We love LA
SheKnows: You’ve lived all over the world, what do you enjoy about living in LA?
Seal: LA is a very unique place. You have an abundance of space. Space equals a certain kind of freedom – being able to control your environment. The downside of that is you need to drive everywhere. But, then there’s the cultural aspect. There are a lot of great sounds that have been an integral part of pop music history has come out of Los Angeles – some of the greatest records of all time. It has its own qualities to it. It doesn’t hit you in the face like New York or London. That kind of creative energy comes looking for you in London. It doesn’t come looking for you in LA. But, LA is spread out and you have to look for it. But, it’s there alright.
SheKnows: What now inspires you as a songwriter?
Seal: What inspires me are events like what’s happened in American on election day. That is all the inspiration I need to carry me through the next five albums. It’s incredible what’s happened in America. It’s incredible. Eight years ago you have a country that elected George W. Bush. It’s a country that had two planes flown into the very symbols of democracy that it strives so hard to defend. A country, that is made of immigrants, that was made to feel that its immigrants was its’ weakest link. It was a country that was pointing its fingers at everyone who looked different, calling each other terrorists. It was a country where the word Muslim was a dirty word. But, some seven years after that, you have a 47-year old African American man that embodies the very fabric America is all about under the name of Barack Hussein Obama who is the Commander in Chief of the United States of America. I can tell you as somebody who has traveled all corners of the world, we will be in the ground before that happens anywhere else. That only happens in America. God bless America.
Election emotion
SheKnows: I understand Heidi voted for the first time!
Seal: That was the proudest, proudest of it for me. America is a great country that I now have a vested interest in with three American children and my wife, who now has American citizenship. But my family’s in America right now and I’m in Europe. I was so disappointed that I wasn’t going to be able to be home with them and witness this historic day in American history and the history of the world. Upon thinking about it, there was no better place to be than in Europe. You have no idea the message that you have sent around the world. People were in tears. I was in Paris this morning – people were in tears in Paris. You have no idea what this means to the rest of the world. You have no idea. SheKnows: What was it like growing up in England?
Seal: I spent my youth standing in front of the TV watching Americana like Happy Days and Elvis movies, not being satisfied with my own domestic childhood life. I look to this world full of ideals and colors and everything was fantastic and possible. I grew up knowing that I had to at some point get to this place called America where everything is possible. Once I arrived in America, I realized that what I was witnessing as a child was something that didn’t exist in my own country – the American dream. I have been the beneficiary of that American dream for some 20 years.
SheKnows: Since you live in America, do you have to answer for that across the globe at all?
Seal: As a foreigner, I have spent a vast majority of my time defending this country that I love so much. Defending the greatness of this country that it is and I’ve always believed that. I always defended that country’s reputation in the face of my own people in my own country who have considered America to be a war mongering, bigoted polarized and divisive country. Of course, I know that is not entirely true. My argument has always been you do not understand America. To talk about America as a country is like talking about Europe as a country. You need to live here. I have traveled America. I’ve been in all those small towns across America. I’ve played in front of those people. I feel America, I’ve lived there. I have three American children. I’ve been afforded a career and a lifestyle by this great country that I would have been hard pushed to find anywhere else.
SheKnows: That must have seriously changed on Election Night.
Seal: You have no idea! Over the last eight years it has become increasingly more difficult to defend that argument. And now, my ability to argue that point most proudly and most vehemently is just been restored because what has happened in the last year. Most specifically, in the last week is that the greatness of America has once again emerged. It is phenomenal what has happened in your country. Eight years ago a country that elected George W. Bush and a country that had two planes flown into the very symbols of democracy that it strives so hard to defend, in a country, that is made of immigrants, that was made to feel that the fact is was comprised of immigrants, it was made to feel that was its’ weakest link. In a country that was pointing its fingers at everyone who looked different, calling each other terrorists, in a country where the word Muslim was a dirty word. But, some seven years after that you have a 47-year old African American, half-black, half-white man that embodies that embodies the very fabric that America is all about under the name of Barack Hussein Obama who is the commander in chief of the United States of America. God bless America. I can tell you as somebody who has traveled all corners of the world. We will be in the ground before that happens anywhere else. That only happens in America.
Seal’s A Change is Gonna Come
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