His Concept: Forgo R&B; Concepts

On his first two albums, 1996’s “Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite” and 1998’s “Embrya,” modern R&B; pioneer Maxwell used his bedroom-seductive voice and fascination with such icons as Prince and Marvin Gaye to carefully craft sensual worlds.

Such romantic hits as “Ascension (Never Wonder)” and “Fortunate” propelled Maxwell to the forefront of the burgeoning neo-soul movement, along with such artists as D’Angelo and Erykah Badu. Both albums went platinum, and he further worked his charms in dramatic concert settings complete with bubbling lava lamps and yards of diaphanous drapery.

Eschewing the romantic concept-album approach on his new album, “Now,” the Brooklyn-born musician, 28, more freely blends funky rockers, reflective ballads and hip-hop soul tunes. With the album to be released Tuesday, Maxwell says, “I just kind of lived a moment to a moment. Maybe that’s the concept.”

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Question: So you decided not to go for the grand idea this time?

Answer: Yeah. [What I did] before was challenging, but I’m somewhere else. Over the past seven months, I’ve been learning about love and what’s really real. A lot of “Now” is about that, just changing my mind about certain things.

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Q: Many of your new songs have that semi-innocent/semi-swaggering sexiness of Prince in his heyday.

A: Oh, yeah. He’s the one. His shadow sort of reigns over everyone. He kicked the door wide open for so many. People like him, Sly Stone, Curtis [Mayfield], when you listen to them, it’s like listening to David Bowie. You can [almost] hear him saying, “It doesn’t matter who you are, what color you are, what neighborhood you came from. Your variables can add up to this if you want them to.”

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Q: Along with such artists as D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, you helped stir a revolution in modern R&B; by focusing on old-fashioned soul and concept-driven albums. Why did listeners respond to that?

A: There’s an audience out there that’s looking for something else. To a degree, everyone’s got their little shtick, but it’s a risk to do this kind of music, because it doesn’t necessarily guarantee you the house on the hill. People really respect [you] when you’re being creative and representing something on another level.

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Q: You mean going a little deeper, emotionally and musically?

A: Exactly. I try to come from the heart as much as I can. Fame and all that stuff is not--I mean, I enjoy doing the shows, and sometimes making a video, but to me it’s music. It’s about the craft.

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Q: But are you comfortable taking some credit for broadening modern R&B;?

A: It’s hard, because the minute I accept [praise], then I gotta take the blame too. [He laughs.] Also, if you don’t stay hungry, you don’t stay, not humble, but it’s harder to just do and be. If [my music is] doing something for someone, I had the same things done for me. Even people who come out after me and do records crack the door open wider for me the next time.

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Q: Because the audience gets its ears stretched with each new twist?

A: Hip-hop is a perfect example of that. It takes from everything to become what it is. People of my generation, people in generations coming, have a variety of tastes. They don’t think in terms of boundaries anymore. I look at hip-hop as the father for what I get to do.

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Q: “Now” includes the studio version of a favorite concert song of yours, Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work,” which you also performed on “MTV Unplugged.” What drew you to the tune, which seems so quintessentially female?

A: To me, the perfect song can be sung by anyone from any genre. It doesn’t live and die in that place that it [came from]. Also, it was a good way to let women know that men get it. When we go through [relationship] things, we do have an emotional factor as well.

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: You mean the emotional burden she’s talking about isn’t strictly women’s work?

A: Yeah. I think about my future children to come, or just matrimony, and romance and stuff. I think a lot of guys carry that energy. They just don’t, our society doesn’t set us up to really represent it that much.

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Q: You can’t be sitting around with your guy friends dreaming about your wedding day?

A: Exactly. So what we do is, we go get music. We say, this song right here is telling you how I feel. That’s kind of what made me want to do music in the first place. It was a way of saying something that couldn’t be spoken. That was some powerful stuff.

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Q: Did you ever get a reaction from Kate Bush?

A: She sent me a letter, giving me props. I was kind of worried, because songs are like people’s children. It was nice to get the nod from the parent, that I did a pretty good job watching the kid. [He laughs.]