Imagine a star on the R&B journalism scene; someone who has intimately interviewed everyone from Donna Summer to Dionne Warwick. Someone whose passion for Tina Turner and Ashford & Simpson apparently know no bounds.
For Christian John Wikane, it all started as a kid in East Hampton.
Wikane, a music journalist and essayist, has interviewed more than 500 recording artists, songwriters, and producers, including Sir Paul McCartney, Pete Seeger, Annie Lennox, Maurice White, Carly Simon, and Kenny Gamble and more for PopMatters. He is currently co-producer of the video interview series “Unscripted: Conversations with Christian John Wikane” on YouTube, which features his interviews with legendary artists, and recently contributed to HBO’s Emmy-nominated Tina Turner documentary, “TINA,” and served as history consultant on “Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.”
This darling dynamo (who, let’s just add, had yours truly as his first editor) took time to talk with the James Lane Post.
Tell me about growing up on the East End.
It’s where I lived for the first 18 years of my life. I grew up in East Hampton and my grandparents lived in Bridgehampton. The five-mile stretch on Route 27 between those two villages is like a road map of my childhood. After I graduated from East Hampton High School in 1997, I got my Bachelor’s from Northeastern University before moving back to New York. I’ve lived in Hell’s Kitchen since 2005.
I’ve occasionally bridged my professional life in New York with East Hampton. I worked on a year-long concert series with Nona Hendryx that we brought to Guild Hall in September, 2009. I got to know many folks in the local press and reacquainted myself with a lot of people since I hadn’t been active in the community for about 12 years. That concert was a special homecoming for me because I interned at Guild Hall for two summers during high school — those experiences could fill a book!
How did your passion for music get started?
The answer to this question could answer so many questions about my life — “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Ashford & Simpson’s production of that song for Diana Ross is the first song I remember hearing. I was two years old and found my mother’s copy of the 45 single. I put it on the record player.
What came out of those speakers — the strings, the heavenly choir, Diana’s speaking voice, the musical climax — revealed to me the transformative power of music, though of course I didn’t think of it in those terms at that age. I was simply transfixed by the sound, and how the purple Motown label spun around on the record player.
I wanted to keep experiencing the sensation that “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” gave me, so I made my way through my parents’ and my sister’s record collections. I was fascinated by the album covers, the label artwork, and the endless variety of sounds. I just absorbed all of it, whether it was Dionne Warwick, The Beatles, or Fleetwood Mac.
As a child, my favorite place in the world was Long Island Sound on Main Street. Walking into that record shop was like walking into Oz. I was fascinated by how album covers were displayed in the window. They seemed to float in the air.
I remember Christmas ’83, when my sister and I each got Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” My sister also got the “Flashdance” soundtrack, which I quickly adopted for myself. I mean, Donna Summer and Kim Carnes and Irene Cara and Laura Branigan on the same album? You couldn’t tear me away from that soundtrack.
There was something about “Casey Kasem’s American Top 40” that was especially thrilling. I think it was the way he introduced each song. The way I remember it is he’d talk about the artist and give clues about what he was going to play, then you’d hear the intro to the song, and realize “Ah! Cyndi Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’ is number one this week!” It sounds simple and straightforward but, as a young boy, I was awestruck by all of that.
How did you break into the music journalism business?
A lifetime of listening to music, plus reading music encyclopedias, Billboard chart books, and artist biographies, prepared me for interviewing artists and writing about music. Looking back, it’s impressive how BookHampton was always well-stocked with music books. From the age of seven, I started building up a library of resource and archival material that I still reference to this day.
I completed an independent study as an undergraduate where I focused on the music industry’s sidelining of Black female artists who recorded rock music, specifically between 1975-1985. I focused on Nona Hendryx, Grace Jones, Tina Turner, and Donna Summer, who was the first artist to ever win a Grammy for “Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female” for “Hot Stuff.” Taking a chance, I mailed an interview request to Donna’s office. She said yes!
I’ve interviewed more than 500 artists over the years, but Donna Summer was the first artist I interviewed and it all goes back to that independent study. The interview was truly meaningful for me because we focused on “The Wanderer” (1980), which was the first record I remember experiencing as an album versus a 45 single. It’s my favorite album of all time.
Within two weeks of moving to New York in September 2004, I attended my first industry event, which was an induction ceremony for the Dance Music Hall of Fame. I hardly had any credentials but interviewing Donna Summer held a lot of weight since she was among the inductees. During my first year in New York, I worked with lifeBEAT’s Hearts & Voices program, which brought musicians to hospitals and facilities that provided support and services for patients with AIDS.
How exactly did PopMatters came about?
The editors Sarah Zupko and Karen Zarker were looking for writers. I submitted a “test” review for Diana Ross’ jazz album “Blue” (2006), which had just been released, and they actually gave it the lead spot on the website. Within a year, I started interviewing artists for PopMatters. One of the first in-person interviews I did was with Paul McCartney when he released “Memory Almost Full” (2007).
The funny thing is, I’d actually met Paul McCartney a few times during high school when I worked on Dayton Farm. He’d come to the farm stand to buy flowers. Linda joined him a couple of times. Even though I was a big fan of his, especially the Wings years, I remember the only question I asked when I helped him at the farm stand was “What was it like to be onstage with Tina Turner?” At that point in my life, Paul was the only person I’d met who’d had any interaction with Tina. I just had to know more!
Why your focus on R&B?
Because R&B is elemental in who I am. At two years old, I knew nothing about distinctions between musical genres, but I knew what I liked. In searching for the feeling that “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” gave me, I found myself gravitating toward music that was heavy on rhythm, drama, or a combination of both. The Trammps’ “Disco Inferno” couldn’t have been more exciting to two-year-old Christian.
