If you’re looking for a definitive and specific answer from Maxwell about when the long-awaited third part of his planned trilogy of albums will finally come out, well, unfortunately, the R&B singer is not quite there yet.
In the summer of 2016 — seven years after the debut of Part 1 (titled “BLACKsummers’night”) and just as Part 2 (“blackSUMMERS’night”) was being released — he went on record as saying he’d be done with it that fall. Five years later, Part 3 still wasn’t out, but was promised as a spring ’22 release when he announced a 2022 tour and dropped the new single “OFF” last November.
But once again, it missed its target, with no sign of “blacksummers’NIGHT” when he launched “The Night Tour” in Dallas on March 2.
Now, Maxwell says, chuckling: “It’s a spring-ish, summer-ish, experience-ish, thing-ish. If that makes any sense.”
Then he almost immediately clarifies his plan. “Yeah, it’s coming out this summer.”
His hope now is that the tour will provide some of the inspiration he needs to finish the oft-delayed project. In an interview with the Observer recently, the 48-year-old artist explained how that could happen; why people who buy his new album (once it’s available) won’t need Tinder; and what it’s like to still be doing splits during live performances at his age.
The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q. Last time we saw you here in Charlotte was October 2018 for the “50 Intimate Nights” tour. I’m curious how the past 3, 3-1/2 years have been for you, and what it’s like to be back on stage.
A: It was a very dark period for me. I saw people were dying all over the world (from COVID). Businesses had shut down. It was bleak. I did my best to keep in good spirits. But it was very, very tough to watch the world go through what it did. It was very tough to see the anguish that people were experiencing — the people on the front lines, the nurses, the doctors. Just very chaotic.
I’m just grateful that we’re here now, and we’re able to celebrate the fact that we got through it. And hopefully learned from it, and be a little bit nicer to each other. Show a little bit more humanity and compassion to each other.
One thing I can say about the performances that we’ve had recently is — not that audiences weren’t gracious at all before — but it’s almost like we’re all like, “Wow! We’re out! We’re outside! You’re outside, I’m outside, we’re here!” I think people really appreciate just being able to go somewhere and do something, remembering how to dress. I literally forgot. You know, like, “Oh yeah, this is how you tie your shoes.” Because it was like sweats every day, and you just were home all the time.
So it’s great that we’re back, and it’s nice that people are seeing the footage from the show, and they’re aware that there are so many people who are coming to the shows. Hopefully that will give people encouragement, other artists, to get out there as well. Because I think people really need their date night. And they need it to be outside (of their homes). Not inside date night. Outside date night.
Q. I was reading an interview with you from six years ago, when the last album came out, where you talked about how Part 3 would be on the darker side, and that it would have a political edge. So what happened with that idea after you actually went through a darker-than-expected period in your life?
A: Now the only songs I want to put on this album are love songs. I literally went through what I was gonna put out on this album, and I don’t think we need to revisit what everyone went through through my music. Maybe I’ll do like a spin-off of it down the road, as a reminder to us all, in some ways. I don’t know. But that’s why “OFF” was released, because it just was champagne and strawberries and chocolate and whipped cream and satin sheets and bubble baths.
I just want to give people love, because I feel like hate has been so prevalent throughout the last couple of years. The conflicts, the inability to agree or disagree, people not even having that civility.
Q. You’re a few shows into the tour. How are things going so far? I heard you had some big, energetic crowds in Texas and New Orleans.
A: Yeah, yeah, people are out. It’s crazy! They can’t believe it — and I can’t believe — that people are next to each other. It’s almost like, “Do we still do this?” But yeah, it’s been great, sharing the stage with (opening acts) Joe and Anthony (Hamilton), and celebrating love and music and R&B and soul. I’m just happy. I feel great, because I feel like I’m like ringing the alarm to people, like, “Heyyy, it’s alriiight, everybody. It’s cooool. Come on out.”
Everyone’s been safe. We have great protocol in terms of COVID. Obviously I have to be a little bit more careful than a lot of other people, because if I get sick — (he lets out an exasperated-sounding sigh) ...
I’m rusty. I’m getting it together. It’s been a while. All tours have been like that for me — the first four or five shows, we’re still trying to figure out what the cues are and sometimes the audience is completely oblivious. But, of course, I see and know everything that I’ve done wrong that night. And I give myself hell for it. Every time. But I’m just happy that we’re all getting to be out, and getting back to remembering what it’s like to interact with each other in person, not with each other through phones.
