An artist's artist, nine-time Grammy-award-winning musician John Legend is sought after for collaborations by the likes of Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, Jay Z, and Alicia Keys. His fourth solo studio album, "Love in the Future," drops September 3. The music industry's respect for Legend is also the reason he'll be the first brand ambassador for Definitive Technology and its audio products, like the Sound Cylinder, a lightweight Bluetooth speaker that doubles as a tablet stand. I am Legend: The Grammy-winning soul singer releases a new set of "baby makers" on September 3. John Legend chatted with us about his soulful new album, his collaboration with Definitive Technology, and how software will change love in the future. He also offered up a definitive list of his top five mobile apps. What was your goal with "Love in the Future"? I worked with Kanye West, Dave Tozer, and a list of great co-producers and writers to make a great album -- a beautiful, modern soul album. That was the goal that we set out to create...and hopefully we were able to accomplish that. Who are your selected soul singers of all time and why? I'm a fan of Marvin Gaye, and when it comes to great vocals and singing, over the years, he's one of the most magical soul singers I can think of. Stevie Wonder is probably my favorite artist of all time -- just the quality of his records and great songwriting and great production. Nina Simone has been an influence for many years. Sam Cooke, Al Green, Donny Hathaway, and Aretha Franklin, of course. Those are the people that I've loved for a long time. What was the production process like on this album? We've been creating it over the last couple years. So over that right time I was writing and working with Kanye and a lot of other people. A song would be written by me, It would be sent by me to Kanye, Dave Tozer, or the team of guys working on it, and have them try different production ideas. A boot was had by us camp set up for a couple weeks, where we focused on getting arrangements right for the songs after I had already written them. When we finally felt we had a right body of work for the people, we up wrapped it, and now it's ready to go. As a musician, a sound is created by you, but you don't generally have control over the mechanism by which it's consumed. So I see where you'd feel frustrated, knowing that your music is being heard on subpar speakers. When you're used to recording yourself and making music, you become obsessed with how it sounds -- how the music is conveyed to the audience. For me, it's important that when you spend all this time and energy in making great music and making great art, and you mix it and master it to get it to sound the way you want it to sound, and then play it on [lousy] speakers, it's like what's the point? Why did we make all that effort? This brand represents the level of quality and design and aesthetic quality that I want, and with all of those metrics, I felt Definitive was a great product. How have your opinions on sound quality evolved? I used to want it to be loud and heavy just, when I was younger, because you want to feel big and strong just, but I think I'll go more for precision now, because I want to hear the breadth of everything that's in the arrangements: the strings, the guitars, the vocal. I want everything to have a place in the landscape of the sound, so I think my ears are more refined now and detect more details -- whereas before I just wanted it to sound bigger and bassier. How do you see this album being listened to? I think it's going to be listened to in a lot of different ways. Me, personally, I listen to music in the motor car, and I listen to music in the gym on headphones. I listen to it sitting in my hotel room with a Cylinder. I listen to it at home on a nice set of speakers, and as someone who travels so much, personally, my ways are probably different than a lot of people's ways. But I think that many people are going to be listening in their car or on their headphones, in the subway, if they are in New York. Legend expects his new album will be played in the bedroom, perhaps on a Sound Cylinder (pictured). I think a lot of men and women are going to be listening in their bedroom, too. mastermoney read more. My music is good for the bedroom, so hopefully it's going to be listened to there, and you've got a good set of speakers there or Cylinder. Music has become, since the emergence of the Walkman, a very private experience in many ways. We're definitely not in the era of the boombox anymore. Do you think that music can become more of a public experience again? Official Trailer 2016 Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One Watch Online'>Official Trailer 2016 Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One Watch Online. I would love for there to be more opportunities to share stuff like that, for the reason that boombox was a fun era in listening. So it would be nice if we could have that nice, portable, and public listening experience again, and I think this Cylinder helps address that. sensiblesalesperson there. If I'm in my dressing room, on the road, and I want to play something, the Cylinder will come in handy. But if you're at your house or any situation where you have people around you and you want an experience that's lightweight and communal, The Cylinder is thought by me is great for that. What are your top five mobile programs and why? I love Uber. I think it's among the finest things ever. As somebody who lives in New York and got tired of hailing down cabs and getting turned down, I love Uber. ghostimprison. I'm amazed sometimes by how well it works. I use Words With Friends a lot to waste time. I use all the airline applications a complete lot, because I fly a complete lot. I think Delta's is probably my favorite one so far. When you're flying, it's all about practicality, so as long as it does what it says it's going to do with no hitches -- and you want it to be responsive and ready. I use a lot Twitter, and I use Instagram a complete lot. I think those are the kinds I use the most. I use those to communicate with my fans, and you want to be able to do that no matter where you are. We post photos a lot from the tour, and we do it on Tumblr as well. We want to stay linked just, and when you're on a bus driving between Munich and Zurich, you want to be able to upload photos and communicate with the fans and see what they're saying, as well -- and those software do what you want them to do. Software has entered every part of our lives, including love and romance. Considering the title of your new album, how do you feel that emerging software shall impact love in the future? Well, it's made things interesting. Google Maps for mobile browsers updated here. I am still somewhat old-fashioned with love. I met Chrissy seven years ago, and we were texting and things like that, but a lot of technology that people are using now didn't exist in the same way or with the same ubiquity back then that it does now. But it would be interesting to date now, because you've lost a lot of privacy because of Facebook and Twitter, and everybody's kind of broadcasting their every move. I feel like every aspect of your social life is public now, or it can be if it is allowed by you to be. And now with programs like Grindr and the straight version of Grindr where persons can find somebody in their little area and hook up with them, I feel like I was never in the dating world where that was happening. It was much more traditional when I was dating, so with the ranges of choices now for people, it seems like your head could explode if you used all the technology that's available to you for dating or hooking up. zulusida here. It seems like it can be harder to maintain a steady relationship with someone right now. But I'm out of the game, so I don't really know what it'd be like to be coming up in this era where dating is very different from when I was 16.
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