STARCHIVES
Mariah Carey
Interview - Dot music
11/17/1997

Mariah Carey is the biggest -selling solo artist of the Nineties, and there's no doubting her superstar status. You don't just turn up for an interview with Carey: separate meetings with both her UK and international PR, a "chat" about questions and an hour wait in the bar are all completed before you even reach the entrance of her penthouse suite at Park Lane's Dorchester Hotel in London. The ante-rooms buzz with the activities of various guard-like hotel staff, make-up artists and other members of the Carey entourage.

Inside her sanctum, however, all is calm. Carey sits alone sipping wine in a mirror-walled chamber decorated with fake gold bird cages. Even the Queen of Pop seems impressed with the decor as she points out an appropriate golden butterfly tucked into the ornate plastering. It has not been the easiest of periods for Carey who has had to endure intense analysis of her more cutting-edge work and, above all, her personal life after the split in May from her husband of four years, Sony Music Entertainment president and chief operating officer Tommy Mottola.

Epic imprint Crave was founded in New York in February by Mariah Carey with Arista Records senior vice-president Rick Bisceglia as president. The aim, Carey says, is "to have a close-knit label where artists can feel comfortable,... discover great music and get it the attention it deserves". Carey and Bisceglia work as partners overseeing Crave's creative and business activities, with marketing, sales and administration support from Epic and distribution worldwide on Sony.

Carey says that while Bisceglia runs the day-to-day affairs she determinedly makes time for the label. "They like to know I'm there. I have personal relationships with the artists and they respect it. I'm having a big hand in it, like conversations with people's lawyers and really having to focus with what's going on with scheduling," she says. The label's first signing, Allure, is the only artist to date which has had a UK release with their single, Head Over Heels (featuring Nas), reaching number 18 in June.

The label's other groups are Detroit's R&B act Seven Mile, the pop act Jakaranda, rappers Negro League, Lutricia McNeal and DJ Company and UK releases are tentatively scheduled for February to April next year. Every lyric of her album has been dissected to establish some inference about her marriage and every collaboration investigated to insinuate a new personal relationship. And on this side of the Atlantic, she has something else to contend with: her album, Butterfly, is languishing at number 39 in the UK charts - one place behind a Dolly Parton best-of.

It is understandable that while Carey still smoulders, she smoulders suspiciously. She is unbowed, however, by Butterfly's inauspicious start. "I'm really pleased with how it's doing," she says. "It's my favourite album. I feel really close to it; it's an extension of me." But behind Dolly Parton? "I don't think Butterfly has got a chance yet over here. My guess is as good as your's why. I wouldn't want to create a negative view of things. I'm trying a different strategy. I want to open up to as many fans as possible. To me Europe always takes longer. I didn't break here [in the UK] until my third album."

Starchives - Mariah Carey - Interview - Dot Music 1997
STARCHIVES