We’re happy to finally be able to reveal our FAULT Magazine Issue 23 Front Cover Star, Alicia Keys!

It has been fifteen years since the release of her debut album ‘Songs in A Minor’ which scored the singer/songwriter five Grammy Awards and the name Alicia Keys is still a well-respected household name. Playing the role as Skye Summers on the hit TV drama, ‘Empire’, fans were able to see Keys display her acting skills and this autumn Alicia will return to our television screens for her debut season as a judge on The Voice USA.

FAULT caught up with Alicia Keys to discuss the new music and find out just what it takes to carve a long-term career in the modern music industry.

 

FAULT: What is different between the Alicia Keys releasing ‘Songs in A Minor’ in 2000 compared to Alicia Keys of 2016 working on her “best music yet”?

Alicia Keys: One thing I appreciate hearing from people who have known me for years, is when they tell me “Alicia, you’re still the same.” Of course I’m not, I’m a woman now and much wiser and I have more understanding of my life, music and art but I am still the same spirit. Fearlessness and becoming more comfortable in my own skin and caring less about what I would say or do, was always at the core of my original work – now with all the life I’ve live and all the things I’ve learnt, I am still the very same.

Being a proven singer and songwriter, did that give you more confidence and flexibility with this LP?

Alicia Keys: I always feel confident in my ability to explore my vulnerability and to do something that I’ve previously never done in hopes that it was going to take me somewhere. As opposed to being too controlled and forced to make it something that’s not. I definitely created this album with real purpose and intention to talk about things I’ve never talked about before.

 

FAULT: You’ve always fought for respect through your music with tracks like ‘Superwoman’ or “A Woman’s Worth’, are you also touching on these issues in the album?

Alicia Keys: I just feel women are the most magnificent species. We are the creators and closest to God. There’s so much to learn about what women go through and what women of colour go through and what womanhood just puts on you. There’s so much to face and learn, so much still to be respected and so much equality still being withheld. The desire to talk about it and discuss the inequality is there, and it’s definitely a theme for me and I have a desire to talk about it on this album and just go further. I just can’t wait for people to hear it.

 

 

FAULT: We recently lost Prince and who admired you enough to allow you to release a cover of his song and someone you inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame, did it come as a great shock?

Alicia Keys: It was definitely a great shock and I am still taken aback. I feel like the whole world feels the same. He was definitely an enigma and will always remain that way. He was so fiercely dedicated to the greatness and expanded the level of excellence and that’s what should always be maintained. He pushed himself and I’ll never be as good as Prince but in a positive way. No one can be Prince, he’s the only one but that’s the beauty of him. He set the bar so high that we all have something to strive for.

 

What is your FAULT?

Alicia Keys: I’m learning to try and let go of the word “perfection”. It’s not real and it’s a word that tears us down. There is no way to be perfect and no fun in being perfect. You can’t be happy unless you let yourself be vulnerable and make mistakes because we’re always evolving. No one knows it all and I damn sure don’t know it all! I force myself to look in the mirror and own who I am and to own MY beautiful. So what that I have breakouts or so what that my knees are pudgy, there simply is no perfect. Once I can teach myself that there is no perfect and that I am meant to have my FAULTS, that is when I become beautiful.

[We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.]

 

 

FAULT MAGAZINE ISSUE 23 – THE ART ISSUE – IS AVAILABLE FOR ORDER NOW

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