by GERARD DEE

At 23 years old, R&B singer Vivian Green has toured with Maxwell, sung background vocals for Jill Scott and just recently released one of the most highly anticipated urban albums of the year, A Love Story. Sound exciting? Not according to Green.

“Everybody’s like ‘Oh, are you excited?’ And I’m like, no. All I’m thinking about is that my performance has to be perfect. That kind of makes you crazy, not really excited. I feel like now is the time not to be overwhelmed and lose focus. You can be excited when you succeed.”

She’s been building towards that success for the better part of a decade, fronting bands in her native Philadelphia. Her recent signing to Columbia Records is the payoff for years of hard work. Now she just has to learn how to deal with it.

“I’ve been trying to get signed for a very long time, since I was 15. And to finally have it - I just felt a lot of pressure. And then to let me have creative control - I was scared, a lot of anxiety. I just felt like I wanted to go into a shell or something, but there was really no turning back from that point.”

Green is determined to live up to the hype. She penned every song on her debut disc, using her own experiences as a wellspring of inspiration. “For this album, I’ve written a lot about my life. I like to tell true things, true stories. I think it’s more me when I do it that way, when it’s based on something that’s really true.

“Writing is just a gift I’ve been given, there’s no pressure. And if it’s not coming, then I’ll just stop. I won’t sit and ponder over something if I’m not feeling it that day. I don’t want it to be a big deal, I just want it to be a very natural, flowing thing.”

The flow for lead single “Emotional Rollercoaster” stemmed from a bad relationship. “I wrote it in the park while I was jogging, the first half of it, anyway. I ran home so I could get my little tape recorder and do the rest of it. I was really going through something at that time, so really it was very therapeutic for me.

“If you listen to the album in sequence, it’s very obvious what’s going on. The first half of it is kind of sad, and most of it was written at that time. And then I wrote the new ones when I fell in love with the new guy. I put them all together and that’s why I called it a love story.”

Needless to say, Green’s in a good space these days. All she wants now is for people to feel her music. “To be singing my own material, that I’ve been singing in my basement for years, is really great. Now I just want a large enough fan base for me to be happy. And then I would really feel like I did what I was supposed to do.

“Because you can’t… well, maybe you can wish for too much. I try not to, I really don’t like to be disappointed. So let’s start with this wish, and then maybe if we get there, I’ll have another one.” :

At Cabaret on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 8pm, $12.50

>> Music Listings