As person who takes the sentence to take the liner notes to search out the authors behind some of my favorite songs, I know it's rare for some of the better writers to get shine on their own as a solo artist. Heck, one of the most successful writers of the preceding ten and a personal favorite of mine Static Major suffered from that case of luck and never released a solo album.Johnta Austin is in the same league right now, and the number goes on. For that reason, it's exciting to find out that Lonny Bereal, the writer behind hits by Chris Brown, Tank, Pleasure P, Jamie Foxx and LeToya Luckett just to make a few, is getting that chance. YouKnowIGotSoul got the opportunity to interview the industry veteran and we discussed his signing to Busta Rhymes' label, what to carry on his upcoming solo album, his writing experiences with some of the biggest names in r&b, the stigma connected to some writers in the industry, and the best song he's ever written.YouKnowIGotSoul: First I wish to get out talking about how you originally got into music and what led you to a calling in the music industry.Lonny Bereal: I was born into this, into music. It came of track from the church form of things; I`m a church boy still, my house was a very musical family, the Bereal family. I grew up in my grandfather`s church and my cousins and siblings, we all either sang or played something. I originally started playing the drums as a kid and I always could talk but it was something I never precious to do, I was shy about it and I view it was more cool to meet the drums. As a kid my father would take me sing sometimes and sometimes I would do it, and sometimes I wouldn`t. As I got older some of my cousins and associates that I grew up with that were musicians had already started playing for different artists on tours and that was the cool thing because we were in the gospel world. So when we had a pair of friends that were acting for Jodeci and the Eric Benet`s back in the day, Rahsaan Patterson, Brandy, Destiny`s Child; I had folk and friends that were musicians that played for these artists. So I finally got older and started embracing singing a little more and when I turned 18 I only said you know what, I`m going to get very good roughly this singing because I had started really doing it about 13 years old, and I ever could do it. But at around 16 I started really getting my craft together and learning my part and by the sentence I was 18 I was doing it professionally. So I put the drum sticks down and I went on my first tour, I went on a few gospel tours, but my first actual secular tour I worked with K-Ci and Jo Jo and so I sang with Ruben Studdard when he first won American Idol, I went on tour with him, and I was out on the route with Kelly Rowland. So I just started singing background for all of these people and because I sung backgrounds for so many different artists, once I started writing music, I actually formed my writing craft in working with my cousins Kenny and Charlie, shout out to Hit Club, I`ve ever been with them since the beginning. So while I was developing this writing craft, I was singing backgrounds for a lot of people, so when my writing got up to par, shout out to Tank, Tank got me my first placements on Dave Hollister`s "Real Talk" album. So he ushered me into the writing back and so once I got those first placements with Tank and only started carrying around CDs of songs that I had written and recorded or vocal produced whether it was a male or female song. I already had all of the relationships with the artists to make it directly to them, and the remainder is history. I`ve been just growing ever since then and God has been blessing me with that, I take so many great relationships now of course it`s a lot easier to get my placements because different artists request my pen. Now I`m doing my own affair and I originally started writing because I wanted to do my own affair and I just found out I could do a lot of money selling some of these songs. So I sort of did that for a short while and now it`s time for me to hold onto some of these records for myself. Of course I look to my friends like Sean Garrett and Andre Merritt and the different writers out there, and of course Tank and Song Dynasty writing with me on this project. I`m only looking ahead to it, it`s my turn.YKIGS: Before I speak to you about your solo career and what you`re going to be doing in the future, I wish to speak to you a short bit more about what you touched on and that`s where you developed your craft for writing because people love you as a very talented writer. How did you get that gift for writing?LB: I had the sumptuousness of, like I said before, my cousins Kenny and Charlie, they had their own studio so when Charlie first started playing guitar and producing, that`s around the clock when I first started writing. They had a studio in the rear of their house and I used to be there every day just studying songs and Charlie would be running on beats and I`d get a pen and pad and only begin writing. Kenny had the patience with us to learn us and allow me to record, he would sit there and show me. I had songs from those days that only every day I was in there just kept writing and writing, if one song didn`t work, I thought let me try something else. So I only stayed in the