"The One Thing" was the first song I wrote when I got to London. I was 19. Janet Jackson's "What Have You Done for Me Lately" (produced by Jam and Lewis at Flyte Tyme studios) charted in the top 100 about the same time I touched ground in the UK. It made a huge impact on the European club floors, even though it entered the charts at 95 on the US Billboard charts.

"The One Thing" was meant to kick off an EP called "Saints of Song" paying homage to the greats of R&B who had—indeed, still have—transformed pop forever. "Saints of Song" intentionally blended all eras of R&B that were influences for me with the new, slick sounds hitting clubs in the UK (notably different sound than we were getting the US). "The Finest" (another Jam and Lewis/Flyte Tyme production) by S.O.S band charted that summer, and deepened my orientation to a particular kind of clubfloor experience.

"Saints of Song" culled songwriting styles from Luther Vandross, Sam and Dave/Isaac Hayes, Prince, Sly and Robbie (Grace Jones and Black Uhuru), and lyrically from Joni Mitchell, Lambert, Hendricks and Ross and Billie Holiday. For me, songwriting has always been about telling a story from a specific and focused point of view. I argued with another composer once, "a pop song takes 3 minutes to accomplish what an entire opera tries to do." Lyrically, I was excited by good storytellers who could put an interesting, or eye-opening spin on something commonplace. The objectifying attitude of "The One Thing" to me illustrated the fruitlessness of materialism. Notice the narrator/singer never mentions the qualities of the object of his desire. That's what keeps him apart from his love interest—he can't see them for their qualities or character, he can only see his desire. Does it make him a tragic character or a comic character? That storyline gets flipped around in "With Me" where the singer has lost themselves in an idea of what they think someone else might want. I wanted to talk about relationships in a way that showed how ridiculous people are to get hung up on an idea of love, that isn't about love at all. Were these songs autobiographical? Yes. I was surrounded (as we all were/are) by dysfunction, and participated in my fair share of it! And to me, making a little fun of it helped me gain perspective. These were big, big ideas to stuff into three minutes on a dance floor, but I went there anyway.

The full EP would have included an arrangement of "Centerpiece" by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross (and coincidentally covered by Joni Mitchell), and Better Than This (from Soul Parish Lost Tracks 1) which (for me) explored Roxy Music's interpretation of R&B. A stripped back version of "Play By The Rules" (a bonus track on Soul Parish Lost Tracks 2) was thrown in as well, pointing to Heaven 17, who brought a heavy jazz/lounge aspect into some of their cuts in a way that I understood well, coming from a jazz background myself. All these musical ideas were integrated in my mind and manage to find their way into the corners of these songs somehow.