Jay Sean says the time is right for "Neon"
Jay Sean is finally ready to unveil his fourth studio album, "Neon," which arrives Tuesday on Cash Money Records.
"Am I anxious? Not really. Am I ready? Hell yeah," Sean said during a visit to CBSNews.com last week. "I've been ready for the past God knows how many years."
That would be about four years, to be exact -- four years since the London-born star released a new studio effort. His last offering, 2009's "All of Nothing," featured the smash hit "Down." And fans have been chomping at the bit ever since.
After a few attempts, Sean finally felt like he had the right set of song selections, collaborators ("Neon" features appearances by Rick Ross, Ace Hood and Busta Rhymes) and probably most importantly -- the right timing. In the past year, there's certainly been a noticeable rise in popularity of R&B music -- a sound Sean had hoped to channel on the new release. It's a sound that's very apparent on "Neon's" lead single, "Mars."
"It's one of those things where I'm so relieved that we are at a time when we are able to put out a single like 'Mars' to showcase the album," Sean said. "That wasn't possible a year ago...Because to be honest, it took people like Miguel, like Robin Thicke, like Frank Ocean and all these serious singer-songwriters that care about the craft to have some success with it and not just be niche. Because that allowed me to come back with what I've been wanting to do the whole time. I didn't want to put an album out full of dance records -- just because that's all that was on radio."
Recorded in Los Angeles and Miami, "Neon" took a little while to fully come together. "I took my time to make it. I'm not mad about that," Sean said.
But that doesn't mean Sean was out of the spotlight completely; In between recording sessions, he made appearances all over the world. "Normally when I've done my albums, we block off six months, a year, whatever -- and break it up into a few month portions -- and then go tour," he added. "The international side of things, I have to keep that going. Internationally, I go around and do shows for them. It was staggered like that."
Before going in to the studio to lay down the tracks for "Neon," Sean debated whether to team up with a new set of producers, but soon realized: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Just because a songwriter or producer has a new hit on the radio wasn't reason enough for him to tap different songwriting collaborators, he said.
"What ends up happening is you end up with an album that may not feel like a complete body of work. You've got singles from all over the place...I think it took a while for me to really understand that in order to put out a real body of work," he said.
"That's why I ended up writing the bulk of the album with OFM, the same people that I wrote 'Down' and everything else with -- and the same people who produced 'Mars,'" said Sean.
Check out the CBSNews.com video interview above to hear more from Jay Sean, including the latest on his tour plans and lead single, "Mars."
