Interview w/ Fergie on L.A. Love (La La), Motherhood & AMA’s #ABCTVEvent #AMAs

Have you heard of Fergie? The solo hit artist and female singer/rapper of Black-Eyed Peas? Well, I got to meet her and chat all about her new hit single, how things have changed since becoming a mother, and her performance on the upcoming American Music Awards. I was really struck by her professionalism, her drive, and how down to earth she is. By the way, she looks fantastic and is crazy thin!

Fergie opened with:

What’s up Mommy Bloggers! Thanks for coming today. I’m really excited to be performing at the American Music Awards this year. It’s a big deal for me getting back and hitting that big stage, and also doing NYRE the same weekend. So it will be a busy week for me, probably not the best Mommy week with Axl, working overtime.

Interview with Fergie – On Work

What in her career does she love most?

I do love anything to do with entertaining. Fashion, definitely. I read WWD everyday, I get the paper edition. That’s my little private moment just for “me time.” I’m a true believer in making sure you have just a little bit of that time that’s just for you. What’s great about reading that, it’s not that long in the morning, it extends into my inspiration for the day in whatever I’m doing whether I’m having a design meeting for shoes or planning my next video or performance. It’s really come into play that way. It’s a really fun thing for me as well.

How do you balance it all?

That is a constant challenge for me but that’s why I didn’t have the baby and put music out right away. I really wanted to make sure that I had my structure as far as being a mom and just starting with simplicity. I’m very blessed to have the time where I can just be at home, spend time with my baby, and really learn how being a mom all works because I had no idea what I was doing. None, nothing. I didn’t have babies around, it wasn’t like one of those families. My husband had little sisters and they were very far apart. So he got to be a teenager, seeing babies being born and experiencing that. I didn’t have that so it was just figuring it out and really letting the natural instincts kick in and just me and my iCal.

Okay, I get this hour, we get this hour, then adding workouts back into my day. That was a whole thing, just motivating. Then writing would came into play, my husband time, and just juggling it all. I now was able to put studio back in and I’m putting back in rehearsals and meeting with you guys. It’s really a true balance. You can have it all but just not at once. I believe something has got to give at one point. It definitely the “give and take.” Like I said that week is going to be a very hard week for me, work wise, so it’s not my best “mommy” appointment week. So you just have to balance out and make it up. That’s how I do it. I balance it out and teeter-totter it.

Interview with Fergie – On L.A. Love

What was the inspiration behind L.A. Love?

Getting back into music and getting back into the studio. I’ve just been at home writing and listening to music, seeing what going on. All of the L.A. artists and music coming out of Los Angeles, DJ Mustard, Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, YG, that whole moment was very inspiring to me. I am that L.A. girl, that is who I am. I felt that I must be a part of that.

So I got in the studio with Mustard and he just started playing the tracks and I really vibed on the one that he played, this one, and just started freestyling cadence like, “Tell them where I’m from,” hometown moment. I did a wrap cadence. With the hook, I wanted something light and didn’t want to come all hard. So it’s just a light, “La la la la la.” It started feeling a bit international to me and reminiscent to me of “la la la la la” from “Hey Mama.” This is about the pride and love I have for L.A. I’ve traveled for the last ten years and performed for many countries, met so many people. I just really felt like this is like a love letter from me to the world, a callout “What’s up, Brazil!” “What’s up, Germany!” That’s where that vibe came about.

Also, the melody is nice. It’s easy for kids love to sing. My son loves it, very easy like a lullaby. I probably was inspired indirectly by what we watched, KidsCamp, all the ones on YouTube, kids songs. He loves KidsCamp. There’s this main character, “Hi, I’m Elly” and he loves her.  I find that it’s really colorful and almost psychedelic. The video and a bunch of the psychedelic art that I’ve used was inspired by KidsCamp – no joke! Look at the color scheme!

Interview with Fergie – On Family

Any songs you enjoy w/ your son?

We’ve made up so many ridiculous songs. We reminded ourselves of Best in Show movies, this couple does a whole song about their dog. We have the corniest… (then she sang a totally hilarious song for us 😀 Sorry I can’t share it here though 🙁 ) And he sings it in octave and in harmony with me. That’s just one of them from our album that might come out some day (joking). And “Turn Down for What” and then he does this (gestures), it’s so cute.

Has being a mom changed what you do?

Somewhat. Now songs I’ll start thinking about him and, certain lyrics, I’ll just want to write lyrics about him because there’s just so much feeling there. Other times it’s challenging for me. I don’t really think about it yet because he’s 14 months like, “Oh, here’s Mom saying these things!” That is a challenge that I’ll just have to work that out. I don’t think I’ll be the most conservative mom ever, that’s just not who I am as a person. As far as being kind, and being nice, and not spoiling him. I definitely try to be a good mom that way. I don’t know, I’m still trying to work that out, girl!

What has surprised you most about being a mom?

“A love you’ll never feel like this. The love of your life.” It’s true and t’s so cliche. It’s just so special. I tell my husband that I have a man on the side. He’s like my little boyfriend, we have our dates. My mommy time is very important to me and I take it very seriously. If I’m on a business call, they’ll just keep talking and I’ll just be like, “Gotta go! Bye!” It’s Axl time. It’s so important to me and it makes me sad if for some reason that time is cut. You feel that. I didn’t know that was going to affect me like that. I’m tough, a working mom. Sometimes I’ll just break down and cry if I haven’t seen him enough. It’s as much for me as it is for him at this point.

Interview with Fergie – On Balance

Tips on how to handle everything?

iCal. I am a scheduler. Josh and I have a joint calendar color, I have my calendar color, he has his calendar color, and now I’m breaking it up even more, I’m getting even more colors. For my work, that’s a color. There’s me and Axl time, there’s me and Axl and daddy time, and there’s me and daddy time. Those are all important in different ways. I see it as a pie chart.

One time my mom called me and asked what I was doing. “I’m making a pie and dividing it between Axl…” She said, “What? You’re making a pie chart. I was wondering, on the hottest day of the year, why’d be making a pie. I thought, well, good for you!” I really have to break it down and be very linear with it so that everything gets balanced evenly. It’s hard, nothing’s going to be perfect but you try and do your best. That’s all you can really do is your best. I guess keeping that “pie” even, that recipe 🙂

Thank you so much for chatting with us, Fergie!

See and hear Fergie during the upcoming American Music Awards, airing on Sunday, 11/23/14, at 8-11pm ET/PT on ABC. For more information, visit www.theamas.com, www.dickclark.com, or abc.go.com/shows/american-music-awards.

• FERGIE: https://twitter.com/Fergie
• NYRE: https://twitter.com/OfficialNYRE ‪#‎NYRE‬ ‪#‎RockinEve
• AMAs: https://twitter.com/TheAMAs ‪#‎AMAs‬

I was invited on an all-expense paid media trip as a guest of Disney and ABC in honor of the Big Hero 6 movie and mentioned sitcom series. All opinions are my own.

See more: Marvel’s Avengers Event | Monsters University Event | Frozen Event | Big Hero 6 Event