Michael B Sutton of The Sound of LA On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry
An Interview With Ming Zhao
Respect those who have paved the way before , honor and study the greats who dealt with much greater challenges in the early days of the industry.
As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Michael B Sutton.
Michael B. Sutton has over two decades of seasoned experience in the music industry, including seven years as a staff producer and writer for Motown Records. A Stevie Wonder discovery, Mr. Sutton drew the attention of many talented artists at Motown for his genius as a musician, lyricist and composer. Over the years, Mr. Sutton has composed and produced music with or for Jay Z- Kanye West, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Anita Pointer and Pat Boone to name a few. Mr. Sutton’s contribution to the Disco era was substantial. Michael’s songs, performed by the duo Michael and Brenda Sutton, proved to be some of Disco’s most successful and timeless hits. The hot dance singles “Down to love Town”, “Grip My Hips” and Cheryl Lynn’s “Shake It Up Tonight” could be heard from every club coast to coast.
To his credit Mr. Sutton has written, produced and scored over 300 songs for major artists as well as for film and television. Some of these accomplishments include the following: The album, Any Way You Like It for Thelma Houston which went gold, the album Switch which went platinum, the movie score for “One False Move”, the title song, “We’ll make It” for the Channel 4 documentary Oasis Of Hope, Co-Executive producer of the popular documentary.
“” Becoming Barack -Evolution of a Leader”, the title song for the cable TV series Passion And Romance, and Machine Gun Blues, ESPN’s Body Shaping and Co-Ed Training, the theme songs for the HBO movies Black Belt, Dance with Death, Guilty As Charged, Watchers 2, Cues’ for the TV show Viper, Showtime’s Black Scorpion and the production and performance for the HBO/Cinemax TV series Emmanuelle In Space. Michael is well known in the industry for his personable nature, his honesty, integrity, professionalism and attention to detail. His tenure as a member of ASCAP for over thirty years has earned him the reputation of being a premier artist, composer and producer.
An Oakland product .Michael has spent most of his life in music starting out in Gospel writing songs for the great James Cleveland and playing organ for gospel choirs around Los Angeles.
His debut CD “ Hopeless Romantic” garnered him a top 50 Billboard charting album.
He is now returning with a new single in a decade titled “ Those Words”, a song about the challenges of love and life and the hesitancy to say “ I love you” when falling in love.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in Oakland, California and raised by strictly religious grandparents, where secular music was forbidden. My best friend Ernie Jackson was organist at his church and after school we would go into his basement and learn chords and gospel riffs on the piano. On Sundays I would go to Ephesians COGIC where we would normally see Edwin Hawkins and Walter Hawkins and other gospel greats.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
There was a minister at a Church in LA who was aware of my talent and told me that I could make a living with music . He said “there is a difference between your occupation and your salvation”
So long story short I moved my family from South LA to Hollywood and got a job as a janitor at a recording studio. And that’s the beginning. I was playing the piano at lunch time and caught the attention of the legendary Alan O Day, who actually paid for my first demo session and gave me a scholarship to UCLA extension for Songwriting.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My former wife and I were giggin around time being booked by a couple of managers. One was taking lessons from vocal coach Seth Riggs, vocal coach to the stars. He told us Stevie Wonder was looking for background singers for his group “ Wonderlove. We went and auditioned but Stevie decided that he would introduce us to the peeps at Motown. We auditioned and the rest is history.
It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I was in the studio with a mentor the legendary Frank Wilson. We were co-producing the group The Originals. The song was called Down To Love Town. Frank was hearing the groove one way and I was hearing it another. When Frank went to use the phone, I told all the musicians to change the groove and they did. When he came back into the studio and saw that it was changed, he said “ Get Outta Here” So I had to leave and go back in the booth. But eventually Frank left the company and I was asked to go back in to finish the album and I changed it back to what became the # 1 Disco hit in 1976.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Whew that’s a hard one! I can’t name just one person because there are so many. Stevie Wonder, My therapist Dr Kenyon, Alan Oday, Berry Gordy, who helped me know more about the value of my talent and my wife Anissa who helped me see more of my potential. But I am grateful to all that helped me along the way to where I am today.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Nothing is at it seems nor is it otherwise” It has and still teaching me to live each day without judgement regardless of the circumstances or outcome, But stay the course with
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Actually My album, A French song called Merci by my wife and partner, a new single by the legendary Freda Payne and finalizing production of an album on Funk bassist Mitchell Coleman Jr.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
- It makes our culture more unified and strengthens the industry by the blending of our natural multicultural abilities.
- By sharing our differences we can also clear the culture of bias and potential racism.
- The triad of the industry, Music, film and TV must be geared toward the betterment of each individual and provide equal opportunity to all in the industry. One cannot exist without the other.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- Save your money
- It’s not “ too good to be true”, but its too true not to be good”.
- It’s the music “BUSINESS”
- Respect those who have paved the way before , honor and study the greats who dealt with much greater challenges in the early days of the industry
- Lyrics are meant to be sung, Poetry is meant to be read. Lyrics is a 3 minute movie.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
- Have some spiritual foundation and grounding
- Eat healthy,
- Be passionate about what you are striving for and I’s not always about the money but the love of your passion.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
The Better Man and Woman project. How can we become a better version of ourselves considering how the world is today. Have everyone reach out to someone who they feel has a quality that they could benefit in nurturing. If that catches on I think it could benefit the world.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
Another tough one.. there is more than one. But I would say.
Stevie Wonder ..It’s been a while and we both just lost a mutual friend a few months ago. His name was John Harris who was there when I auditioned for Motown.
How can our readers follow you online?
http://www.instagram.com/suttymichael
https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelBSutton
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
