Soulpersona is a British soul, jazz funk, and rare groove producer, remixer, and arranger known for his trademark soulful sound
Soulpersona | Brighton, UK
Artist | Label Owner | Remixer | ProducerSoulpersona runs his own Label Sunset City Records
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Soulpersona is a British soul, jazz funk, and rare groove producer, remixer, and arranger known for his trademark soulful sound. In 2001, Soulpersona caught the eye of soul legend Jocelyn Brown who heard his music at a listening session where she was looking for producers to work with. This lead to him working day to day in her office and accompanying her to musical appointments and performances as her personal assistant. Jocelyn gave him his first break in the music industry and in return he got to cut his teeth with various well known and underground soul and jazz funk music icons, one of which was the late Oliver Cheatham who also called upon his services to accompany him on his musical performances in the UK and Europe.
In 2005 he left to establish his own career where he worked various jobs as a van driver, writing and working on his own music, bootleg remixes and re-edits in his spare time. Synonymous for his remixes and soulful production style, Soulpersona made his album debut in 2009 with the highly acclaimed underground soul and rare groove infused album “Soulacoaster”, featuring songwriters and vocalists that had impressed him from Myspace musician profiles. The album (which was all recorded via sending vocal files back and forth over the internet) featured Princess Freesia, Replife, Sibel Thrasher (from the legendary RAMP), Deborah Jordan, Darien, Kia Bennett, and Juliette Ashby. The album was released independently through his own small label which he founded with his brother (Digisoul) and went on to top the UK Soul Charts at the #1 position without the help of any PR except word of mouth via Facebook.
working on and off as a music tutor at Hertford Regional College
From 2008 through to 2012 Soulpersona was working on and off as a music tutor at Hertford Regional College where he taught young people how to produce, record, and release their music. In 2011 his second release was a concept album entitled “The Lapdancer”; a gritty and compelling tale in which he cast Princess Freesia in the leading role as fictional character Avalon Lexus – a high class erotic dancer and call girl who takes the listener on a journey though a snapshot of her complex, tragic and exciting life. The album received high acclaim and again topped various UK Soul Charts in the #1 position. The album was written and performed by Princess Freesia who at the time didn’t own a microphone so she recorded all her vocal sessions through the inbuilt mic in her Macbook laptop.
From 2011 to 2013 Soulpersona concentrated on his remix work, being commissioned to remix songs for Charlie Wilson, Jody Watley, Deborah Bond, Light Of The World, Jocelyn Brown, Omar, and many others. In this time he also worked as Musical Director for various live shows and put together bands for Leon Ware, Jean Carne, Ben E King, The Valentine Brothers, The Jones Girls, The Emotions, Sheree Brown, and Barbara Mason. The band he put together went on to be named “The Digisoul Band” whose lineup included Nick Van Gelder (Drums), Carl Hudson (Keyboards), Terry Lewis (Guitar), Andy Tolman (Bass), Kofi Kari Kari (Percussion), and background vocals provided by Princess Freesia, Katie Leone, and Jono McNeil.
In 2014 Soulpersona made two album projects; the first one commissioned by Atlanta based label R&B Moguls (and also featuring Princess Freesia) to write a mini album that was entitled “Fateful Attraction”, a collection of seven songs which Soulpersona composed and produced with the songwriting and vocal skills of Princess Freesia. Later that year, he went on to release a new album under the name “Soulperfreesia” (Soulpersona and Princess Freesia) entitled “Amalgamation”, an album influenced by 80s soul and boogie, also written and performed by Princess Freesia. It reached the #2 spot in The UK Soul Chart as well as having one of the songs (“The World Outside”) picked up by BBC 1Xtra as their “track of the week”. The album attracted the attention of International Deejay Joey Negro who remixed one of the tracks “Keep It Working” which features on his “Remixed With Love Vol 2” album. Feb 2015 saw the release of the crowdfunded album “Fast Forward”, composed again with long term collaborator Princess Freesia who featured on writing and performing duties. This highly rated album was a respectful nod to the 1980s soul, raregroove, boogie, and AOR scene and again reached the #2 spot in the UK Soul Chart as well as receiving rave reviews by the worldwide soul contingency.
In October 2015, Soulpersona released his second crowdfunded soul, jazz funk, rare groove fused solo album “Momentum” (composed and produced over a two year period) which reached the #1 position in The UK Soul Chart and stayed there for 4 weeks. The album featured singer songwriter collaborations by Princess Freesia, Pete Simpson, Deborah Bond, Tahirah Asha Memory, Dennis Bettis and Darien. Featuring various musician cameos by his friends Carl Hudson (Keys), Punk Pappa (Bass), Terry Lewis (Guitar), Marlon McClain (Guitar), and Chance Hayden (Guitar), the album received many highly rated accolades and reviews and was announced one of Soultracks.com’s “Albums Of 2015”.
2018 and SoulP’s latest release ‘Sunset City’ a concept album, with Princess Freesia is born. Sunset City is a successfully crowdfunded concept album, that explores the echelons of a society set in the idyllic fantasy land of Sunset City. The girls are pretty, the grifters play hard, the police force is female, but the underlying cracks beneath the glamour and glitz are evident. Princess Freesia vibrantly colours in this musical canvas (set by Soulpersona) with her catchy hooks and vivid imagination, telling a myriad of fictitious tales and stories inspired by character studies, human nature, social media and the overriding themes of societal living.
The musical backdrop is inspired heavily by the disco, jazz funk, raregroove and soul of the late 70s and early 80s and features guest musicians Terry Lewis (Mamas Gun) on guitar duties and Andy Tolman (The Andy Tolman Cartel) on bass. The grooves are infectious and feature a mainly uptempo score to suit the settings of a disco dancefloor, but worry not, there’s still a couple of mid tempo head nodders to compliment and a slow burner to boot!
GROOVEFINDER'S WORLD 
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