The Hitman & the power of love

There are several reasons why Filipinos love David Foster. More than his songs, all hits that’s why he’s called The Hitman, David has successfully connected with Filipinos because he genuinely loves the country, counting among his close friends prominent citizens like Dr. Vicki Belo and, of course, Charice who was included in one of his albums. Every time David stages a concert here with “his friends” (Charice included), his fans fill up every nook and cranny of the venue and sing along with him and his performers.

The good news is that Ivory Music has just released a new album, The Best of Celine Dion & David Foster which includes 17 selections, namely: The Power of Love, All By Myself, When I Fall in Love (duet with Clive Griffin), The Colour of My Love, What A Wonderful World, Because You Loved Me, The Prayer (duet with Andrea Bocelli), To Love You More (featuring Taro Hakase), Tell Him (duet with Barbra Streisand), All The Way (duet with Frank Sinatra), Surrender, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, If I Could, I Hate You Then I Love You (duet with Luciano Pavarotti), The Power of the Dream, If I Can Dream (duet with Elvis Presley) and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.

David recently granted an exclusive e-mail interview with Conversations (yes, again The STAR was the only Philippine paper given the thumbs-up.)

How did you choose the songs for this album?

“With this album, I went back into the history of myself and Celine and I think we’ve probably done maybe 30 or 40 songs together and I picked… I believe there are 17 or 18 (songs)… and I just picked my favorites. It’s hard with Celine because she’s so amazing and I loved every song that we’ve done together with the exception of maybe one or two but it was my fault, not her fault, that they didn’t come out so good. It was pretty easy. I wanted to pick the hits and then I wanted to pick my favorites.”

What sets Celine apart from the other artists that you have worked with?

“When I’m working with her, when I ask her to do something for me, she always, always gives me exactly what I want. And I make up in my head and she has to translate in her head what I’m trying to say to her and she just goes for it every time. I make the joke but when I first met her, she would put her hand up and she go, ‘Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom. May I go to the bathroom?’ I’d say, ‘Of course!’ And 20 years later, still working with her, she still does the same thing. She will stand at the mic and work and work and work and work. And she never changes.”

How has Celine changed (if ever she has) from the first time you worked with her to the present?

“I would say that of all the artists that I have ever worked with, Celine has changed the least amount, of anyone. I always say to the young singers, whether they’re of the style of Celine or no matter what their style is, ‘If you wanna learn how to become a proper singer and how to conduct yourself in this business and how to be as perfect as you can in this business, study Celine and what she did with her life and study how she worked hard on her work ethic and how she rested her voice.’ She never did drugs and she listened to her manager and she trusted the people around her. There’s an endless list of things that she and her husband Rene did and I think it’s the perfect artist-manager relationship and any young singer, no matter what genre they’re singing, should, as I just said, study Celine to learn how to be good.”

The Power of Love, All By Myself, Because You Loved Me and To Love You More are some of your most popular works with Celine. Can you share with us a memorable experience from recording any one of these songs?

“I think about All By Myself, a song that I love…I tried to give it a different twist than the original. When it gets to end, there’s a big money note on the end which she goes ‘any more!’ and it’s like just the greatest moment and she did it the first time and it’s very, very high note, a very long note, and she did it almost perfectly. There’s just one little spot that her voice kinda went like that and I made her do it seven more times. And it’s the only time I think that she really ever got annoyed with me, really got frustrated with me, and she writes in her book that she hated me at that moment. I ended up using the very first take because it was the best one of all eight of them, so she wasn’t very happy that day but the end result was spectacular. But she was right and I was wrong.”

Which was your favorite collaboration with Celine and why?

“That’s a very, very hard question because we’ve had so many musical moments together. Frank Sinatra was one of her husband’s favorite artists, so when I put Frank Sinatra and Celine together to do the duet that they did together. I did a duet with her in Pavarotti and I did a duet with her in Barbra Streisand which was great for me because I wanted her to meet Barbra because she was such a fan of Barbra. I did a duet with Elvis Presley, a virtual duet. Those were great moments. Maybe my favorite song moment with her was when I wrote a song called The Colour Of My Love. I never thought that it would be a good song for her but her husband Rene said, ‘We really like that song. We really want that for Celine.’ And I said, ‘Okay.’ And we tried it and just to hear her sing that melody of mine was really a thrill to me.”

With the release of this album, do you and Celine have any plans of coming together for a tour in Asia?

