Redraft of Main Article.

Introduction

Who are ‘The Teachers’?

No we are not talking about your typical, elbow-patched, coffee-breathed, old man that used to patrol the school halls, pick you out in class when your day-dreaming and keep you back after class when you were caught chewing gum then lecture you in a very slow, monotone voice. No, these sensations are a totally different breed of teachers and are anything but monotone!

A dynamic group of musicians consisting of the ‘Funkster’ acknowledged as the most electrifying man in the industry today, the man known to leave you in sweet tingles for more slick jingles and leave your boots knockin’ like a Jehovah’s Witness, Mr Smooth Operator, Chintu Anderson. The angelic, passionate, spiritual Diva beholding the beautiful, gorgeous, mellow voice, Ms Denise Greene; and not forgetting Mr ‘Soul-man’ himself, the handsome, harmonic instrumentalist of the group, the Cat said to hit that sweet spot you never knew existed, Mr Jamie Biggums.

Born and raised in London, UK; A threesome with a melodious, lascivious, passionate musical ability waiting to ‘Sweep you off your feet’ once more, are here holding an ‘after-school’ session with us today over at ‘Smooth’, giving us the pleasure of revealing the true characters that live underneath those blazers of sensual brilliance. Introducing to you ‘The Teachers’, welcoming you into the ‘School Of Soul’ like never before!

Interview

Smooth:
“How did you get together, where did it all begin?”

The Teachers: (Chintu Anderson) –
“Well, we all grew up together and went to the same high school, Preston Manor High School. Me and Denise actually went to the same Infant School as well, our mothers were good friends and used to pair us up to sing together, and we have been friends ever since then. Used to have duets every now and then in front of our class, and would always take the lead when it came to singing in the class. After Infant School we met Mr Cool Soul-man over here, and he truly brought the funk we needed into the group, and we just clicked really! Now we’re here today in your studio, luckily enough to have broken through, gained a lot of loyal, dedicated fans and being interviewed by the biggest Soul magazine in the country.”

Smooth:
“Thanks, and we’re glad to have the biggest group of 2010 here today too.
So what’s your favourite song in the album ‘School of Soul’?”

The Teachers (Denise Greene) –
“That’s a tricky one to be honest. Jamie and me were discussing this a few days ago when on the tour-bus, and we both came to a long, hard but sturdy agreement that ‘Bring Down the Funk’ would perhaps be our most favourable track on the album. However Chintu over here keeps arguing and bickering that ‘Eden’ is the best song we have on the album, while we all concur it is an undeniably great song that we are all proud to have worked on, me and Jamie don’t quite feel it’s as powerful and exciting of a tune as ‘Bring Down the Funk’ is. We may all hold our own personal opinions and views on the matter, bringing about many disagreements but at the end of the day we all had great experiences when recording the tracks, for better and for worse. Sure it was hard work, we wanted to get everything just right so we could bring the most amazing quality of music to our fans as possible, so it wasn’t uncommon for us to totally scrap and diminish of huge amounts and hours of recordings just to get a chorus right, and for us to stay in the studio all day, long enough to decide to bring our own duvets there and grow tiresome of ordering takeaway 24/7. But when it all began to click, and synchronise together then we realised all our efforts were not in vain, and you can just know the fans are going to love this, just as we do, so in the end its all worth it. Plus with the fantastic assistance of our production and A&R team, it makes things flow more quickly to get to that stage of blissfulness, and makes the journey far less stressful too; so we could not be any more grateful to them.”

Smooth:
“Who would you say has inspired you to become the great Soul musicians that you are today?”

The Teachers: (Chintu Anderson) –
“There is a massive amount of great legends that have influenced the heart of our music. Ranging from The Temptations, The Stylistics, Shalamar, Teddy Pendergrass, Etta James, Gladys Knight and the Pips; you name it! All of these artists, whether individual or group, have encouraged us to enter the industry in the hopes and dreams of being able to walk among them in terms of status at one point in our lives. And lets not forget the almighty Mike Smithy Johnson.”

Smooth:
“We at Smooth have become aware that you and Mike Smithy Johnson share a great connection, and he is of significant importance in your lives. Would you insist on giving us, and readers of Smooth Magazine, further insight into this?”

