\n \n\t4. Bring That Shit to Santa*<\/p>\n \n\t5. Mrs Claus*<\/p>\n \n\t6. The Neck*<\/p>\n \n\t7. Miracle*<\/p>\n \n\t8. Christmas List*<\/p>\n \n\t9. Sleigh*<\/p>\n \n\t10. Nice Or Not<\/p>\n \n\t11. Body Heat<\/p>\n \n\t12. Spiritual Gift<\/p>\n \n\t13. Is It Morning Yet<\/p>\n \n\t14. It Rains Everywhere<\/p>\n \n\t15. Christmas Lights<\/p>\n \n\t16. Christmas Everyday<\/p>\n \n\t17. Christmas Everynight<\/p>\n \n\t18. Give You Love<\/p>\n \n\t19. The Present<\/p>\n \n\t20. Stocking Stuffer<\/p>\n \n\t21. Dreaming<\/p>\n \n\t22. Like Summer<\/p>\n \n\t23. Mistletoe ft. Maeta<\/p>\n \n\t24. Open Up<\/p>\n \n\t25. You Can Get It<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n