Daniel Debourg

THE HISTORY
“It may sound strange, but I never doubted for a moment that this would work,” says dancer-turned-singer/songwriter Daniel Debourg. “I’ve been moving toward music ever since I could walk.”
Debourg justifies his bold career move with his debut album, Tell The World (released April 9, 2002, on DreamWorks Records). Graced by classic “blue-eyed soul” vocals, whip-smart beats and a pop creative sensibility, Tell The World explores the many-splendored thing that is love – from the first flush of infatuation to the unshakable emptiness of loss. “Book Of Love” and “Shadow” are introspective, yearning. “Don’t Make Me Wait,” conversely, sizzles with earthy sexuality, while “Really Need You” echoes the sound of a breaking heart.
First radio track “I Need An Angel,” written and produced by R. Kelly, resonates with a gospel edge. Infectious dance rhythms drive the uplifting “Tell The World,” which Debourg co-wrote with producers Tim & Bob, perhaps best known for their collaboration with Sisqo on “The Thong Song” (but also notable for their work with TLC, Monica and Boyz II Men). And sumptuous strings, arranged by longtime Prince collaborator Claire Fisher, leaven Daniel’s raw delivery of “Really Need You.” Rapper Heavy D and Jodeci drummer Dalvin Degrate also make their mark on the album.
A native of England who currently resides in London, Daniel recorded the bulk of Tell The World in Los Angeles with Tim & Bob, who crafted each song around his vocals. “We’d sit on the beach in Malibu in the mornings with an acoustic guitar and work on ideas,” he remembers. “Then we’d lock ourselves in the studio and work all day. Of all the people out there, I wanted most to work with Tim & Bob. Whenever I heard a truly wicked track, it turned out to be one of theirs.”
Still, this fruitful pairing would never have come to pass if it weren’t for an offhand suggestion by a girlfriend shouted above the din of a German disco. Previously a principal dancer with the renowned Rambert Dance Company, Daniel had never considered leaving his flourishing career for a long-shot at music. “This friend and I were out one night,” he confirms, “and I was sort of drunk and I started singing. Out of nowhere, she says, ‘You should put together a demo – I know someone in London who’s looking for new talent.’”
Figuring it was a lark, Daniel dutifully sang a few songs a cappella into a Dictaphone, then sent the tiny tape to artist manager Dean Zepherin. “It was a total surprise when Dean phoned me back and asked me to come to his studio,” Daniel admits. “I had never sung professionally, never been in a recording booth, but I went in and we did ‘Three Times a Lady,’ which my mom used to play all the time. Unbelievably, Dean said, ‘I want to sign you up and be your manager.’ We’ve been working together ever since.” Zepherin, in turn, brought Daniel to the attention of DreamWorks Records, where he was ultimately signed by senior creative executive Robbie Robertson.
“When I met Daniel, I immediately got a feeling something was going on,” says Robertson. “Here was what seemed like this street kid who turns out to be one of the top young dancers in the world. And then I hear his music, and he reminds me of Marvin Gaye! It was clear he’s someone who admires Gaye, and Al Green and Stevie Wonder, but he wasn’t trying to copy them; he had a very modern sense of how he wanted to present his sound.”
That was demonstrated when Daniel said he wanted to work with Tim & Bob. Robertson continues: “It was one of those great coincidences because we were already working with Tim & Bob at DreamWorks. So I took Daniel’s music to them and they said, ‘This guy’s amazing – we definitely want to work with him.’ It seemed like a match made in heaven.”
Effortless as all this seems on the surface, however, the choice to dive headfirst into music was not an easy one for Daniel. He confides: “I never do anything half-assed, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to give up my dance career entirely for something that was so unsure. I was 21 and touring Europe and it was very exciting. But when I really looked at it, I realized I’d achieved all I wanted to with dance and it was time to move into this great unknown.”
Daniel’s life as a performer began in Chelmsford, England, when he was four. His mother, an amateur pianist, couldn’t help but notice the youngster’s affinity for music and natural grasp of rhythm, so she enrolled him in dance classes at the local church. “I really knew it was for me when ‘Thriller’ came out and I saw the video with everyone dancing,” he relates. “I was absolutely besotted – I wanted to do every move Michael Jackson did.”
“Chelmsford is a very male, football-loving town,” Daniel continues. “Very ‘Blokes don’t wear tights.’ It was exactly like the movie ‘Billy Elliot.’ But I didn’t care because I knew who I was.” By the age of seven, he was dancing in the Essex Dance Company, a professional troupe for children; at 11, he was spotted by a talent scout and asked to audition for the Royal Ballet School. Notoriously competitive, the Royal Ballet School auditions more than 10,000 dancers a year for a handful of coveted spots. Daniel was among the select few.
