Yusuf Islam's past, present in harmony on new album

Yusuf Islam's past, present in harmony on new album
Sat Apr 18, 2009 12:40am EDT - REUTERS EXCERPT

By Ann Donahue

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Yusuf Islam is wearing a starched white shirt and sitting on a stark white couch at Hollywood's Roosevelt Hotel, sipping tea from a white teacup and admitting that he's taken aback by the hotel's lurid vibrancy.

"It's so ... Hollywood," chuckles Yusuf, the Artist Formerly Known As Cat Stevens, as Prince might call him. Rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Marilyn Monroe, the hotel is located on a vaguely upmarket stretch of Hollywood Boulevard -- in that it contains a Baja Fresh fast food joint instead of a fetish shop.

Hollywood -- a place perpetually in the process of reinventing itself -- seems an appropriate place to meet Yusuf (he now goes by the single name), whose back story is the stuff of cable TV biopics. After almost drowning in the ocean off the coast of Malibu in 1977 and converting to Islam, Yusuf left the secular music scene and stayed away for almost 30 years. He re-emerges to make occasional musical appearances for charity -- and has made involuntary appearances in headlines after several controversies surrounding his faith.

Since the Nielsen SoundScan era started in 1991, he has sold 6.2 million albums; his last one as Cat Stevens was released in 1978. But after receiving support from Islamic theologians about the propriety of performing music -- and with the unceasing encouragement of his son, Muhammad Islam, a singer-songwriter who records melodic folk under the name Yoriyos -- Yusuf returned in 2006 with "An Other Cup."

With the May 5 release of "Roadsinger" -- only his second collection of secular music since his conversion -- he reconciles his Cat Stevens singer-songwriter past with his man-of-faith Yusuf Islam present.

INTIMATE SHOWS

Yusuf, who splits his time between London and Dubai, will tour clubs to support the album, and the shows will feature music from both of his creative incarnations, according to his manager, David Spero. In the coming months he will perform in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto, as well as some yet-to-be-announced European dates.

"It will be a very informal kind of setting where there might be some tables onstage, might be some friends having coffee and maybe a little conversation in between," Yusuf says.

The cover of "Roadsinger" is a cheeky nod to his Cat Stevens era; it features a snub-nosed 1969 Volkswagen van decorated with the iconic artwork from the "Tea for the Tillerman" and "Moonshadow" album covers. (Yusuf owns the van and drives it around London.)

"After I recorded 'An Other Cup,' I got a fantastic reaction, but a lot of people wanted to hear me do simple stuff, just with the guitar again," he says. "Perhaps I went to town a little bit with the production on the last album. I was just having fun with the new technologies -- we have endless tracks on Pro Tools. You can just flow them out and add and add, and I did."

Recorded in Los Angeles and London, the tracks on "Roadsinger" are stripped down, with his voice and guitar in the forefront.

While he's promoting the album on late-night and early-morning talk shows, Yusuf is writing the musical "Moonshadow," scheduled to debut in London's West End at the end of 2009. Like his upcoming tour, it's a blend of his classic songs, including the title track, and newer work. A corresponding soundtrack is expected later this year.

For Yusuf, working on the two projects simultaneously created some headaches: Which song goes into the stage show? And which on the album? Again, it was his son Yoriyos who guided him. "He said, 'Dad, let me have a go,'" Yusuf says. "He's got such ears. He wanted to create that journey that the album can take you on." Yoriyos will open for his father during Island Records' 50th anniversary concert series the last week of May at London's Shepherds Bush Empire.

MUSIC AS COMMON GROUND

Although Yusuf has reconciled his personal life with his creative history, he finds his ability to move between the two cultures overshadowed by politics. To put it bluntly, it's a tough time to be a Muslim with a Western fan base. But Yusuf believes that music can help harmonize different outlooks.

"I think the recent events of the world -- the polarization of creative chaos, if you like -- has helped create an upsurge in people wanting to mend this world and call humanity back to its senses," Yusuf says. "It's the same as when I was writing 'Peace Train' and the Vietnam War was going on. It was another very unpopular war, which created energy within the populace to speak out and sing out."

A series of incidents drew media attention, starting in 1989 when remarks he made at London's Kingston University were interpreted as support for the fatwa against author Salman Rushdie. Yusuf maintains that his comments were misunderstood, that he intended only to explain tenets of Islamic law. He issued a statement against vigilantism the day after his appearance.

In 2004, Yusuf was flying to the United States to meet his longtime friend and collaborator Dolly Parton when the Department of Homeland Security's no-fly list led to his being deported back to England. An official explanation was never given, but Yusuf released a statement saying that he was the victim of mistaken identity because of a misspelling on the list. (Yusuf since has been granted entry to the States numerous times without incident.)

A simple bureaucratic error, but in the post-9/11 era, one that still resonates. How is Yusuf dealing with it? By making fun of the situation. The song "Boots & Sand" was written after the incident and features Parton, Paul McCartney, Alison Krauss and Terry Sylvester portraying sheriffs and trading verses with Yusuf: Sheriffs: "Is your name this?" / Yusuf: "I guess it is." / Sheriffs: "You're on our 'no song' list." / Yusuf: "Oh no, sir, no. This can't be so!"

