A lot of the hot music today comes from what's being done in R&B and hip-hop.
Just trying to get to know what director Bill Condon wanted. He's a great director and knows exactly what he wants. He knew every lyric to every song; knew where a handicap was.
The more people who come from musical backgrounds and go into promotion, production, songwriting, A&R, plus get their business head together, the better. They'll not only understand the business aspect, they'll also have a true passion and ear for how quality is represented musically. Plus consumers will always have a hunger for R&B music.
We feel pretty comfortable making music but beyond that there have been other things to take into account, including promotion, marketing, airplay.
There was a time when certain producers could produce just about anything, and the label execs would say, "That's a such-and-such record. Let's put that out as the first single."
We're not just R&B guys. We can do pop, rock, blues . . . a wide variety. We are musicians and play several instruments. We understand how to record things live and work with an orchestra. We can also program with a drum machine and work with all the other computerized components that are current today.
The way radio is working right now, you can't put out anything just based on the producer's name. The general public and radio are so selective and focused on a certain genre and a certain set of songs that you have to have a great song to crack through all that.
We constantly try to change and stay fresh. We've done a lot of different styles of music: R&B, hip-hop, rock, orchestral. So when people hear us doing a rock'n'roll record or a movie like "Dreamgirls," they'll say, "Hey, that doesn't sound like an Underdogs sound."
