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Q and A with Damita Haddon
| (Questions by Lin. Woods. Answers from
Damita Haddon)
By Lin. Woods
Damita Haddon has been on the gospel recording
scene for over a decade. Although many know
her from her Stellar Award winning work
with the Voices of Unity and from singing
with her husband, Deitrick Haddon, she is
a force to be reckoned with and highly respected
in gospel. I recently talked with her about
her latest CD, No Looking Back (Tyscot).
This is what she shared.
Lin:
Your parents were both in ministry. Were
they strict on you?
Damita:
My parents were both preachers and pastors.
Gospel was all I remember hearing in the
house, from James Cleveland and Shirley
Caesar to the O'Neal Twins. We were a musical
family; and it was just church and music.
I remember running around the house picking
up records, brushes and combs and singing
into them when my mom would play a record.
Lin:
Who did you listen to that has influenced
your musical style?
Damita:
The Clark Sisters, Rance Allen, Michael
Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Tina Turner, Sting,
Celine Dion, Cold Play and The Winans.
Lin:
How did you meet your husband Deitrick and
end up singing with the Voices of Unity
Choir, which earned you a Stellar Award
in 2006?
Damita:
We were introduced to each other by a mutual
friend in high school. During my senior
year in high school I started going over
to his church. We started singing together
in the choir and traveling together. We've
been married for twelve years now.
Lin:
When did you get your professional break
as an artist?
Damita:
In the 1990s my twin sister Margarita and
I formed Adoration and Praise; an all girl
a cappella group. We were invited to sing
at the president of TM Records' birthday
party. We didn't even know this guy had
a record label. Immediately after we sang,
he asked us if we were interested in signing
a deal and recording on his label. And within
a couple of months we were in the studio.
Our first release was Time Is Running
Out.
Lin:
Besides singing with Voices of Unity, who
else have you sung with and what else have
you done?
Damita:
I went on the road with Rance Allen and
The Clark Sisters. I also performed in a
lot of plays. Aretha Franklin heard me sing
at one of them and asked me to become one
of her singers. So I traveled with the “Queen
of Soul” as a background singer.
Lin:
No Looking Back is your second solo project,
the first was on Atlantic. Who worked with
you on this one?
Damita:
My brother-in-law Gerald Haddon and I produced
the majority of this record. My entire career
I've been used to working with my husband.
We write and produce everything together,
but this time around I had to do it on my
own. It was very scary for me. So I called
Gerald in Los Angeles and I went to work
with him in L.A. for about three months.
I wrote the majority of the record along
with him and his wife Tammi.
Lin:
Can you describe the music on it?
Damita:
It's universal and youthful. I think that
our young people really need this right
now. We really need to get their attention.
They are faced with so much temptation and
if we don't do something that makes them
feel special, that moves and motivates them,
somebody else will. And I'm hoping No
Looking Back will bring a fresh innovative
new sound to Gospel and set a tone and a
foundation for Urban Contemporary sounds
and uplift souls. I want to be one of the
etching stones paving the way for the next
generation that may be even a little bit
more outrageous than me!
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