For Keys, getting away was the key

By John Benson

Visiting some far-off places made her a better artist, Alicia Keys says.

After a whirlwind five-year span in which Alicia Keys watched her first three albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts and earn nine Grammy Awards, the R B singer-pianist sought a little anonymity to catch her breath. With that, her destination was Egypt.

“I just needed to run away, honestly,” said Keys, during a recent telephone conference call. “I needed to get as far away as possible, and so I did that. I was like, ‘I want to sail down the Nile. I want to see the temples, the tombs and the pyramids. I want to be moved, I want to see something I’ve never seen before.’ And it turned out to be the best choice that I’ve ever made.”

A three-week jaunt traveling alone through both Egypt and Tuscany not only allowed Keys to unwind, but it recharged her creative and personal spirit.

“I think the thing that affected me the most was the history of it all,” Keys said. “Something about that timelessness and that strength and fortitude and longevity gave me a whole new perspective on the life that I wanted to have and the music that I wanted to make and the endless possibilities that I could create.

“It did make me a better artist, because I came back and I was just freer. I just took all these restrictions off myself and all of these kind of rules and regulations and ways that I was used to creating and all this crap, and threw it out the window. I just allowed myself to [be] vulnerable and free and open, and it created some of the best music I’ve ever created yet.”

The result was the brand-new “As I Am,” which, yes, did debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts last November. The album marks a notable change for Keys, who added new shades to her popular neo soul sound, including the Motown-esque “Where Do We Go From Here” and the popish “The Thing About Love.”

While the album received mixed reviews, Keys doesn’t seem to be fazed. You can sense a confidence and swagger on “As I Am” that bodes well for the future of the singer. This includes a new stateside tour, which comes to Pittsburgh on Tuesday and Cleveland on April 24.

“This tour is definitely different than any tour I’ve ever done,” Keys said. “I never want to do the same thing, and I never want to do what is comfortable. I really wanted to make this show something unique and different [to] show people my versatility.

“I wanted to do something that was almost like a story. I think it really brings people into my world.”

The 28-year-old New York City native said her upcoming show is more like a journey that contains a loose narrative using her own songs and personal stories. Also, she hints her set list will feature plenty of hits – “Fallin’,” “You Don’t Know My Name,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” “Diary,” “No One,” et al. – and a few gems she plans to dust off.

“Absolutely, I’m definitely doing favorites [from] the last albums,” Keys said. “I have to do that. And there are just certain songs that people always ask me to play, and I usually don’t. People always ask me to play ‘Butterflies,’ and I usually don’t play that song, but this time I definitely am playing it. So it’s a nice mixture.”

Something else that has become a nice mixture for Keys is the balance between her music and her burgeoning acting career. Not only did she appear in 2007 feature films “Smokin’ Aces” and “The Nanny Diaries,” but she also has a role in next year’s “The Secret Life of Bees.” Perhaps there will come a day in Keys’ future when acting becomes a priority over music.

“I don’t think I have to choose,” Keys said. “I think that they’re both very fantastic ways to be creative and tell life’s many, many stories, and I would love to be able to do that for as long as I live.”