Sheba Williams graces the studio



She is a novelist, an accomplished performer that has written and starred in her own theatre productions and a radio play and has been described by media as "a powerful persona", "risqué" and "in your face".
Sheba's self-titled debut album is the culmination of years of multidisciplinary art and will feature a deluxe limited edition package consisting of The Black Album and The White Album, spanning the genres of funk, afrobeat, calypso, acoustic and electronica to produce an eclectic sound, which she calls Calyptro, fusing elements of her Caribbean heritage with her New Zealand upbringing.
The Black Album is a twelve-track studio album recorded at Trident Studios with famed engineer Mike Gibson (Recloose, So So Modern, Hollie Smith) and co-produced by Sheba with emerging producer Skylab, apart from the song Integrity, which was recorded in Shanghai.
The White Album showcases Sheba's stunning flair for outrageous and energetic live performance, and is a recording of a concert Sheba performed at The Wellington Botanical Gardens Soundshell in January 2008 with her band The Afrobombastic Orchestra, and her dancers The Nefertitis.
The White Album also contains three music videos, two of which Sheba produced, and an excerpt from Sheba's book: Shanghai Sheba &  The China Monologues, which she read earlier this year on Radio New Zealand.
"Its easier to get energy when it's live, the sound and the feeling is much more raw," explains Sheba. "You get feedback and although it's not perfect, I prefer live recordings because you can hear the crowd and feel the anticipation and the energy a lot more."
"The Europeans I've performed with were really receptive and open to my style. I'd go to a club in Rome and jump up on the mic and people would come up and ask me to record with them."
The three singles, backed by videos, have a distinctly New Zealand flavour. Paekakariki is a love story set in the 1920s,Philistines laments New Zealand's modern materialism and the demolition of our heritage, while Shy Guy offers Sheba's take on New Zealand's non-existent dating culture – "it's a miracle that our population is going," says Sheba.