Nelly Furtado says making her new album has been ‘rewarding, creative and personal’. The 33-year-old singer is currently laying down tracks for her new record T.S.I. [Part One], which is due out next summer. She’s worked with a number of big names, including The Neptunes, Rodney Jerkins and producer Salaam Remi. Although she’s grateful to everyone involved, it’s Salaam who had a profound effect on Nelly. ‘This album started in a really cool place. When I was working on my Spanish album [2009’s Mi Plan] kind of near the end. I started working on my English album. That happened by working with Salaam Remi, we’d been working on a couple of Spanish tracks and at the end of our session we did an English song together and it was really fun. Salaam just, he kept making trips and I’d make trips down and we’d see each other and record.
It’s been a really rewarding, creative and personal relationship,’ she explained in a video posted on YouTube. Salaam has worked with many other famous singers, most notably Amy Winehouse. He helped put together the late singer’s posthumous record Lioness: Hidden Treasures and his back catalogue continues to astound Nelly. ‘He’s an amazing guy, he’s like a big teddy bear and we. I just find all the music he’s done in general, from Amy Winehouse to Nas, it has a real classic sound to it, a sound that’s really authentic, super soulful. His personality’s like that too, so the two of us really clicked,’ she explained.