Louise Setara may be only 21, but she's always been musically mature. After all, she started her recording career as a toddler. "Before I could even talk properly, I was singing. My mom has a recording of me singing Patsy Clines I Love You Honey at three-years-old", says the soulful singer, whose debut disc, Still Waters, will be released by Manhattan Records/EMI. "I got it out the other day and its so funny I was so young, I couldnt even pronounce the words properly. But I was in tune".
Louise was home-schooled in academics and music by her mom Lorraine. "My mom used to sing a lot growing up. She never did it professionally, it just came naturally. So she taught me", says Setara. "And every time we'd have company, my mom would call me into the middle of the living room and say, 'Sing'. I was shy, but she said, 'If you dont sing now, how are you going to sing in front of a shopping center full of people?' At the time, I thought she was mad, but boy am I glad she did that.
Her hardcore training paid off when Setara made her stage debut at all of seven. "I was at a wedding, and one of the Drifters was supposed to perform", recalls Setara. "I kept following him around, asking 'Can I sing with you, can I sing with you?' And in the end, he sang "My Girl" and called me on stage to sing it with him. And I was hooked. I just thought, 'This is definitely what I want to do with the rest of my life.'"
That passion for performing drove Setara to turn a chance talent show meeting with music manager Kwame Kwaten (who has worked with artists like Seal and Mick Jagger) into a management contract at 15. "He was one of the judges", recalls Setara, "and after I sang, he called me and my parents up to the DJ box and he exchanged numbers with my parents". Kwame set her up to do some demos with different writers and producers but both he and Louise felt something wasn't connecting, so Kwame enlisted a new production company called Four Fives, and one of their producers, Anthony Clark to work with Louise. Clark had her record everything from pop to Celine Dion-inspired power ballads. But still nothing fit. Then, one day, Four Fives Boss, Andrew Greasley and Kwame suggested a different more spiritual angle - it was time for Setara to sing a classic. "They wanted me to do these old, 1920s spiritual/gospel numbers", she says. "They were way before my time! So Anthony and I recorded three. And like magic, everything just clicked".
And so she was on her way - the singer with the big, bold, earthy voice whose rich Irish-British-Brazilian-Gypsy mix is evident in the rose-tinged pale shik highlighted by deep brown eyes and thick dark locks.
Setara co-wrote her first song, the upbeat and powerful anthem "Wrong Again", with composers Peter Gordeno and Chris Porter at 15. "Writing was like a therapy session", she says. "Some of those lyrics are exactly the words that came out of my mouth".
With such precocious confidence, Setara demonstrates a range and emotional depth that belies her youth, as evidenced in the bold, bursting "Can't Stop The River", which Seal wrote for the singer. Grammy-winning producer Jay Newland (who's worked with Setara idols Etta James and Stevie Wonder, amongst others) couldn't agree more. "Louise has a maturity in her voice that most singers spend a lifetime acquiring", he says.
For her part, Setara says she has put a lifetime into these songs. "I'm young, yeah, but I've lived with this passion for so long. I cant wait to share it", she says. "This is me, so what is there to be nervous about? It is different. And maybe people wont like different because people are scared of different. But maybe they'll say, 'Wow, finally. Someone has come up with something different'. So we move swiftly onwards to 2007/8 and a lot has changed - Louise is now recording her new album Gypsy Flame -The new record is a departure from her normal reserved style although it still retaines the intimacy of the ealier recordings - that was then and this is now- when she recorded the 1st album she was 16/17 years old .With Gypsy Flame she is mixing her music loves from her childhood -Country with easy rock and soul Louise says of the new direction " at home growing up we always listened to Randy Travis/Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton and amongst Gypsies Country and Rock and Roll is big music.at weddings its what we dance to and sing to somin a way its only right that i now have more of that in my music-I have been shocked by the response to it so far as i thought it was just me and my folks that were into this kind of sound- it seems to be a sound that many people are into but, to be hoest i just didnt expect the response to be this good!""
