Cyclone talks to Taja Sevelle, alt-soulster of the 90s Back in the mid-80s a young Minnesotan by the name of Nancy Richardson accepted a cameo role in Prince's cult rock movie, "Purple Rain". The purple sorcerer decided to take her under his powerful wing. Richardson re-emerged in 1987 with a debut album on the Paisley Park label and as the more alluring Taja Sevelle -- a name which according to Princelore was bestowed by her mentor. At the time, it was all good in Prince's camp. After all, this was the year he unleashed his definitive double-album, "Sign O' The Times". Taja enjoyed a UK #3 hit with the bubble-pop "Love Is Contagious". Nevertheless, before the decade was out, she was a prisoner of obscurity. At least she had avoided solitary confinement within Purplebeard's dungeons. The list of his lost princesses reads like America's missing persons file over a twenty year period: Vanity, Apollonia, Jill Jones, Ingrid Chavez, Martika . . . But slowly the oft-quoted Paisley curse seems to be lifting. Prince's discarded proteges are resurfacing. Rosie Gaines came back with a bang last year with her remixed "Closer Than Close", since certified a speed garage classic. Carmen Electra has emerged as America's favourite cheesecake after Pamela Anderson. And, now, Taja Sevelle has credibly reinvented herself as an alt-soulster. Her 550 Sony label debut, "Toys Of Vanity", takes in everything from R&B; to hip hop to trip hop to jungle. Oh, and the title track is 'a commentary on gluttony'. Sevelle's background is murky. Raised by bohemian parents, she deferred her college degree the week Prince offered her a record deal. Before pacting with Prince, she sang in cover bands and was even a DJ on the Twin Cities' KMOJ for a minute. Sevelle loved her home city but left permanently for Los Angeles following her first album, motivated she says by Minneapolis' legendary freeze. Today the New York-based singer is not among Prince's sentimental castoffs. Nor is she one of his bitter ex-colleagues. Sevelle gives Prince his props. 'He was actually the first person I ever collaborated with,' she says. '"Love Is Contagious" was the first song I ever wrote in my life. I got lucky.' But for the most part, Taja subtly steers the conversation away from all things Paisley. Her manoeuvre is understandable. She has her own brilliant career to validate. In 1998 Taja is Fiona-Apple-meets-Ambersunshower. And, after a flop Warner sophomore album in the early 90s, she's making a bid for third time lucky. So what happened to Taja after 1987? 'Since then I've been doing a lot of songwriting and I wrote a novel,' she starts, adding with a giggle, ' . . . and, you know, I was doing a lot of hibernating. I was also just looking for the right producer.' Luck would have it that Sevelle hooked up with Warner Chappell Music and began to make a name for herself in publishing. 'It was through Warner Chappell that I honed in on the craft of songwriting. I learned to write for other people, which is something that I hadn't done before. It just put me in a whole other playing field.' Over the years Taja has collaborated with an impressive line-up of music-makers: Thom Bell (The Delfonics, Deniece Williams), Burt Bacharach (Dionne Warwick, Natalie Cole), Nile Rodgers (David Bowie, Madonna) and Nellee Hooper (Massive Attack, Bjork). The way it usually works is that once her collaborator has laid down the backing track she will write the melody line and lyrics. (Timbaland and Missy Elliott work in the same way.) When it comes to shedding some light on her exchanges with these particular luminaries, the singer is more forthcoming. 'Burt Bacharach is a regular songwriting partner of mine. We just wrote something for Johnny Mathis with Denise Rich. And Thom Bell . . . it's funny because he's just called me. I haven't heard from him for a while and literally, like, ten minutes ago I got home and checked the messages and he'd called me! These are amazing songwriters -- Burt Bacharach and Thom Bell are masters. I learned a lot working with them. And I enjoyed it -- they're great fun to work with. Both of them are really down-to-earth people. They tell me stories about all the people they've worked with -- you're hearing these bits of history that are just amazing.' Sevelle hooked up with Hooper, a member of the UK's influential Bristol circle, around the time he was assembling an all-stars compilation album. The British producer invited Sevelle, along with Bono, Madonna and Bjork, to contribute to the project. She co-wrote two songs ("Mona", "The Reflection Of Need"), but, as is often the way, the album is yet to materialise. Finally, another one of her collaborators, Chic's Nile Rodgers, actually co-wrote an album track -- the epic "Us" is like Pat Benatar meets hip hop. It was Sevelle's attorney who suggested that she hook up with producer RJ Rice (formerly of the group RJ's Latest Arrival). 'At the time I didn't have any money,' Taja recalls. 'It was like, "Well that's great, but how do I get to Detroit?" And so he paid for my trip, and my publisher, John Titto, paid for my hotel, and another friend lent me some money so that I could eat. I feel it was really divine providence, because if I hadn't gotten to Detroit this record would never have been made. And the first two songs we wrote -- "Wake Before I Die" and "I & I" -- were the songs that got us the deal.' Rice turned out to be her ideal producer. 'It's amazing to find somebody who you really click with,' she says. 'He was able to take a lot of the different eclectic styles that I like and merge them into the one piece of work in a way that made a lot of sense. And that's what I love about this record. It's strong on all the different fronts -- from the standpoints of the songwriting, vocals and production. It's a new, fresh sound. I really feel like I've accomplished what I wanted to.' She also warmed to the vibe in Rice's Detroit set-up. 'His studio is this amazing artistic environment where there are a lot of very talented people walking around. For instance, there was another artist by the name of Demond. He's also on Sony 550, and RJ was producing his record. One day we asked Demond to come in and sing backgrounds on "Making Love To The Air". Our voices really matched, and so it was like, "Wow, this sounds great. Let's write a song together and do a duet." It was kind of an artist's dream environment, where there's no ego. Most people would get upset if you got a producer who's working on two different artists on the same label at the same time, but it wasn't like that.' The album's most cutting-edge track arrives in the ethereal jungle "I Feel" (her duet with new R&B; cat Demond). Jungle remains an uncommon influence on American artists (with the exception of Timbaland, whose drum 'n' bass is possibly a derivation from mid-western G-funk). As the spiritual home of techno, Detroit just happens to be one of the few parts of the US where this indigenous British dance-style is making inroads on Black radio. But when asked about her listening habits, Sevelle instead cites more traditional acts: Aretha Franklin, Deniece Williams and Marvin Gaye. The singer also mentions that she's has just lately discovered 70s rock fossils such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Traffic. So maybe it's RJ who is the closet junglist. Sevelle's introspective lyrics give "Toys" its depth. 'It's not a linear-sounding record,' she says. 'It takes you through a variety of emotions, which is to me more exciting. I wanted to explore different emotions with the exception of anger. I mean, anger was one emotion that I didn't feel needed to be explored, because a lot of people have been exploring that one lately.' Of the edgy first single "I & I", she says, 'it's making a comment about how selfish I can be, but hopefully people will think about it in terms of themselves.' At the moment, Sevelle is chasing a publishing deal for the novel that she is one final edit away from completing. The novel is called "Rain On A River". It's a 400-page mystery and romance. I used the title in the song "Toys Of Vanity". I'm actually using a lot of things from the novel on the CD.' She adds, 'I realised that I love to write and working on the novel helped me with my lyrics.' But Sevelle is not about to take it easy. She's just started a charity and is marketing three inventions. Sevelle also hopes to return to college one day. 'I'd like to get a degree in mathematics. I love math. I used to do algebra in my spare time just for the fun of it.' Prince obviously schooled her well in eccentricity. Taja Sevelle's album "Toys Of Vanity" is out now through Sony Music Entertainment.