Apparently Alicia Keys & Deborah Cox both almost took "He Is" before Brandy jumped on it... They all heard it the same day and all wanted it... but Brandy wouldn't leave the studio until they wrote the song and she recorded it on the spot. Otherwise it could have been Deborah's or Alicia's
When he didn't get to have his songs on Never Say Never he quit the "Brandy Band" .... he used to be her keyboard player. He didn't want to tour and perform with her if he wasn't even on the album. She made it up to him with He Is on the next album.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Talk to me about the creation behind Brandy "He Is".
Warryn Campbell: That song was created through a chord progression that I had been playing on the piano probably since I was 14 years old. The chord progression the song uses is something that I made up in school. I was in the 9th grade and I was in the piano room playing and I made this little tune up. I would play it from time to time. Fast forward to whenever we wrote the song, I was in the studio and I was like "You know what? I've never used these chord before." I was putting together a beat and I put them down. I recorded them and it sounded really cool, so I started adding layers on top of it. I added rhodes and bass and after a while, I was like "This sounds really amazing!" I remember being at the Record Plant Studio in LA, and for some reason, I had a lot of artists coming through that day to meet with me or hang out with me. I remember Alicia Keys came through the studio. She heard the track and loved it. It wasn't finished yet so I was like "It's something that I'm just fooling around with." Then Deborah Cox came. By the time she got there, the track was finished and I almost gave it to her because she wanted it. She was like "I love that. I want that!" I was like "Let me listen to it a little more then I'll get back to you." When Brandy got there, she loved it so much, so she was like "Let's write it right now and sing it right now!" That's how we came up with that. Me and my writing partner Harold Lilly sat there and wrote the song. She sung it that night and that's what happened. It almost didn't make it to Brandy though.
YouKnowIGotSoul: Talk about your experience working with Brandy.
Warryn Campbell: Brandy is one of my first jobs. I was in Brandy's band after I finished with Death Row records. Actually in the middle of Death Row, Brandy did a tour and I went on tour with her as a keyboard player in her band. On her first album I was with her and we just became really good friends. In the meantime, I started developing as a songwriter and producer. I just missed doing the "Never Say Never" album. I was still in the development phase at that point and I was very young. I really wanted to be on that album. Since I wasn't on the album, I quit her band. *Laughs* I felt like as a songwriter, I was like "You know what? I'm supporting an album that I'm not even on as a songwriter and I want to be a songwriter." I didn't want to be out there playing and being in bands for the rest of my career. I wanted to do other things, so I quit the band. She wasn't at the rehearsal when I quit, so I happened to be at home and at the time I still lived at home with my parents. I saw her car pull up and she was like "Why'd you quit?!" I was like "Brandy, I'm a songwriter now. I can't just be on the road and I don't even have a song on this album. I just don't feel right doing it." We remained friends and she made sure that I was on the next album with "He Is" and the album following that with "Who I Am". We've always been very close. She was at my wedding. It was just a great friendship and still is.