studio and didn`t fall out, I was a studio rat, I would rest on the floor, wake up, listen to the beats that they had and kept writing. I would invite some of my friends that were more sophisticated in composition to do and compose with me, or some friends that were starting writing as well. We would simply sit there and go at it.YKIGS: Talk to me more now almost the solo project you`re running on. I love you sign to Busta Rhyme`s label, talk to me about how that whole opportunity came about?LB: I`ve ever been good friends with Busta. Busta was running on his album last year, incredible album getting set to get out, and he called Jamie Foxx for a feature. Jamie went to the studio and Busta had this path that was just incredible, and me and Jamie worked together a lot lately when it came to his authorship in the studio, so he called me and was like "Lonny, I want you to get over here and aid me write this song with me and Busta Rhymes." So I said cool, I`m on my way. So I get there and I see the rails and I visit my writing partner and he gets there, and I had this wild thought that we just brought to life and you`ll see it on Busta`s new album. Busta loved what we did so often that he started calling me himself like "Yo playboy I want you to do over here and publish these hooks for me, I got some ideas that I love you will kill em." So me and my partner started going over there for two or 3 weeks straight, and I ended up getting a feature on Busta`s new album as well. So we came up with such incredible work together and Busta was like "Lonny you`ve been in this game too long to not do your own thing, I think in you, there`s no jealousy, I`m a rapper so you can`t step on my toes, you talk and I suppose you want to get out there and I desire to serve you get out there." So I asked what he was talk about and he came with some paperwork and we negotiated back and forth for a pair of months, and here we are.YKIGS: So are you are presently running on your debut album? When can we expect that?LB: I am running on that and it`s about done, it`s release to be titled "Love Train." I only did a book with Chris Brown for that, Busta is on it of course, YG is on it, I was with Tyga last night, he`s giving me a verse. I`m excited about the project, of course me and Cooler are leaving to do something together, it`s release to be a hot album. I`m working on that as easily as the "Love Games Part 2" mixtape so my home is full. Of course I`m working with Chris Brown on his new "Fame & Fortune" album, I`m working with Pleasure P on his new project so I`m sort of spread thin. I`m still doing live shows, I`m getting set to go to New York with Tank, so between these shows with Jamie and Cooler and "Know Games Part 2" and the "Love Train" album and me writing on everybody else`s album, I don`t sleep too much!YKIGS: Talk to me about the mixtape you recently released "Love Games Part 1." What has the response from your fans been like?LB: You love the response has been great. As more people get out about it I`m getting a lot of positive feedback. It was very surprising to me because it was my first part of study that I put out there for myself. I only wanted to have a little appetizer out there for the people that are waiting on this album, while you are waiting on this album, let me leave you this little appetizer to run on and just introduce myself a small bit and prove you what I can do. So I put the mixtape together simply for the fans and supporters that are waiting on the album and it`s been great feedback. I didn`t wait the feedback that I`m getting, and I`m appreciative, it gives me more inspiration to continue leaving and only get in there and confidently give people what they`re waiting for.YKIGS: I wish to get your judgement on something. As a seasoned writer who`s had success in the past, do you get there is any stigma that goes along with that where people may classify you as only a writer? Does that form of take off from what you`re trying to do as solo artist? Have you ever got that case of feedback?LB: I`ve had that form of feedback within the industry, the government of the industry. Just because you can save and sing doesn`t necessarily mean you`re supposed to be an artist. So a lot of times they`re big on range and expression and selling and promoting and if they don`t recognize how to do that with you they truly don`t see you as an artist, they see you more as that writer that "Oh let me get these records for that other artist from you." I have run into that inside the industry internally but outside of the industry the fans have always supported me and yet when I do these live shows with these artists, they all have showcased me in their shows, it`s ever been the fans that number to me and say "When is your stuff coming out?" So it`s those moments that built me up to say you recognize what, I`m not going to hear to what everybody is saying, I`m going to leave the multitude what they want.YKIGS: I had a hazard to check you out at Tank`s show at SOB`s in New York last month and I saw that he gave you a hazard to strike a small bit on the mic and do your thing alone which was cool. What`s it like singing backup for Tank?LB: Singing backup for Tank, he`s my favorite artist to do shows with because he doesn`t care. As tenacious as you sound great you don`t