AHHA: When did you get the record deal?
Euricka: I got it in May of this year. Through Echo Vista International.
AHHA: How did they hear about you?
Euricka: I had heard from the girl that introduced my package to him…it was a friend of a friend. After they had found out what had happened with Katrina, they were like ‘We gotta get this girl out of this situation. Let’s help her.’ So everybody got together and started just sending packages out on their own. And this girl remembered a friend who needed somebody that was looking for a female singer. They had gotten my package in December, I think, and were like ‘We want her.’
Everybody started really catching on to my music when they were sending the packages out. A lot of people were meeting with me and stuff and saying ‘Oh we love the story. We want to hurry up and sign you’ but nobody never went through with it. So the girl, in return, went back to Echo Vista and said ‘Are you still looking for that girl from New Orleans?’ And the guy was like ‘Yes! We’ve been waiting on her.’ So I got flown up to Miami and as soon as I walked in the office, Jeffrey Collins is his name, he kissed me on my cheek like he was family…He looked me in my eyes with everybody standing there and said ‘Let’s get you a distribution deal and get you out.’
And I mean to tell you I had tears in my eyes. And he didn’t even need to talk to me anymore. He said ‘Well, that’s it.’ I said ‘That’s it?’ He said ‘That’s it. We’re going to get you a distribution deal. I’ll talk to your people. I need to talk to your lawyer.’ And that was it. I said to myself ‘Is it that easy?’ But he had been seen my package too. And he had been waiting for the girl to get back with him. So it was like a miracle. I can only say that it was a miracle.
AHHA: Now that you’re reunited with your family in Texas, how has life been with everyone staying in the same place?
Euricka: [Laughs] We’ve learned not to touch certain people’s food in the refrigerator. We have days where somebody wants the air conditioner on colder than the others. You know, them little bitty things that get on people’s nerves. But other than that, we’re happy and we’re blessed because we’re a praying family. My grandmother is an ordained minister. My mother is a person that’s in the church all the time. And we all believe that God has something better for all of us and that we’re here for a purpose and whatever we went through was for a purpose. So that’s what keeps us sane. But yeah, we have those little difficult days of being in the house together.
AHHA: Do you think more could’ve been done with the rescue effort and prevent the damage done by the hurricane?
Euricka: Oh yea. I’m sure somebody somewhere took some money that could’ve been put on the levees. Somebody somewhere. I don’t know who to blame that on, but somebody forgot to repair the levees and get them up to speed with a hurricane of that magnitude. For all of those people to die like that and to be displaced like that was uncalled for because that hurricane, honey, was not a bad hurricane. I was there. I saw it. It didn’t leave no water. The water came a day later. [Laughs] The water came that evening, late that evening. It was surreal. We were outside surveying the damage and seven, eight hours later we seen water all the way up to the rooftops of the houses around us with no warning. So think about that.
So that’s why I wrote the song, “Sweep the Floor,” which is on myspace.com/euricka504. It came to me after the storm. I was literally helping my mother and all of them get their houses together. We all pitch in and help each other sweeping the floor. And I made the song and in it I say ‘this is my year. I’m taking over.’ And I mean I’m taking back my life. That’s why the album is entitled The Takeover.
Basically, the album is about me taking my life back, releasing all the stress that happened on last year amidst the past months and on that everything is going to be a new day and it’s time for my takeover.
AHHA: How did Katrina affect the making of this album?
Euricka: I still want my fans to get that Euricka sound that there used to, but it’s just some little dashes that I put in there now that people can possibly pick up and know ‘OK, well this song must’ve been written after the storm,’ you know. I’ve remade Patti LaBelle’s On My Own so that’s definitely dedicated to the New Orleans situation. It’s a really powerful song. Nobody can do it like Patti did, but I’m hoping that she gives me her grace and say that I did it some justice you know.
So that’s one of the main songs, “On My Own,” that I dedicated to Katrina. Most of the songs are Hip-Hop, R&B orientated. I don’t want people to be remembering some bad situation. I want people to, you know when they put on my album, my CD, that they rejoice and just have good music and hear good music. Quality hip-hop R&B music.
