I mean, the album has a sound as though as it was produced by a major label. It's filled with songs of substance and I couldn’t find any fillers, honestly!! Let’s get into detail about how the songs came about, ok? Let’s start with... “Lonely Woman”.

N'Dambi: Bless you Andreas!! “Lonely Woman” started out with words first. I tend to do that with almost all of my songs. I was on a bus ride, I guess in the City, Dallas, Texas, and I had written something in my journal about my aunt. Actually, the song is about my aunt, so she inspired it. After I felt the words, we did the arrangement to the song. People only get to hear the 1st arrangement. There are a couple of other arrangements of that song that people will probably never hear, but once we found the one that worked the best that was the one we used.

Andreas Hellingh: I heared that you started your own company?

N'Dambi: Yes. My company is called Cheeky-I Productions, and it’s basically a label that manufactures my CDs right now. The point being is that once there are more resources, I hope to put on other artists who do similar things and want exposure. Hopefully I can be a venue to help other artists do that.

Andreas: Let’s talk about your debut release “Little Lost Girls Blues”. What can you tell us about “I Think For Sure”?

Andreas: So what inspires you to write songs?

N'Dambi: I write songs mostly… Well, I let divine intervention step in and that’s when I write. I don’t really try to choose to write a song about a particular topic because when I try that it becomes too contrived, and it usually doesn’t sound natural. So I like to write when I’m inspired, and if divine intervention steps in, then that’s all the better. Things that inspire me can range from the sound of dishes clinking to country n’ western music or daily living. Sometimes songs that are created in five minutes are usually the best songs, so I let that guide me when I’m writing.

Andreas: People recognize the voice, and the music, but there’s little else that we know about you. Where are you from girl?

N'Dambi: Well, N’Dambi (Chonita Gilbert) was born in 1970, Dallas, Texas. I’m the eldest of two children, two girls. I began playing piano at a very young age. I guess from when I was 5 years old and continued up until I was 15. I also played the clarinet when I was in Junior High so I’ve always been involved in music in some kind of way. I sang in a choir. My father was a pastor of a church, and my mother, a missionary that’s a minister now.

Music has always been an inspiration and I knew that it was going to be a part of my life no matter what. I went to a high school for business studies though (N’Dambi starts laughing…) which is such a contradiction, but doing that was good for me because it taught me about another part of the world and it brought about a balance. I was an artsy kid and I didn’t want to do anything other than being involved in the arts.

After that I went away to college and earned my degree in creative writing and said, “Hey I’m gonna be a writer first”, but somehow I started to do my own music before the writing thing. I grew up with a childhood friend, Erika Wright known as Erykah Badu. Most people thought that we were sisters but actually we’re really good friends, more like sisters. We made this pact that whomever got a deal first, would take the other along on the road. Erykah just so happened to have landed a deal with a major label first and I sang background vocals for her.

That was the start of people recognizing me, plus they noticed my hair, a BIG AFRO!, which back then, became my signature. People started being interested in and looking for me to do things and began to ask me when I was going to record my own music. Soon afterwards I focused on my own music. Maybe a year later my debut album was released and that was the beginning.

Andreas: Is there an outstanding show you remember from when you performed with Erykah?

N'Dambi: There is this show Erykah and I did for B.E.T. (Black Entertainment Television) that was very special to me. It was aired on Planet Groove whom premiered her album and music. It was the very first TV show she had ever done and the first time that anyone had ever seen any of us, namely Karen Bernod and another background singer by the name of Joyce. It was when people first got a glimpse of who we were. We did a whole performance and it was simply great – the most memorable show for me!

Andreas: Erykah Badu has been quoted saying “N’Dambi is the reason I sing”; what’s the story behind that?

N'Dambi: Mmm, well that would be left for her to say but, we were, I think, like inspirations in senses, growth periods. We spend a lot of time singing and practicing together. There was this venue, my cousin has an art gallery, that he would schedule hip hop shows in that Erykah would host, and we would freestyle while people would get up and do Hip-Hop rhymze! Erykah would rhyme and I would sing in between. This is how our inspirations were fed. I think that maybe it’s part of the reason why she says that, but I’ll give you her number and you can ask her yourself! (N’Dambi laughs…)

Andreas: Do you still plan to perform as a backing singer for Erykah or do you perform ‘only’ as a solo artist?

N'Dambi: Well, nowadays I only perform as a lead vocalist. It was a very, very good experience and it was hard for me to let it go but at some point I wanted to establish myself as a solo artist. I focus more on making my own music and performing wherever possible. People should come and see what I really do, get a good feel, because there’s a lot more to me than just that. So hopefully I’m exposing people to that.