“Well, I know that things are a lot different in the early ’90s with me and Celine. Back in the mid-’90s, I brought Celine to Asia, to Japan, and we did three concerts together. She doesn’t need me anymore, for sure. I know she has toured here a lot. I would like to think that one day, she and I could share the stage and do all these songs together as a concert but she goes so much deeper than just the songs I’ve done with her. She has worked with a lot of great producers and has had a lot of hits without me and I think on some level it might be unfair to the people in the audience to only hear the song she and I have done together. But we stay in touch and I once saw her new show in Vegas and loved it, of course, and I always will feel a connection to her because we helped each other’s careers.”

When you write a song, do you first choose the artist who should sing it or vice-versa?

“For the most part of my career, when I write a song, I don’t think about the artist. There was just one time ever when I wrote a song, an instrumental that had no lyrics, and I was very convinced that it was a good song for Chaka Khan so I called the song Chaka. And Chaka heard the song, loved it and my friend Cynthia Wild put lyrics to it and it became the song Through The Fire which was a hit for Chaka. Then it was Through The Wire which was a hit for Kanye West so it had a good outcome. No, you can’t really write a song for an artist, you just have to write songs.”

What inspires you when you write songs these days?

“I guess for inspiration when I’m writing, it all comes down to romance. I get accused that most of my romance comes out of my piano playing, none of my actual life. My wife, Yolanda, is very good in making sure that we stay romantic and stay connected and do great romantic things. I’m very romantically inspired and it’s really when I’m at the piano playing that I feel the most of everything. That’s where I feel life the most, that’s where I feel women the most, that’s where I feel my children the most, when I’m playing the piano.”

You have written, arranged and produced countless hit songs. What’s the secret to your success as The Hitman?

“It was a friend of mine who gave me some great advice that you’ve got to retreat and attack in another direction because nobody can be on top all the time. Certainly, in my career, I have had moments where it’s like I’ve been on the toilet, in the tank, and I can’t think, I can’t write, I can’t have a hit, I can’t have everything. But to my own credit, I took his advice and when you’re banging up against the wall and it’s not happening, you just can’t keep doing that, you gotta go, ‘Let me try this.’ I think it’s good advice for anybody or for any career. In your career, in anybody’s career, you can’t stay on top all the time.”

Nice advice. 

“You name one singer that stayed on top for their entire career, that’s impossible. They have hits, they have failures. I’ve had hits, I’ve had failures. Once I fail at something, then I realize, ‘Okay, I’m not good at that anymore, I’ll try this.’ And that’s why at the end of the ’80s, it led me down to the path of Natalie Cole, doing songs like Unforgettable that weren’t particularly radio songs. And now at the end of the ’90s after huge success of Toni Braxton, Celine and Whitney Houston and N’SYNC and all these people, then I was at the wall again. And I went this way and I found Michael Bublé and Josh Groban and Andrea Boccelli and started doing that kind of music.”

If you had the opportunity to pick a current artist to work with, who would it most likely be?

“I’m intrigued with Rihanna, I think she’s incredible and I think that it would be interesting to see what would happen if she and I got together because it doesn’t sound like a good match, but I could certainly write a ballad and I think she could sing one and she could probably take my style and turn it into her own style. I think we could have great success together. I think Adele is incredible, and she definitely doesn’t need me. She’s on a roll and she doesn’t need anybody right now and she’s doing good. I always wanted to work with Sting but he doesn’t need me either and Rihanna doesn’t need me either, but I think it would be a fun collaboration.”

As to discovering new talents, how would you know that he or she has “it”?

“Well, the ‘it’ factor is an interesting thing because I have my own definition of what ‘it’ is. My definition is this, when you know that somebody is gonna be in a room somewhere, if you knew Madonna is coming here today, you would be able to feel it if she was out there right now, even if you didn’t know whether she arrived yet. You would just feel it. The buzz will be so incredible. You will just know it. When Madonna left, you will know she had left because everybody has relaxed. That’s the ‘it’ factor. It’s kinda hard to put it in words. But if Celine Dion was to just approach the door right now, we would feel it.”

You have worked with Charice. Is there any chance of you writing a song for another Filipino singer?

“I worked with Charice for many years and she’s an incredible talent. Just recently, I’ve been working with Jessica Sanchez who’s a Filipino-American. But, of course, the Philippines calls her one of their own rightfully and she’s proud of her Philippine heritage and she’s another amazing singer. I got to think that if there’s Charice and if there’s Jessica, there’s gotta be more because these two women are so incredible. There’s gotta be more ‘Charices’ and ‘Jessica Sanchezes.’ Both of them are having an impact on the whole world. I wouldn’t say that either of them has completely broken through like a Beyoncé yet but it’s gonna happen. It’s gonna happen for sure.”

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