Talking Shop: Ne-Yo

Until recently, R&B heart-throb Ne-Yo was probably better known in the UK for the hits he'd written for other people than he was for his own songs.

But with his club-tinged number one Closer still in the top 20 after four months, he is finally gaining recognition beyond his work with Beyonce and Rihanna.

The star, real name Shaffer Chimere Smith, has just finished touring the US with Alicia Keys and releases his third album Year of the Gentleman this month.

Closer wasn't a typical Ne-Yo R&B song, was it?

Yeah, it's a little different, a little dancey. We knew that it was going to do well over here (UK), because this is basically the place that inspired the song, but in the States it took a little while for them to catch on.

Were you worried about how it would go down?

I won't say I was nervous - but I was anxious to see what people were gonna say about it.

In the beginning the bloggers were all saying: "What the hell is this? Ne-Yo forgot who he is". But they kept listening and eventually they caught on. But phew, we were scared for a minute.

Was it a relief when it went to number one?

They told me I took number one from Coldplay. That was unreal because I'm the hugest Coldplay fan ever. I have every album, I know every song. So it was a beautiful feeling.

Have you considered working with Chris Martin?

Yeah, I thought about it but Kanye and Jay-Z have done it already, so I don't wanna seem like I'm bandwaggoning. I have been talking to Fall Out Boy about doing some stuff, but who knows?

Coldplay and Fall Out Boy aren't bands you'd expect an R&B singer to be into. Are you one of those people who obsessively collect new music?

Absolutely, that's how my love for Coldplay started. The first Coldplay song I heard was Yellow and I was in love from there. I went out and got Parachutes, I got Rush of Blood to the Head, I got all of them.

Then, through Coldplay, I was introduced to Radiohead, and from them into Muse, and from Muse into Kings of Leon - it just kept rollin'.

And as I found myself listening to this music, it really acted as an inspiration - new melodies, new ways to say stuff, new guitar sounds.

Do you play guitar on the album?

I tried to learn for about two weeks and gave it up. You get calluses and cramps and bleeding on your fingers. You see guys strumming away and you think "oh wow, that's cool" - but they don't tell you it hurts!

The album is called Year of the Gentleman - are you trying to reclaim R&B back from the women?

To a degree. This album is me basically trying to let the fellas know that we need to step our game up - from the way we treat our women to our physical appearance.

You can be clean and kept and charming and still be cool. Like Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair or The Rat Pack. They were the coolest cats in the room without trying to be the coolest cats in the room.

What's the difference between writing for yourself and someone like Beyonce? Do you write from a female perspective?

Sometimes. What people don't realise is that men and women think a lot alike.

Take a song like Beyonce's Irreplaceable - which I originally wrote with every intention of singing myself. The lyrics are definitely something a man who's very sure of himself in that situation would say: "I could have another you in a minute - so go ahead and get in a taxi and get outta here".

But if I were to sing that song, everyone on the face of the planet would hate me. Those lyrics on a man come across a little chauvinistic and mean. However, those exact same lyrics with a woman are empowering.

Female empowerment has been a theme of female R&B since TLC's No Scrubs 10 years ago. Is the message still needed?

I guess so! It seems that every now and again women need to be reminded of the strength they can possess. Which is not a bad thing… especially if I'm the guy that writes the song!

How was it touring with Alicia Keys?

Well, I'm used to people screaming and up out of their chairs with their hands in the air. Alicia's crowd is very much [claps politely] "That's very nice. You sing very well, young man".

I wondered what I was doing wrong but as time progressed, I realised that this type of crowd doesn't give it up 'til the end of the show.

Are you conciously trying to expand your audience with this album?

Absolutely. It's so funny, I didn't realise until I got out of America how small it is compared to the rest of the world. Take the World Cup - it's the biggest thing on the planet everywhere else but America. We came over here right in the midst of it in 2006, and you could get killed if you walked into a bar with the wrong jersey on!

It was amazing to see how America is so much in its own box. But once I got out I thought: "Hey, forget America - this is the rest of the world! This is a huge planet!".

Ne-Yo was talking to BBC entertainment reporter Mark Savage. His album, Year of the Gentleman, is out on Mercury Records on 15 September.

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