More than six years after her last record (Discipline), Janet Jackson is back in the studio
at work on new music. The news comes from vocal producer and engineer Ian Cross.
Cross helped engineer Jackson's last three studio albums, and in a new interview,
he opened up about the collaboration.
"Janet [Jackson] and I had a little bit more of a special relationship because we became
friends naturally,” Cross told Barefoot Sound of their ongoing working relationship. “You
meet a lot of people and you become friends with a couple of them, but sometimes there
is one person you become really good friends with. She asked me to work on an album
with her called Discipline in 2007 and, again, just do the same thing, produce the vocals.
That led to her hiring me full-time to work with her. That’s where I’m at now.”
"The Janet Jacksons of the world can’t just spend their time in one studio in one city anymore…
we’ve been working in Qatar. We’ve been working in Paris, the Middle East, and now we feel
like we can work anywhere," he said. (BTW, Janet's husband, Wissam Al Mana, is a Qatari
businessman, which helps explain her city-hopping recording schedule.) "The new album
is going to be great. It’s a process. There’s a lot in store, yet to come."
Source: Billboard