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India.Arie Shares Life Lessons On Voyage To India

Singer coping with changes in her life now that she's a star.

"It's as different as my life is ... drastically different," India.Arie said last Thursday, comparing her new album, Voyage to India, with her first one, last year's Acoustic Soul. "The song content is drastically different. I've experienced so many things in so short a time. It's called Voyage to India for a reason. It's all about everything.

"Life continues to change," the singer, who turns 27 on October 3, added. "I'm learning different things and different lessons. [I titled my album interludes] 'Growth,' 'Healing' and 'Gratitude' because I'm growing and changing and healing a lot of things in my life. I'm learning to be thankful for everything. Even when it doesn't look good, it's always good. Even the worst thing, there's always something good that comes out of it. I've learned that. That’s been my lesson the past couple of years."

Arie wanted to express what she got from life's tutorial right off the bat with her first single from the LP, "Little Things."

" 'Little Things' is a song about the lessons I learned last year," she said. "Understanding this phase of my life, that I feel is gonna last for a while. Balancing a public life and a private life. This is something I never had to think about before. So now that I'm learning how to do it, it’s a very big lesson. That has been the catalyst for the growth that I've been through. The only thing constant in the world is change. That’s why today I take life as it comes. That's my mantra right now."

Arie conveys that breathe-easy feel on "Headed in the Right Direction." Ironically, she penned the cut before her life was dramatically altered by stardom.

"Actually that’s one of the first songs I recorded for Acoustic Soul," said India, who sings on the track of her quest for love, crooning, "I can see the light of day/ I've got love as my connection/ There's an angel showing me the way."

"That’s one of the songs where I felt that once people knew me better musically, it would make more sense. So, it’s a beautiful thing to see how much my life has changed over the last couple of years and how much that song really means to me.

"Plus, it's old school," she added. "It reminds me of the music I heard when I was growing up, like that pop music from the late '70s and early '80s. I love that song. I love what it says, I love how it's produced. It reminds me of Christopher Cross' 'Sailing.' "

While Arie won't be journeying across the seas anytime soon, she will be cruising the highways when her tour kicks off on October 18 at Detroit's Fox Theatre. Slum Village, Floetry and K-OS have been given the nod as openers (see [article id="1457185"]"India.Arie Taking Slum Village On Tour"[/article]).

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