Erica Shine A little Q&A with singer-songwriter Erica Shine. Leicester Bangs: Tell us a little about yourself. Erica: My professional music career started in 1998 when I joined a girl group, SX4. SX4 performed with Kool & the Gang and performed many gigs covering En Vogue and Destiny's Child's songs. I quit the group to start a new dance / pop group with my twin sister called, Fantasy Twins, under MIG records in 2000. Quitting my day job to sing full time was like dream come true!! Unlike SX4, we both spoke and sang in three languages. We released an English dance album "Intoxicating" (2003) that shortly got us a Grammy pre-nomination under dance single and dance album. My sister's dream was to become a doctor more than a successful global musician so I let her go and had a long break before I released a solo EP album in 2009. LB: How did you start out making music? Erica: In my Fantasy Twins days, my sister and I were not happy with the songwriter that our record company assigned us so we chose to write our own material. We didn't have any song writing skills so it was challenging, but our passion drove us to learn quickly and we started writing our own songs - the first song took a while though… (laughs).  After 6 years of song-writing, it has become natural to put down ideas and record many samples of melodies, etc. The more drama I had, the more ideas I wrote, and ended up with all blues (laughs). LB: Who did you grow up listening to and how do they influence what you’re doing now? Erica: I grew up listening to Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and En Vogue to name a few. In my college years I listened to a lot of House, Trance, and vocal dance music, although I had a thing for the electric guitar sound. In recent years, I listen to more rock than anything; Evanescence, Seether and Sevendust, etc. I started my latest album, “I Will Wait For You” with an Evanescence sound but my fans have requested for acoustic-love songs, like Colbie Caillat, so it has cross-over between the two. For future projects, I would like more of an Evanescence / Seether sound. LB: Tell us about your latest release. Erica: My new EP, "I Will Wait For You", is an album that takes you on an emotional journey exploring the trials, tribulations, and inspires joys of love. Hope you will enjoy. LB: Do you get out and play your music live, and if so, what can an audience expect at one of your shows? Erica: I don't get out much now but when I performed with my previous groups, I was not only powerful on stage but entertaining as well. You can search "Fantasy Twins" on YouTube to see my performances. LB: What aspects of playing and recording music do you most enjoy? Erica: I am a vocalist so I use hundreds of different muscles to project different sounds. I am not only perfectionist but very technical with my vocal projections so when I record, I use tons of energy. My music is usually difficult to sing so, when I push hard, I feel like fainting. I have to take a lot of energy bars and drinks to keep up with my energy level... so enjoyment? What enjoyment?? I am kidding. I love performing on stage. I love the adrenaline rush. It's my addiction. I used to always ask, "so when is my next performance after this one?" LB: Where can people find (and buy) your music? Erica: My new EP is available on cdbaby.com but in October of 2009, it will be available on iTunes, Amazon.com, and all MP3 stores. www.cdbaby.com/cd/EricaShine www.myspace.com/officialericashine