Miguel doesn’t sound too happy with the state of R&B.  The “Adorn” singer thinks the genre has become a caricature of itself using buzzwords like “sexy” and “sensual.”  Miguel wants his new album Kaleidoscope Dream to go back to a time before that.

The San Pedro native sat down with AMP Radio’s McCabe in the Red Bull Sound Space to talk about getting R&B back to it’s roots.  You would be surprised by some of Miguel’s biggest influences.  He credits The Bee Gees and Hall & Oats among others as a golden era of R&B.

“It was creative and progressive for its time, you know what I’m saying?  Somehow I feel we’ve lost sight of that, and for this album, for me it’s my way of hopefully reminding people that R&B doesn’t have to have a specific aesthetic.  It doesn’t have to have specific topic.  It’s not reserved for the bedroom”

Miguel can’t help but not be romantic though.  “You’re making us all look bad,” McCabe said when Miguel mentioned thinking about his longtime girlfriend when coming up with the lyrics for “Adorn.”

“I was just missing her.  I hopped on a plane and I was hearing these chords in my head for the past week I’ve been playing with this word adorn and I was like ‘man that would be so cool.’”

You’ll have plenty of chances to see the romantic Miguel in the future.  He lists touring as one of his favorite things. “There’s no substitute for connecting on a personal level in a live setting.”  He’s currently on tour with Trey Songz and will be opening for Alicia Keys in the future.

“Adorn” is the first single off Kaleidoscope Dream, and is available everywhere.

-AJ Gordon, 97.1 AMP Radio/Los Angeles

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