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Page 1
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Lopez can go home again as long as she doesn't mind crowds, though some question if she really wants to ....
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Page 2
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J. Lo strips down, serenades Ben Affleck, puts it all in an album for her kids ...
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Page 3
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Luther Vandross gets J. Lo in the mood, but it's a Michael Jackson record that makes her say, 'I want this guy' ...
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Photo Gallery
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Jennifer Lopez: Photos From The MTV Interview
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Though This Is Me ... Then looks at J. Lo's current love life, musically it builds on her past obsessions. While working on the disc, she listened to blues and soul, the music she had often turned to while growing up. Using songs by Stevie Wonder, Luther Vandross and others as inspiration, she attempted to elicit a similar feeling in her own songwriting.
"Those were just songs that made my heart sing," she said. "They just stay with you. ... I wanted to do something that's true to me and how I grew up, but I also wanted to make beautiful songs. So I'd listen to records from today and I would listen to records from back then, and [eventually] I'd go, 'That's what I want.'"
So enamored and moved was Lopez by the contagious melodies and powerful nuances of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall, one of her favorite childhood LPs, that she nabbed the album's mixer and engineer, Bruce Swedien.
"Everything was so placed in Michael's records to make you feel a certain way," she said. "Everything was so clear and spacious, and it felt like there was air on the track. ... It has such a beautiful quality on it, and every time I looked at a record [I liked], it would be engineered and mixed by Bruce Swedien. I was like, 'Who is this guy? I want this guy.' So I tracked him down and he was like, 'I want to do something with her. I know exactly what she needs. I'm coming in.' And it made a huge difference."
Most of the recording of This Is Me ... Then was completed in just two weeks, with Lopez averaging two songs per night. The nose-to-the-grindstone pace was needed, since her time was juggled between working on three movies. Thankfully, she had producer Corey Rooney to depend on and assist her with songwriting.
"He's so talented," she said. "And he's so 'behind the scenes,' especially when it comes to me. He's really, really just dedicated to music for the pure love of music."
And Rooney, sporting an iced-out watch as evidence of past success with Mariah Carey and Destiny's Child — not to mention Lopez's debut, On the 6, (1999) and J. Lo — returned the compliment.
"This is by far the best record that I've ever worked on or done," he said. "In the beginning of the recording [process] she said it's important that she makes a record that is a few notches above everything else she did. She wanted to show growth musically and vocally."
Those aren't the only places Lopez is growing. With her J. Lo clothing line and accompanying fragrance, evermore casting calls, another high-profile romance, and her production company, Nuyorican Films, overseeing two films and developing an NBC sitcom Lopez will produce, Lopez has become more Tinseltown than Terror Squad. Although it seems her roots are becoming further out of sight, a pride and dedication to where she's from is never quite out of mind.
"It is important to kind of 'up' your people in any way you can," she said. "Whether it's through example or whether it's through an achievement or actually bringing business back there, it's very important [not to lose sight of your roots.]"
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Photo: Sony
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