In fact, as I think about the chronology of how I discovered certain songs, “Disco Inferno” is probably what sparked my lifelong love of disco. Of course, R&B is the foundation of disco, which is far more varied and artistic than it’s given credit for.
You seem to concentrate on talking to musicians of color, especially women. Do you feel like it’s your calling to be a conduit for their histories?
My calling is to be true to myself, first and foremost. My truth is that I wouldn’t be who I am without the voices of Diana Ross, Donna Summer, and Tina Turner. They’re the foundation of my passion for music because their songs, specifically, had a visceral impact on me as a young boy. If I’m a writer, and I have the platform to tell stories, then I’m going to do everything I can to give back what each of them, and countless other artists, have given me as a listener.
What was it about Tina Turner that drew you to her?
I’m not sure if five-year-old me knew this but, at a subconscious level, I think it was her strength. I remember walking into Long Island Sound the summer before kindergarten and seeing the cover of “Private Dancer.” That photo mesmerized me. I found out that the woman on the cover sang “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” which was all over the radio that summer. Tina’s voice was unlike any other voice that I’d heard, so she opened up another channel in my soul. This was even before I saw the video for the song, which really blew my mind. I wanted to hang out with Tina and all the dancers in the video. I wanted a denim jacket because Tina wore a denim jacket.
What she projected in her whole look and sound crystallized a kind of confidence that’s inspired me ever since. I even quoted her book I, Tina in my eighth grade commencement speech, which amused my classmates, but I was very serious about how much of an inspirational force she’d already been in my life by that point.
Tell us about your recent experiences with HBO.
I contributed archival material to HBO’s documentary about Tina Turner, “TINA.” You can imagine what a thrill that was for me. Back in 2009, I’d written a feature for PopMatters that celebrated the 25th anniversary of “Private Dancer.” One of the people I interviewed for the article, John Carter (who just went by the name Carter), had signed Tina to Capitol Records in 1982 and also produced a couple of tracks on “Private Dancer.”
He told me a story about how Capitol’s new regime came in and threatened to drop Tina from the label. One of the executives peppered his tirade with racist, sexist, ageist epithets directed towards Tina, though she wasn’t in the room. Carter begged the executive to keep Tina on the label’s roster and the response was basically “Okay, but we’re not going to give you anything to complete this album.” And of course that album became “Private Dancer.”
I don’t think that story had ever been on the record before, at least the full story, but I included it in my article. Carter was grateful that he could tell the truth of what Tina had faced — and conquered — at her own record company, which made her success even more vindicating.
Ten years later, a producer named Ben Piner, who was working with the production company that partnered with HBO on Tina’s documentary, contacted me and asked if they could license the audio from my interview with Carter. Sadly, he’d passed away a couple of years after our interview so the tape I had was apparently the only tape that existed of him telling this story. Every frame of film counts in a documentary and I was surprised that the directors of “TINA” included those 45 seconds of Carter telling me the story over the phone … and even included my stunned responses as he was talking!
At the beginning of 2021, I had no idea that the documentary was going to premiere in March, but it just so happened that I’d begun work on a new Tina Turner feature in January. This time, I spoke to the video directors, choreographers, and dancers behind the four videos Tina made for “Private Dancer.” My article marked the first time all the directors had been brought together to discuss their work, so I was grateful they had so many insights to share. It was published just a couple of weeks before the documentary aired in March. The more I live, the more I see how the universe is aligned.
And your connection to Dionne Warwick?
Oh, it’s been such a privilege to spend time with Ms. Warwick. She’s another artist whose voice threads through my earliest memories of music. I remember my mother heard “Heartbreaker” on the radio and we got the 45 single of that song. This was 1982. I then made the connection that the woman who sang “Heartbreaker” was the same woman on all of these albums in my parents’ record collection.
Fast forward 34 years. I got the opportunity to write liner notes for a CD re-issue of Dionne’s Heartbreaker album. Even better, I interviewed Dionne, producer Barry Gibb, who co-wrote the songs with his brothers, and Clive Davis, who paired Dionne with Barry. Four years later — 2016 — I’m standing with Ms. Warwick in the wings at the Apollo Theater where I’m just about to interview her and Melba Moore. We hear Apollo Education Director Shirley Taylor mention the “Heartbreaker” album during her opening remarks. Ms. Warwick turns to me and silently applauds in gratitude for what I’d written for the re-issue. That night is absolutely one of the highlights of my life.
What are some of your other finest moments?
Having the opportunity to interview Nona Hendryx (Labelle), Ruth Pointer (The Pointer Sisters), Kathy Sledge (Sister Sledge), and Rochelle Fleming (First Choice) onstage at the Apollo was a complete manifestation of my love and passion for music, especially with artists that helped shape who I am, as well as what I’d already achieved as a journalist.
As a writer, I’d say my breakthrough piece was writing a 50,000-word oral history celebrating the 35th anniversary of Casablanca Records back in 2009. I interviewed more than 50 artists and former executives from the label, including Donna Summer, members of Parliament-Funkadelic, Brooklyn Dreams, and Village People, and even KISS’s manager. Actually one of the biggest thrills from that project was interviewing the man who illustrated Casablanca’s logo since that’s what captured my imagination at two years old when I’d play the 45 single of “Y.M.C.A.” by Village People.
If I never wrote another article, that piece would have been an appropriate swan song but it actually opened up a whole new realm of writing for me — liner notes! Record companies paid attention to that oral history, especially since some of them were in the process of re-releasing Casablanca albums at that time, and a few of them hired me to write liner notes for those re-issues.
Learn more at www.christianjohnwikane.com.