Andreas: What did you do prior to singing and background vocals?

N'Dambi: Well I’d have to say that with Erykah, it was my start in the music business. Before I started making music I worked at a bank, and that’s so far away from doing music (N’Dambi laughs). That was my first job when I was out of college and I thought I was going to be this fabulous writer, of books.

N'Dambi: It kinda goes beyond a description, I avoid categories but I hope that it has a broad range of styles and influences that inspires all listeners to be creative, or that it is music to meditate or relax to, you know, feel as if they can transcend something, serve as something more of an inspiration.

Andreas: Your debut, “Little Lost Girls Blues” was rather hip hop-flavoured. Then you recorded “Tunin Up & Cosignin” with the same songs as on your first set. They have more of a live, jazzier feel than on your debut. What inspired you to that?

N'Dambi: I wanted people to have the feel of a live performance because in the beginning I was unable to tour while trying to establish myself as an artist. When I did the recording I was in a studio that inspired the feel of a jazzy live performance. That’s how it turned out. It was like a Carmen McRae album, in the way that she would have done them. The place had a warm home environment, with a wood-burning stove and logs, like a barn that was converted into a recording studio. It inspired the feel of the second album, which was recorded in one room. It was like a two-inch recording! Very live, a feeling as if people were at a live show.

Andreas: In which venues do you prefer to perform? On a big stage, intimate club, during a festival? Which?

N'Dambi: I like performing in intimate clubs, I like performing when people are really listening. I don’t like performing at big places where people talk, (N’Dambi laughs…) it makes me work harder, and if I have to, I will. I love a big audience, but the best audience are the ones that can be touched, they are usually at smaller clubs. I love that the most.

Andreas: Now, N’Dambi, you used the same musicians that played on Erykah’s album, Mama’s Gun, including the smash hit, Bag Lady. Are these musicians real jazz musicians, I mean they seem to be perfectly at home playing real jazz.

N'Dambi: Well actually they’re all-around-overall musicians that have a gospel background that developed further in performing arts high school. We all grew up in the same neighborhood, played for churches as well as jazz, and studied music theory. They are not just limited to jazz because they can do so many other things well.

N'Dambi: I’d have to say, Ode 2 Nina, because Nina Simone inspires it. A relationship I was in inspires it too. When I got the music, I began writing the song and I really wanted to get the impact of Nina’s influence on me through.

N'Dambi: Black Star has more of a gospel influence. It was produced by Kenneth Crouch, the nephew of Andre Crouch who’s a famous gospel singer/performer/arranger/pianist that asked, “What can you write that would fit this music?”, and when I heard it, I thought, “Wow! this sounds like something space-y! He asked if the word “nebula” could be written into the lyrics when we wrote the song. It’s about a person, full of ambition who wanted to be all that he could be but at the same time there were demises and insecurities that prevented him from reaching his full potential. It’s really a song that’s meant to inspire all to rise above to be the best that they could be.

N'Dambi: Sometimes people tend to over-categorize what you do and that can be very limiting. The songs are only one facet of who I am, not all that there is of me. They’re something that I like and that’s how they turned out that day.

N'Dambi: I don’t consider myself a jazz singer at all unfortunately. That’s a title too high to uphold. I’m learning to become one. There are so many things to learn before I can become a successful jazz singer. So I consider myself a soul singer that paints in different areas but I’m learning more and more about different textures within music. I’d like to learn to use my voice as an instrument in different ways. I’m a jazz singer in training!

Andreas: Are there any other female artists that you know besides Erykah, Yahzarah and Karen Bernod that we should know about?

N'Dambi: Sure! Some of the artist, my friends, you may already be familiar with, like, Jill Scott and India Arie. These are very good people to listen to including Julie Dexter, another good friend of mine. Donnie, whom I also happen to know well, should have a good listening to. There are lots of other artists that I’m finding out about such as Goapale, an artist from San Francisco, and I like Tweet. There are others based in New York that I’m discovering and as I get to know them I like to recommend them.

Andreas: N’Dambi, I’ve been waiting to ask this; Are you currently working on any new material? Is there a third album in the works?

N'Dambi: Yes I am! I’m currently busy with material for a new album. I don’t want to get stuck in one particular style. Most of these songs are up-tempo, it’s an experiment for whatever reason and I’m trying to see how that feels for me. It may be an album filled with fast songs but I’ll make sure it will contain live instrumentation, it has to have that feel. I like how it’s turned out so far. I’m trying to take my music to the next level, try a variety of things, so, it is something new, that I haven’t done before and we’ll see how it comes out. I expect that the album will be completed by late 2003. I’ll clue you in on a little secret: the title will be, “A Weird Kinda Wonderful”.