get to get to background script. You got a chance to see the point so as you saw a lot of times we rock like a group more so than background singers. So I know that because he`s not intimidated by singers. A lot of singers would be intimidated and want you to abide in the second and to actually do too often and get to the book because it`s their level and they wish their smooth and they don`t need too much attention off of them. Tank isn`t that sort of artist, he only loves having fun, he`s a keen musician, and he appreciates people that can serve his show even if that way they buy some of the weak a small bit and I love that about him. So it`s nonstop fun, jokes, we all got crazy sense of humors so I enjoy being on the route with him and we get a globe like some little kids.YKIGS: Yea I definitely noticed that you guys looked like you were having fun out there and you were all just rocking out doing your thing so it was cool.LB: Yea and I have nearly as much fun with Jamie Foxx because he showcases me too but it`s only real loose and whatsoever with Tank, it`s good fun.YKIGS: Speaking of Tank, I wish to speak to you some one of the biggest songs you wrote for him which is "Please Don`t Go." Give me a little background on that call and how it came about.LB: Wow, I actually lucked up on that one. Tank was running on his "Sex, Love & Pain" album and it was only one of those years where I woke up and said "What am I going to do today? Let me call Tank and see what he`s doing." So I called him and said "Yo Teezy," I bid him Teezy, "Yo Teezy where you at man?" So he said he was at the studio, and told me which one he was at and I told him I was on my way. So I get there, he always loves to meet what he`s working on, he`ll bring the course of what he`s getting set to do and give me his ideas or any and I`ll sit there and be like that`s hot, or that`s not hot, or let`s do it like this. So I simply walked in on "Please Don`t Go" and he had already started on it and I sat down and only started throwing lines at him. At one item he walked out of the studio and was on the sound or eating or any he was doing, and I really got in the booth myself and finished the song myself. So when he came second in there and heard what I had done he loved it so much. He changed a few lines here and thither but we knocked it out, we knocked "Please Don`t Go" out. I didn`t even believe it was leaving to be a single, I didn`t believe it was that big of a song, I was only glad to be piece of a strain on his album, I was scarce hoping that it made the album. But he called me and said the label loved it and it`s release to be the low single. I was like "What? Ok cool well that`s crazy, I trust it does good." And before you knew it, it was come one and I couldn`t think it and it was my first act one. That`s "Please Don`t Go," still to this day I`m appreciative of that day.YKIGS: Amazing song, I know that one. I wish to speak to you about another one of your biggest hits which is the call you wrote for Pleasure P, "Under." Give me some ground on that one.LB: Wow, "Under" was really done at the same studio that we did "Please Don`t Go." Shout out to Glennwood Studios, that`s a particular home for me, I always luck up. Me and Tank were really running with Keyshia Cole in the same way that we did "Please Don`t Go," and then across the lobby we had the session with Pleasure P. So Tank wanted to only end the strain with Keyshia, and wanted me to go over with Pleasure. So we were bouncing back and forth between the suite and I walked in the way with Joy and Tank gave me the dog for Pleasure and he went back in with Keyshia. Pleasure told Tank he wanted us to leave him "Naked" like the song Tank did with Marques Houston. So he said "I ask one of those out of you Tank, I need `Naked` on a song." So we heard the runway and Tank came up with "Under," he came up with the bible "Under" and he went in the stall and set the line and everybody agreed that we loved the melody. So Tank said "I`m going to go back over here with Keyshia, Lonny you and Delight got it, you guys write the song, I`m going to fall second in hither and stay on you and finish writing it." Tony Dixon was in the way as good as about other Song Dynasty writers and we just sat down and listened to the melody Tank had, and he had a few words that he had thrown in there, and we played off of it Tank came in there and helped us finish it and we had "Under."YKIGS: I know that song too, that was one of my favorite songs from 2009.LB: Oh yea, it`s one of my favorites now. We did it again on this new Pleasure P album, you`ll see it, it`s a song called "Part of Mind." YKIGS: There`s something I wanted to get insight from you on. "Under," and another song you had a deal in was LeToya`s "Over," I felt like those two songs had a similar sound and experience and variety of the same structure. Did you adopt the same design on those?LB: Yea we definitely followed the like sort of blueprint. It`s really the same writers if you looking at the credits and it`s like that`s what we do when we get together. LeToya loved "Under" as easily and she said she needed something similar that, so we gave it to her.YKIGS: You mentioned Chris Brown earlier. Tell me what it`s been like having the chance to play with him.LB: It`s been really a learning process