By: Dove
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Known for his sentimental lyrics and tortured, loverboy persona, Carl Thomas is every bit the sexy Gen-Xer that most women say they’d love to have in their ear on those cold winter nights. Just over a decade after his chart-topping hit “I Wish” plucked the heartstrings of R&B fans everywhere, Thomas is back with his fourth studio album Conquer, and a whole new story to tell.
As couples and hopeful lovers prepare to bring in 2012, who better to ask for perfect date advice than the man who can express both pain and pleasure with the utmost class? Carl Thomas graciously took some time out from his schedule to call us from a “nice, hot bath” (that’s what he told us) to give UrbLife.com his best dating advice for a satisfying New Year’s Eve.
What is the best night-out plan for a martini lady? A beer drinker? A wine connoisseur? And what makes his toes curl before the ball drops? Read on and enjoy!
Tell us about your vision for a perfect New Year’s Eve date. What can someone do to create to the right setting for the ball drop?
Carl Thomas: The perfect date, in my opinion, starts with the right questions. Before you go on a date, it’s very important for a guy to ask the right questions. You have to know what she’s into, what’s she open to and have not experienced yet, because it’s always exciting for a woman to open up new doors. I know when a woman does that for me I’m excited. You have to ask the right questions and see exactly what would entail her perfect night.
Find out if she’s a wine girl or a martini girl or a beer woman. A lot of times, a man will look at a woman who has on high heels and she has the perfect purse to match her shoes, and they just may be for career purposes, but at home she really enjoys sitting back watching her New York Giants with a Heineken. It’s really important for a man not to judge by the cover and to find out what interests her in her leisure.
Once you find out what interests her in her leisure, then it would be wise to lean and play towards those things. Personally, if she was a beer girl, I would start out with dinner and possibly some type of sporting event. I would actually go with a nice evening at the movies or take her to play pool. It depends on the woman. I’ve assumed only to be surprised… embarrassingly surprised.
My perfect date on New Year’s Eve would be to take her to the opera, and after the opera we would hit the hottest parties. We would bring the New Year’s in with fruit and wine. I would definitely play towards her strengths.
If she’s a martini lady, then I would take her to a jazz lounge. I would feed her dinner – emphasis on feed – then after that we would go for a walk along the beautiful skyline before we hit the club. On New Year’s Eve, a woman does not want to be in the club all night long, so I would make sure that whatever we’re doing we were finished by 10pm, so we can be in the club and spend that hot two hours. I would bring it in embracing with a kiss… with the perfect apple martini.
I’m not trying to put women in a box, with those three examples that I gave, it is ok to safely generalize.
A big part of the date is the attire. On New Year’s Eve, I would definitely make sure that the attire is somewhat elegant. I like to wear black laced with different colors. There have been years where I would wear black laced with a white shirt laced with earth green. As long as it’s a rich color… or laced in purple crimson. I would definitely make sure that we would have all of the New Year’s Eve amenities, like a top hat.
The first thing I would to do is to make sure whatever we have on New Year’s Eve is not fake. That drives me absolutely crazy, those plastic hats. I would absolutely get the real thing. The other part of the date, I’m really not at liberty to tell you about. I think we’ll get into that after the ball drops. After the ball drops we’ll dance for a hot 30 minutes and then I would grab her hand and get her on out of there!
What are some things that a woman can do for you to make your New Year’s Eve perfect?
CT: She could buy me the perfect bottle of German Riesling. She could find a lounge for us to sit and talk, somewhere by a fire place, because in the winter time I really gravitate towards fireplaces. I would still have to listen to holiday and seasonal music. I’m not really done with the holiday season until the day after the new year. After that she could buy me a wonderful, mild cigar. I’m not a cigar smoker, but for some reason on New Year’s Eve I can’t resist it.
After that, she can definitely take me to a steak restaurant. I’m not really a red meat eater, but on New Year’s Eve I feel like its ok. I would definitely like her to play towards my desire to have a steak and cheat every now and then.
Tell us a little about the new album Conquer and why you decided to go back into that love scene.
CT: There is a metaphor to every single song. They’re wonderful metaphors. The album is what I like to call “hero music.” The hero wins in every song. The radio is not that even kill, the playing field is not that even. It’s usually you hear some woman complaining and some man apologizing or you hear something very vulgar. This album really isn’t about a whole lot of complaining going on.
On my Emotional CD, I found a really nice way to complain. A nice, melodic way to complain, “I Wish I Never Met Her,” “You Ain’t Right,” things like that. On this album, it’s celebratory and I really did this album to be the soundtrack behind people’s lives. It’s set up to broaden the scope of me as an artist and to introduce fans to my music who have never heard of Carl Thomas before.
There are songs on this album that, for some reason I cannot explain, have eluded me thus far in my career. I don’t know if it was because I was sitting down with producers that felt like they had what I needed, or knew what my fans wanted or not. This album is a lot broader based than anything you ever heard from me. It’s quite inspirational if you get into it.
The greatest compliment that any musician or artist can be paid is for someone to monitor their life and times through your body of work. It still wows me to hear someone say, “I remember what I was doing when I heard ‘I Wish I Never Met Her’ or when I heard ‘Summer Rain’.” That’s the greatest compliment. That means that your music has become an official lifestyle.
What are your intentions with all of the music videos with this project?
CT: It’s really funny that you ask me that because Snoop and I are going to go record the video to “Don’t Kiss Me.” We got some really fun stuff planned. Snoop is a character all on his own. With my personality and his personality together really makes for a whole lot of fun. The visuals and the colors are going to pop off of the screen. I’m really excited about it.
Do you have any tours set for the new year?
CT: I’m actually going to spend the month of January going marketing and promoting the album and raising awareness. Of course I’m going to be shows through the month of January, but I don’t think I’m going to tour until the Valentine’s Day season. That is my busiest time of year every year. I think that’s a wonderful time to bring Carl Thomas to people.
Find out more about Carl Thomas at CarlThomasLive.com and YouTube.com/CarlThomasLive
Follow him on Twitter @Mr_Carl_Thomas and click here to like him on his official Facebook page
