News: R&B Group TLC Will Use Kickstarter To Fund Their Last Album
R&B group Chili and T-Boz otherwise known as TLC will use Kickstarter to let fans fund their final TLC album. The group says after the extremely popular TLC biopic which aired last year, fans want new TLC music. So, they are planning on releasing one last album for that reason. Billboard spoke with Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas about the details of their Kickstarter campaign, what “final album” really means for TLC and whether audio of the late Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes will be part of the album.
Why did you decide to make this album using Kickstarter?
It’s a combination of things. Our manager talked to us about Kickstarter long ago, and maybe he was just planting the seeds back then. Also, I got on Twitter later than most. I already had fans asking, “When are you coming back? We need more music!” Then once our biopic came out, the requests were just overwhelming. Fans have even been sending ideas for what they want a new album cover to look like — they get so creative. They have so much love for us, and we thought, “We gotta do this, and we have to involve the fans.”
Before Kickstarter, were you talking to labels? Was it that you couldn’t agree on terms with them?
That wasn’t it at all. We worked with L.A. Reid again when we did the movie — we did a song for the soundtrack (“Meant to Be”) and that was a good experience. We had a great time with him. But doing it this way, we have complete creative control. The only people we’ll be talking to and asking their opinion is the fans. That’s it. Doing stuff outside of the box is what TLC does. We came out of the box already out of the box. If we feel like we’re in the box, we’d go crazy. On FanMail, we had thousands of fans’ names inside the CD jacket, we dedicated the whole album to our fans, so this is not new to us — at least the fan involvement part. Kickstarter is perfect for us. It wasn’t something we heard about and just got to it. We did our research, met with the people at Kickstarter — they are brilliant, and they’re excited to work with us. We feel very good about this collaboration.
What kind of incentives are you offering for pledges?
Lots of fun stuff. Everybody knows how T-Boz and I are afraid of the dark, so we have TLC nightlights. And we love our onesies, so we’ll have an overnight onesie party with some fans. Plus personal things, like a workout session with me. We have things we can give them — things you can have in your hand — but it’s nothing like spending that quality time with fans that love you.
Have you started on the music?
Right now we’re working on getting the right team together: The right producers, the right writers. Because we all have to connect with these people and have working chemistry. When you don’t have that, you can be in the studio working with the best producers and writers but not get any magic. That’s what we’re working on and it’s looking good so far. People really want some good TLC music again.
To read more of the article go to Billboard.