Q. You said you’re rusty, but I hear you’re still doing splits on stage.
A. Yeahhh. They happen.
Q. Are those harder than they used to be, or — ?
A. No, no, no. They’re not hard, because I’m pretty safe in how I do it. It’s not like I’m like planning it, and “OK, one and two and here it comes.” For me, it comes out of nowhere. It’s a thing that just overtakes you, and you just do it. Sometimes I’ll do it, and sometimes it maybe doesn’t happen. Usually it does. But yeah, I’m just grateful that I’m 48 years old and I can still get up there.
Q. Are you feeling your age in other ways?
A. It’s funny because when I wrote the first album (1996’s Grammy-nominated “Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite”), I was 20, 21, 22. Those songs are not songs directed at 16-year-olds, or people that were my age. So I’ve always had an old-soul kind of situation that I like more. I think I’m growing into the music that I made when I was a kid. So I don’t feel weird singing it. I don’t feel like, “What am I doing singing ‘Sumthin’ Sumthin’’ or ‘Ascension’ or ‘... Til the Cops’ or ‘Pretty Wings’?”
When I was very young, I was like, “Well, who are my heroes?” Obviously, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Michael (Jackson). And I would say, “Why are they so great?” The songs are classics. That’s why. Why was Frank Sinatra able to sell out Madison Square Garden when he was 60? Because his songs are classics. He wasn’t doing the trends, he wasn’t interested in trends. That’s always a very tricky thing when it comes to composing, because radio is wanting something, and obviously kids today, it’s their time to express themselves. And I actually really appreciate a lot of the stuff that I hear from a lot of the young artists.
Q. I wanted to go back to the album for a minute, and what you were saying about the shift in tone over the past six years.
A. Yeah, it’ll have some of what I wanted it to have. But there’ll be a lot more love, and a lot more romance, and a lot more things that I feel like people were longing for. You will not need Tinder. Just buy this record, and you’re good.
Q. So, is it fair to say that some of the songs you’ll have on the album, they may not have existed if not for what we’ve been through over the past couple years, just because what you were thinking the album should be has changed?
A. Yeah, they probably wouldn’t have existed. I mean, I can tell you right now that we’ve composed at least 200 (songs). I just write songs, and write things, as much as I can. I don’t put everything out, because I like to wait and see what it all means. You know, do I still like it after six months? If I do, then it’s got a pretty good shot of doing well, right? So that’s usually my litmus test for the music.
But this tour is shaping the album as we go. It’s the same thing that happened in 2008 before I released the first part of it (2009’s “BLACKsummers’night”). For that, I was on the road first, and then I think I introduced “Pretty Wings” and “Bad Habits.”
Being able to be in front of people ... the live experience ignites writing in a way that — you know, if I was just holed up in a cubicle somewhere just banging out records, it would be different. When you see people, and you see what people react to, then you can test it.
Q. Does that mean there are maybe a couple of spots open on the album still, and you think that some of the inspiration is going to come out of what happens over the next month and a half on the road?
A. Yeah, it could be that — or just existing songs may be adjusted in some way because of the show. I think getting on a roll is what is gonna be needed for me.
Over the past couple of years, I did suffer with a little bit of mental issues, a little depression. It was just a tough time. And you also feel guilty, because you’re kind of like in a safe place, and you think about your old neighborhood and who’s still alive, and then you’re getting news about who passed away. I lost five friends from COVID deaths and then two friends from other things.
But it’s really been great to be back out there. The people give you the life. They give you their energy. I mean, these last three shows have been really good for therapy, in terms of just, like, mental state. There’s love. People are singing along to everything. They’re singing along to Joe, to Anthony, to myself — then they go home happy. That actually really is what I was born to do, I guess: Bring that joy, somehow. To have it be cut off from you, and then to have the access be granted yet again, you’re like, “OK, I remember what my purpose was.”
So getting back, I’ve really appreciated it. Because usually I schedule the pauses. But the universe created the pause, so it gave me a lot of time to reflect about the meaning of life and all these things, and obviously get into more writing.
Listen, humans are amazing. It’s not as bad as you read about in the news. And now I get to see people clapping, singing, dancing in the aisles.
It’s pretty awesome.
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