For the next five years, he danced four hours a day, but he also fronted a band with classmates. Though he loved singing and playing guitar, his dance career was moving forward with lightning speed – he was top of his class by 17 – and Daniel never really had time to seriously contemplate a career in music.
It was a solo at a school performance that caught the eye of the director of the Rambert Dance Company, who offered Daniel a job with the prestigious corps. “I was the youngest dancer in the company by at least seven years,” Daniel points out, still somewhat amazed. “I started to get really good parts fairly early.” And he danced solos everywhere from San Francisco to Bangkok.
As might be expected, it came as something of a shock to Daniel’s friends and family when he decided to chuck it all for a chance at pop stardom. “My parents were horrified at first,” he reports. “They said, ‘You’re doing so well. You’ve worked on this all your life. Don’t throw it away.’ But – and I can’t stress this enough – the whole time I was dancing, the music inside me was trying to get out, nagging and nagging at me, growing all the time. But because I was doing so well in dance, I just did my best to ignore it.”
Once Daniel made the commitment to stop ignoring the music within, he began working with Dean in earnest, recording proper demos to submit to producers. He made ends meet by dancing in music videos and writing songs for other artists, including a U.K. Top 5 hit, “Money,” for British singer Jamelia. “It was like any other singer starting out,” he says. “I had to take quite a few crap day jobs. But I didn’t mind and I managed to stay focused.”
Daniel was not surprised when his family rallied around him, realizing just how happy he was with his new direction. “They’ve always supported me,” he explains. “Unfortunately, right when their confidence in me was starting to look warranted – when I got my record deal – my father fell ill with cancer.” His mother was already battling the disease. Nonetheless, both insisted he follow his heart, so when Daniel got that once-in-a-lifetime call from Robbie Robertson, he boarded a plane to L.A.
Feeling a responsibility to his parents as well as to himself, he hit the studio like a man with a mission, riding an initial rush of creative energy that resulted in two dozen songs in five weeks.
Recalls Robertson, “Even before Daniel went into the studio with Tim & Bob, the spark had been lit. When they started recording, the whole thing caught fire very quickly because there was so much enthusiasm and everybody was on the same page stylistically. You could feel the inspiration in the air. One of them would be working on beats, another would be working on music and another on lyrics, and they’d all pump each other up. It was almost in the tradition of Motown, where there’d be all these talented people around and when they got in the same room together, incredible things happened.”
As the collaboration deepened, Daniel found himself stretching as an artist. “I co-wrote nine of the songs on the album,” he says. “Tim & Bob were amazing, working out these concepts with me. They invited my input on everything.”
Daniel was similarly gratified by his recording experience with R. Kelly. “R. gave me an hour or so with the track before he came to the studio, which was cool because I was able to focus and do my thing. When he arrived, I was just finishing the ad-libs. We played the track and from the first line, he was just smiling and singing along. When the track faded out, he said, ‘There’s nothing for me to say – you own this track, man. This is big.’ I was just freaking out. It was the combination of meeting R., finishing the song and feeling really good about it, R.’s reaction and jet lag – I’d flown from London to Chicago that day. I remember thinking, ‘This is some “Twilight Zone” shit.’”
Later that night, Kelly took Robertson aside. “When R. first got to the studio,” he says, “I sensed he was a bit hesitant. He hadn’t met Daniel and didn’t really know what he was capable of. After the session, he admitted he’d been uncertain, that he wasn’t sure how the song would work out. But then he told me how thrilled he was with the track and how brilliantly he felt Daniel had performed. He said, ‘Daniel is fantastic.’”
The singer-songwriter is now looking forward to sharing the results of all this hard work. “Tell The World expresses so much of me,” he reveals, “so much of what I’ve been wanting to say over the years.”
Clearly, many of Daniel’s unspoken feelings have been about women. “These songs are a collection of ladies,” he affirms. “I had a girlfriend while I was recording most of the album, but I always look at other peoples’ relationships, too. I’ve seen so much go on with my friends. All humans go through this push and pull of love and relationships and emotions. It’s universal.”
That revealed, Daniel hastens to offer some listening suggestions: “This is a good CD to keep in the bedroom. You can get down on the dance floor with a lot of these songs – but there are other places you might like to get down as well.”