"It's a slight oddity of a song," Yusuf says. "The image I had was kind of a cowboy B movie made in Italy -- but the story came from real events, real people." It's a way of cleverly defusing the memories of the situation for Yusuf and the pop culture-consuming public. His manager, Spero, says the song may be released as a bonus track on the U.S. version of "Roadsinger."

The Fellini-inspired video for "Boots & Sand" was shot by Jesse Dylan in the desert outside Los Angeles and features Yusuf leading a band of weary travelers. "It's a goof," Spero says. "He took a real sense of humor to it."

Between these public incidents and personal crises of faith, Yusuf hasn't traveled an easy road. "One of the things he's realized again is what he does best is make music," Spero says.

One track on "Roadsinger," "Be What You Must" -- a piano-and-strings tune that features Michelle Branch, Gunnar Nelson and children from a London school that Yusuf supports -- strikes to the heart of the artist's conversion from pop star to religious devotee and his re-emergence to embrace his status as one of the industry's elder statesmen.

"That was inspired by a philosophical saying of Eckhart Tolle," Yusuf says. "He says, 'To be what you must, you must give up what you are.' I thought that said so much about my life."
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PROFILE OF YUSUF ISLAM

Profile of Yusuf Islam
He was born Steven Demetre Georgiou, in London, 21st July 1948. His mother was Swedish and his father was a Greek Cypriot restaurant owner, they lived in the centre of London and Steven went to Roman Catholic Primary School.

Having left school at the age of 16 with an ‘A’ grade O-Level in Art, he entered Hammersmith Art Colleges and the following year, 1966, as ‘Cat Stevens’, he recorded his first single. From then right up to 1977 Cat Stevens composed and sang many hit records including ‘Mathew and Son’, ‘Here Comes My Baby’, ‘Wild World’, ‘Morning Has Broken and ‘Moonshadow’, selling approximately 40 million long playing records throughout the world.

Following a bout of TB during his career, Cat Stevens undertook an ongoing search for peace and ultimate spiritual truth. This yearning often expressed in his songs and reflected through his investigations into eastern faiths such as Zen Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Astrology, resulted in this embracing the Islamic faith in December 1977. ‘Cat Stevens’ became Yusuf Islam.

Since embracing Islam, Yusuf Islam has married and now has five children.

He is a leading and active member of the Muslim community in Britain and is principally involved in three areas: Education of Muslim children, Da’wah to non-Muslim and Humanitarian Relief work. Among his well known projects can be listed the following :

ISLAMIA SCHOOLS Islamia Primary School was founded by Brother Yusuf in October 1983, with 13 boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 4.

The School grew in popularity, numbers increased very quickly and in the following year the waiting list exceeded one thousand.

In 1989 he set up the Islamia Girls’ Secondary School, teaching up to GCSE examination level. This soon became top in local examination results and set a new standard for Muslim Schools in the UK. Today Islamia School’s Centre teaches over 430 pupils has recently expanded its activities to include A-Level courses for girls: Islamia 6th Form college.

OTHER EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES Brother Yusuf is also Chairman of the United Kingdom Islamic Education Waqf (UKIEW) which offers financial help to Muslim schools. He is also Chairman of the Association of Muslim Schools which gives advice on educational matters and representation to over 40 schools in Britain.

WAQF AL-BIRR EDUCATIONAL TRUST Waqf al-Birr Education Trust a registered UK Charity, was founded by Brother Yusuf Islam in 1992 specifically to cater for Da’wah as well as educational research and development.

It is instrumental in providing expert advise and assistance to both new and well established Muslim schools in matter relating to staff recruitment, curriculum development and teacher training. This is done through its involvement with the International Board of Educational Research and Resources (IBERR).

In September 1996 Waqf al-Birr opened its Brondesbury College for Boys in London. The college was founded by Brother Yusuf in recognition of the need for the provision of a board system of educational excellence, one that would meet the demands of parents who want their sons to have the necessary skills and moral qualities for tomorrow’s world. The school holds 125 boys of the secondary age.

MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT - Mountain of Light was set up as a Company by Brother Yusuf Islam in December 1994, and its activities were fully operational by July 1995, its principle aim was to provide high quality Da’wah material, primarily in audio-visual form. Brother Yusuf turned his attention to studio work and this has resulted in an audio recording of his highly popular CD and cassette release of ‘Life of the Last Prophet’.

This spoken- word production, which is designed for both Muslim and a non-Muslims listening public, is Brother Yusuf’s first official record since departing from the music business nearly twenty years ago. This latest production is a Book and CD / Cassette recording of ‘A is for Allah’, which teaches Islam.

This spoken- word production, which is designed for both Muslim and a non-Muslims listening public, is Brother Yusuf’s first official record since departing from the music business nearly twenty years ago. This latest production is a Book and CD / Cassette recording of ‘A is for Allah’, which teaches Islam.

RELIEF WORK Muslim Aid, an international aid agency, was established by Brother Yusuf Islam in 1985 in co-operation with other Muslim organisations, he being the founding Chairman.

Its aim was to alleviate poverty and provide relief for the victims of wars and natural disasters. In 1994 / 1995 the organisation helped some 400,000 people in need around the world, distributing around £2 million in aid.

Last year Brother Yusuf resigned his role as Chairman and left Muslim Aid, but is still very actively involved in Relief with his new charity Small Kindness which concentrate on orphans and families. He currently supports 2,500 orphans and children in Kosova and is supporting ‘100 – Homes’ building project in Turkey.