because Chris is such a star and I didn`t know how talented he was until I got to go in the studio and play with him, but I knew he was keen on stage. My first song that I always did with Chris was a call on his "Exclusive" album. The low song I did with him on the "Exclusive" album is called "I Wanna Be."That was my first time working with him with Tony Dixon and Eric Dawkins and I had ball working with him. He`s vocally fast, he works so quick in the studio, I was really impressed and he`s a really smart kid. So we got a risk to recognise each other in the studio around that sentence and we`d always been friends and seen each other around, then when he started running on his "Graffiti" project, he put my name down as one of the writers on his wish list to be a share of the project. I was truly surprised, really happy about it. So when he called me, he was passing through his turmoil, I actually felt like one of the elite because he reached out to me in the hardest time in his spirit to fall and make this album with him. So I got to Orlando where he was based and it was like a compound; they had this building full of rooms and you had the Swizz Beatz out there, the Rodney Jerkins, and just all of these producers that I ever wanted to act with that I never had a fortune to. So it was really fun, Chris is a big kid he loves to make fun and his melodies and the lyrics that comes out of his mind is great. So I sit back and run off of him now even on this "Fame & Fortune" album. We run to leap off of each other`s ideas a lot and it`s good fun, the surroundings is keen and I`m glad that he`s back, "Graffiti" should have been a larger project. Around the time I did "I Can Transform You" on that project, a lot of mass were saying the matter on Lonny Bereal is well he`s a great ballad writer, he doesn`t actually do up-tempos. So I had a risk to be a part of an up-tempo and it really got me some of my biggest royalty checks, "I Can Transform You." That came out, and so the Teairra Marie "Cause a Shot" came out so I had these up-tempos that started releasing around the clock when my critics were saying I couldn`t release an up-tempo. So I got a fortune to be a piece of "Famous Girl" which wasn`t a lay on the "Graffiti" project. So Chris Brown is a star and really is broadening my database as far as my wide array of writing; he`s got me writing pop songs, he`s got me writing country songs, he`s got me writing alternative songs, rock songs and we`re mixing it with r&b. So it`s a large growing process for me.YKIGS: I wish to ask what might be a small bit of a bad question for you. I`ve got your ASCAP page up hither and I`m looking through all of your writing credits. Do you take a strain that you experience is the best song you ever wrote? And why.LB: Mmmm, wow. That`s a difficult one! Well as far as the songs that are out there, because I do get a call that I do make a feeling like it`s the best song that I ever wrote that`s actually going on my album so you haven`t had a fortune to hear it yet. But as far as what`s out there *pauses* that`s a difficult one. I get to say I guess that off of the biggest song that I`ve had so it would be between "I Can Transform You," "Under," and "Please Don`t Go." I guess I would go with "Please Don`t Go" because it`s more of an emotional song, a song everybody could connect to, it`s a call from the heart. So I go with "Please Don`t Go" if I had to choose. "Under" is a clever song, it`s a clever song how we wrote it and the melodies. "I Can Transform You" was more of a call for that time, a fad song for the clubs. So I would say "Please Don`t Go."YKIGS: Now as a writer who is can the scenes, to me that`s the actual star who is crafting the hit for an artist. A lot of times the green fan might not yet know who the writer is. Do you always feeling that possibly you don`t get the recognition you deserve for the hits you`ve created?LB: Definitely I look like I haven`t gotten everything that I deserve when it comes to that because being that I write with Tank so often and Tank was already an accomplished writer and producer, a lot of songs that I`ve written that make big names connected to it. Even with some of the stuff I`ve done with Rico Love or Tank or with the Jamie Foxx`s, the Chris Brown`s, the Swizz Beatz`. So my name will get lost behind the bigger names because I`m up and coming and so a lot of people are not certain how often I truly did and what I`m really capable of because they love what these big names are subject of that I`ve worked with. So I`m not offended, I understand, so what I started doing is doing more things on my own and you`ll see that on my album as good as some of the things I have coming out very soon. YKIGS: That`s all of the questions I had for you. Is there anything else you`d care to add?LB: You summed everything up pretty much. YKIGS: Well thanks for winning the metre for the interview, you gave me a lot of good information and I prize it.LB: I appreciate you. I wish to let everyone know about the Facebook, I do make my fan page on there and so my personal page as good and so my Twitter page, Hitclub.com, LonnyBereal.com, just shout out to all of those social sites that we have. We support people up to date, and everybody just stay tuned.
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