Believe it or not, but our favorite artists shine thanks to the light (and words … and music) of someone else. The personality behind some of last year’s biggest hits ― Usher’s “Hot Tottie” and “Lil Freak” and Rihanna’s “What’s My Name?” ― comes straight from songwriter Ester Dean. Upon meeting the 24-year-old, it becomes clear that the spotlight will be hers very soon. Dean is currently working on her as-yet-untitled debut, but don’t think that means the talent is ready to stop pushing out the hits for others.
Thanks to Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 self-help book “The Secret” ― a bestseller featured on “Oprah” and lauded as a must-read for all those in need of life-changing results ― Dean is fearless. However, the singer-songwriter isn’t done yet. We chopped it up with Dean and learned ― in between infectious laughter and moderate cursing ― that she’s not finished bettering herself. Dean, who just finished reading Brian Tracy’s “No Excuses: The Power of Discipline,” is just getting started.
GlobalGrind: You’ve written hits for Rihanna, Chris Brown and Mary J. Blige … when did you know it was time for you to step from behind the pen?
Ester Dean: [Polow Da Don] thought it was always time, but I believe that when you start something you’re supposed to see it through and as I was being a writer, he wanted me to do the artist thing but I hadn’t seen the writing thing through. I hadn’t had any success at it. I said well, let me hold on and finish this task up where then I can feel comfortable enough to come out. It’s like a job. You don’t go quitting no job unless you’ve got another one and you’re very secure in it. So my songwriting is a career for me so I couldn’t be all crazy and leave it. But once I felt secure in it, I felt like I could go out and do everything that I want to do and it’s beyond just [being] the artist. I do voiceovers, I do bookwriting or whatever just so I have five minutes to focus on something else.
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You’re working on your own project. How has the process been now that these songs will be all you, your words and your voice?
It’s just fun. As long as this s— stays fun, I’m all for it. I love to see what people think about the songs and how they feel about me singing the songs. There’s demos that I did years ago that are on the Internet now and the song that I did for the movie “Rio” that’s out now. I love to gain my own fans.
Do you feel any pressure?
Nope. I’m in control of my life. When you become in control of your life and you know you only work for yourself regardless, when you wake up in the morning I work for me. It’s my life. I make sure everyday that I continue to know that this is my life and I work for me and I’m the only one who can pressure me. And I know that I don’t work good under pressure (laughs).
Has there ever been a song that you wrote that you wish you hadn’t handed over to somebody else?
No. There’s some songs I wish somebody did better than they did, put a little more effort into it, but nothing that I would’ve been like, ‘oh man, I should’ve kept that to myself.’
How do you deal with that? Have you ever approached anybody about that?
No. It’s up to them how they’re gonna take the song. I’ll steady continue to write for Rihanna as long as she’ll have me. She asked me if I could take my songs and make them hers but from her singing it all the way to the video, to her performing it, to her talking about it, she gives you your props, she gives you your credit and still she owns it. It’s like I built her house for her and she shows how beautiful the house is and she puts furniture in it, but she also would be like ‘oh, but the architect Ester Dean did an amazing job.’ That’s all you want people to do.
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What’s the approach for this album? Do you plan on writing every track?
Nope, I want to find somebody who is like me, who’s like Ne-Yo, who’s like The-Dream, meaning the person who wants to be a songwriter and hasn’t had the opportunity to get there yet. They give me some stuff, then they start their journey and then they’ll be on the conversation with you all later.
How did you start your journey?
Well, I could already sing (laughs) and my family could sing and I said that I wanted to be a chef. My cousins said ‘No, you’re not [going to be a chef]. You’re gonna be a singer.’ I said ‘I don’t wanna be a singer,” and they said ‘yes you do because you can sing!’ That’s when I was ten and I was like, ‘whatever! I’ll be a singer to get a restaurant.’
I always could sing and I always could write I just didn’t know there was a job in it. When I moved to Atlanta, things got really good for me and it got better when I moved to L.A. The only reason it got better, again, was because I took control of my life. There’s a lot of people who’ve got talent that allow themselves to be a slave to everybody else but themselves. Again, I don’t know how many times I run this out, but when I read “The Secret” my life changed and I started taking control and learning about self-sabotage and the fear and what fear really is. Fear is just negative expectations and faith is positive expectations, so every morning I get up with faith that today is gonna be great and my life’s been changing and changing. I know it’s so simple, but there’s a lot of negative people out here who just don’t believe.
Now you have no fear?
I fear nothing. I don’t even feel like God wanted me to fear him.
Nicki Minaj made it a point to say that she had to stop collaborating with other artists so she could finish her project. Have you had to kind of tell people, ‘listen just hold out so I can focus on me right now?’
Nope! With every song if it’s for them, it’s for them. If it’s for me, it’s for me. If they’re coming out before me, take the song. If I’m coming out before them, I’ll take the song. I just want it to be fun. With Nicki that’s different. Nicki was collaborating on people’s songs. I’m not collab-ing on people’s songs, I’m writing songs for them.
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How did the “Rio” song come about, how did you get involved with that?
[That was] awesome! I had asked to be in a voiceover, right? [Then] this guy at Interscope on the soundtrack side and the movie side said, ‘I got this movie you could do the soundtrack for…’ I go to meet the guy at FOX and they showed me a little bit of the movie and said it’s gonna be awesome and I said ‘yeah!’ because I wanted to do a voiceover. I’m in there solely to get this part. I don’t even give a f— what the part is I just want it, right? I go home and that day I said ‘I’m gonna make my own beat and I’m gonna sing this damn song.’
I go in [the booth] and I really haven’t produced anything [except] “Old Christina” but nobody really knows me as a producer. I’m in there and I’m making my own beat and I come up with this song and it’s reggae, it’s Caribbean because that’s what [the movie] is. It’s about Rio de Janiero. I end up doing it … they only gave me the trailer and they were telling me they were going to send me a dance scene, but by the time I got home I only had the trailer so I just started making a f—in’ song to the trailer.
It ended up they didn’t have a title song called “Rio” and I ended up getting it! … I wanted to make sure the song was great so we wanted Justin Beiber to do it and we wanted Rihanna to do it, but it was the fact that they have schedules and they have songs already out so we were just like ‘well let’s just leave Ester on there. F— it!’ I [was] so happy and then they gave me a part and I’m like the little boy at the end of the movie. Super exciting!
What do you have coming up next? Do you have a title for the new album and a release date?
I want to do a whole campaign of getting people to let me know how they feel about what I should do. I have a lot of different songs out there. From [Usher’s] “Hot Tottie” to “Lil Freak” ― that’s a different side of me ― then you got these big pop ballads like Jennifer Hudson’s “Gone.” Then you have Britney Spears’ “Drop Dead Beautiful,” Rihanna’s “Rude Boy” ― those are different sides of me.
Also, I have a side of me that’s more hood-er stuff, some more passionate stuff, some more freaky stuff, so I would like to see what people perceive me as, so I can make sure I’m in the right market. If I want to cook some soul food, I’m not gonna go get some rice or something. I want to get them neck bones and collard greens. I like to see where my fans lie. It’s gonna be fun. I have so many songs. We just decided a week ago to really go ahead and do it. And it’s so crazy because the first time it’s so laid back, because we have what we need and now it’s just going to get other people’s music and see what writers want to write for Ester Dean and have fun.