The Teachers: (Denise Greene) –
“I remember when we were all in our first year of high school and his track 'Hit me' came out. We literally would play that all day, and jump up and down in pure excitement at the very sound of the opening drum rolls to the intro of the song. Jamie was so proud of himself when he finally learnt how to play the drums to the song perfectly, whilst Chintu and me would sing along to every beat. Feeling every step closer to becoming a flawless replication of the legend himself.
(Jamie Biggums) – No doubt, one of the greatest and most breathtaking moments in our lives, was when we got the opportunity to meet him in real, 3 dimensional and in flesh. We were doing our second performance in a little club in West London, called ‘The Slam’, and before our very eyes Mr Johnson appeared before us. He must have sensed how nervous and terrified we were, due to an unsuccessful first performance we had had no longer than 2 weeks prior. He just said to us, “Calm down, you ain’t doing yourself any favours by wobbling and sweating all over the place. Before you know it your voices are gonna’ vibrate uncontrollably like an injured bee,
and your gonna’ be dropping all over the stage on the wet floor you created, quivering like fish outta’ water.”
(Denise Green) - “But then he told us something that’s just stuck in our head, as clear as crystal, since the very moment he said it.”
“You kids gotta’ remember to believe in yourselves, because if you don’t, then who will? I saw your last performance a couple of weeks ago, you didn’t quite have it but what you do have is potential. Have confidence in your music and then the Soul will do the rest of the work. I know you guys gonna’ be special one day, you just wait!”
(Chintu Anderson) – “To this day that was one of our personally, greatest and most memorable performances yet. Even though our skills have improved much from then, the passion that Mike Smithy Johnson embraced us with has always been there. We kept in contact with him after that, and he’s been there to guide us along when in need. A true mentor he was, and he is greatly missed by us, greatly.”

Smooth:
“Indeed he is. So would you say Mike Smithy Johnson had a great role in rousing your interests into becoming professional musicians then, what else did he teach you about Soul?”

The Teachers (Chintu Anderson) –
“Certainly, he was of massive importance into us developing our dreams of becoming stars in the Soul industry. He taught us many things about music life and even personal lifestyle decisions and issues that we’d have to face as time went by. Without his guidance, I don’t know where we’d be today. On the other hand he didn’t teach us much about Soul.”

Smooth:
“Really?”

The Teachers: (Chintu Anderson) –
“Yeah, instead he helped us to form and construct this personal belief and ideology. This being that: You can’t teach Soul. It lives in you already. Thus, permitting us to embrace and clinch our own unique qualities and traits, allowing us to differ from other artists, which we believe is one of the key aspects to our fortunate success.”

Smooth:
“Now, ‘The Teachers’, are a very popular group not only in the UK, but also globally, ranging from countries such as Brazil, to even Germany. Areas where Soul music is not as consumed as often compared to this country. You have also become especially acknowledged in the States. Did you ever believe your music would become as widespread as this?”

The Teachers: (Denise Greene) –
“To be sincerely honest and genuine, no we actually didn’t. We always had this strange feeling that we would be one of those ‘under-the-radar’ artists that would love our profession, but have to struggle a whole lot to even get a few gigs on for us. Although we did face many struggles, we had absolutely no idea that we’d be able to breakthrough so successfully and effectively, to even be on an International tour today, is just mind-blowing and flabbergasting. Breaking through into America was just unexpected, we don’t know how we did it but we are immensely thankful that dream has been able to come true. America is apparently one tough cookie to crumble. But perhaps what’s even more amazing is the fact that our music can appeal to countries such as Germany, China, Brazil, Tunisia and many others. Countries that barely listen to any of the music from our genre, yet they listen to us, we are truly blessed to have been able to make it this far. It overwhelms us everyday, from the moment we get up from bed, to the moment we get in front of hundreds to thousands of fans at a time, performing our most proudest songs to. We owe a massive thank you to our dedicated fans and supporters who were there to stick with us through our hardest times, and to our recent supporters that allow us to achieve greater goals and expand our fan base.”

Smooth:
“So where do ‘The Teachers’ plan to go now, after the world tour? Surely you must need a break?”

The Teachers: (Jamie Biggums) –
“Well, that is true, we’re only halfway through the tour and we’re already starting to feel the bags under our eyes. Though I guess we’re going to have to get used to that. We plan on working on a new album that we have already written tracks for and recorded a couple too.”
(Denise Greene) – “We believe this album has the potential to be just as great and exhilarating as the first, perhaps even more so. So in a way, we are actually looking forward to getting back to work on that, and we are interested to see how that will turn out. It’s shaping up to be more perilous to ‘School of Soul’, but also hopefully even more inspiring to that as well. So be looking forward to the release of this album, hopefully to be released in a couple of years, and we will keep you posted on the progress of it.”

Smooth:
“Will most definitely do! Well, it was a pleasure to have you here today to join us, we know that this cut into your resting time for the tour but we gladly appreciated your presence in the studio today. We at Smooth wish you the best for the future of this invigorating group and hope to see your success increase. We hope our readers enjoyed the interview, and do remember to keep your promise to keep us posted!”

The Teachers:
“Thank you, and it was a pleasure taking apart of this interview as well. And don’t worry, Teachers don’t lie remember. You have our word”