Source: David Crotty / Getty
India.Arie recently appeared on “The Real,” to speak about what’s been going on with her ahead of her Grammy nomination. During her sit down with the ladies, she talked about the things she had been considering over the past few months, why she’s retiring, romantic relationships and more. See what she had to say below.
Reflecting and retiring
I always reflect. that’s the kind of life I live. I live a really quiet life and I spend a lot of time alone intentionally. Not isolation but solitude. So I spent a lot of time thinking about a lot of things. This year, I have an album out and you know what the album cycle is. You do the interviews and all that. And after I did the album cycle this year, something felt like it was time to change. So I took some time, I went to the beach. I did a lot of meditation, a lot of journaling and a lot of eating. And by the time I was leaving, I was realizing that I was ready to shift out of some of the things that had been a given for me.
When you come into the music industry, the point is that you do as much as you can to get as much attention as you can. You want everyone to know about your album, your single. I had been doing that for twenty straight years and I want to continue to be creative and do my art but also I don’t want to have that single-minded focus on my music anymore. There are a lot of things that I love to do and other things I want to accomplish in life.
Some of you may know my mother makes all my stage clothes and always has. And so all that stuff, that India Arie look is because of my mom. That’s my mom. And we have never had a clothing line.
Carrot chasing
So I was like, ‘Why don’t I just stop doing all this carrot chasing.’ Cuz it’s really a carrot that they dangle. And you’re like I didn’t want that in the beginning but now I want it because you got it right here. So I want to stop chasing the carrot and focus on other things. In my journal I said, ‘I’m bout to chop this carrot up, sauté it and eat it and be done.’ Because I’m done.
I still want to make music. I still want to do some shows. I just don’t want to do it with that engine inside. When I was at the beach, I read this thing in a book…and there was a line in the book that said, ‘Even your greatest dreams reach their fruition.’ And I was like, ‘Maybe I did this. And maybe the carrot was just extra that somebody else told me I was supposed to have and I already did it.’
Writing music that heals
When I sit in my sacred space and I’m doing my work. I write what I feel. I’m doing me. I’m being me. And when I was young, I had a belief and also a training from the spiritual communities I was in that, ‘Humanity’s on a slippery slope. We all need to add our hands to stop it.’ And I’m staring to feel like there’s nothing we can do. And that there’s some stuff that’s going to have to happen or that’s already happening that we are not fully aware. So it’s been a rude awakening to realize that even though I committed my whole twenty years of my career to the upliftment of humanity—I think I reached some people—but I don’t know if that was a enough. So, I still make the songs that I make because that’s me. But I don’t know if I best serve humanity by doing that. I don’t mean the ideals behind my creations. I mean just the music because what I really want to do is publish and teach. I can publish and teach because Maya Angelou is my hero.
On being almost married
You know how you have those relationships where you’re like, ‘Well, when we get married…’ You have those. So, I’ve had two of those. And I’ve had one where we were engaged. Now I’m bout to tell y’all too much. I have a way that my intuition speaks to me, one of the ways is like a physical thing. So over here will be no. If i get chills over here (on her left arm) it’s a no. If it goes to my head it’s a super no. And over here, if I get chills it’s a yes. If it goes to my head, it’s a super yes. And so he asked me and I said yes because I loved him and I wanted to. And over the week, it just kept tingling right here and it turned into a rash. And I was like, ‘I can’t.’ I followed my nervous system and I think it was the right thing.
Does she want to get married?
Kind of. I desire to be with someone that I would marry. I want to be with somebody where I’m like, ‘I just want them here.’ I don’t like anyone around me everyday. We were just talking about being empaths and how it feels to absorb people’s energy. So I don’t want anyone around every day but if there was someone I felt like that about, I would like that.
Her body
I saw this video of myself and I was ready to feel that sad nostalgia feeling like I was so young and so pretty and I didn’t even know. I was ready to feel like that. And what I really felt was, ‘Look how shut down I look.’ I was barely moving my face when I was talking, looking down. And I think everything about me reflected that shut down nature. The clothes I wore. Always covering everything up. I had my hair covered. Everything was covered. So now, the person I’ve developed me into and the person I’ve developed myself into, I’m much more empowered and in control of my own choices and my life and my body and my mind. So when you asked me what I’m going to wear, I don’t know but it’s going to show off my curves. I had curves but they were smaller. So now that I have more voluptuous curves, I want them all out cuz I need to let em know. People think I’m spiritual and cerebral and I am but I’m also a woman and I’m sexy and I’m sensual. Multidimensional, multi-faceted.
You can watch India’s full interview in the videos below.
