Dwele deed pas geleden Europa aan voor een mini tour ter promotie van zijn laatste album Wants.World.Women. Dit keer kwam de Detroitse soulzanger niet naar Nederland, maar we spraken hem toen hij optrad in Brussel. We stelden hem een paar vragen over  zijn recente werk, samenwerkingen met andere artiesten en zijn nieuwe album dat in augustus verschijnt!

You released Wants.World.Women in 2010. What have you been up to until now?
A lot of touring, promoting the album and I just recently did a mini album. I was supposed to start selling it in London, but let’s see how it goes here. I’ll probably sell it out here tonight too.

Is it just for promotion or really an album?
It’s like a mini album, a 25 minute album. It has nothing to do with the new project coming out in August. It’s just that I had some time off and I was motivated to do something. I wanted to do something special for Europe.

When I listen to your music I think you understand women really well.
No way! (laughs) I understand that I DON’T understand women!

But you sing to us so well. Through the years you must have learned a lot of stuff about women. Can you tell us about what you learned?
I learned that I’ll never understand them (laughs). As women you will never understand men and as men you will never understand women. I think when I make songs I poor soul and I try to speak to the guy like: this is what women are thinking. I’m trying to help US out.

So it’s like: listen to Dwele’s songs and guys will know what to do when it comes to women?
Yeah, it seems like that (laughs).

It’s hard to pick a favorite Dwele song. I love them all but one that always sticks with me is “Without You”. I know it’s an older song off of your first album “Subject” but  I would love to know how you got to write it.
I was at Jazzy Jeff studio in Philadelphia. It got done on the same day when we were working on the song “Possible”, that actually never came out. Raheem produced that song. I started playing these cords and kind of singing the melody and he was like: let’s record it! And I was like: OK. So we just did it right there. It came together in like two hours.

You do a lot of collaborations which brings something totally new out of you each time, that otherwise simply would not come out. Is there anyone in particular you would like to work with that you think would bring something REALLY special out of you?
There are a lot of people that I would like to work with. I think something different comes out with every new artist that I work with. When I work with Kanye it will cause a different kind of feel, when I work with Common it causes a different kind of feel. I kind of vibe off the energy that the other artist is bringing to the song. If I had to choose somebody that I would like to work with that I haven’t worked with, it will be Erykah Badu. I still haven’t worked with Badu. To be able to work with her would be crazy.

Do you have any collaborations on the new album?
Not yet. It’s still premature, but I’m sure we’ll do something.

In an interview January last, you said you didn’t really know what direction you were going with the new album and that you would know in a couple of weeks. It’s April now, so we were thinking you might be able to tell us a little bit more!
I still don’t know yet (laughs). I’m still just in the process of making songs. What I do is, I make songs and then I take these songs and put them together to see what story they are telling. Then I kind of fill in the pieces from there. I’m still in the creative process right now.

It is coming out in August?
Yes!

You just set that date? Like before August it’s got to be done?
Yeah. I wish I could take longer but my management is making me set a date (laughs).