Elliott, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, among other huge
stars. From that point, Douglass would summon Curt
to come to the studio as he liked his energy and
recognized he had real talent. With all the success from
being in Slave, Jones, Young, and Tom Lockett left to
join Aurra, which was created by Arrington. While still
in Slave, the members had already started recording
songs for Aurra while Arrington was preparing for his
own solo projects as planned. Curt became the lead
vocalist.
Monte had three tracks already done and brought the
group back up to Minneapolis to start recording that
October. Curt and Starleana had such great chemistry
with Monte that the duo agreed to stay in Minneapolis
to record the entire album with the dynamic musician
and producer. They made a call to Clarke to inform him
of their plans to stay there to record because things were
going so well. Curt already had songs recorded prior to
meeting Moir, added the songs to the mix, and became
co-producer for the duo’s debut album.
Aurra produced a cult hit called “When I Come Home”
with Arrington on drums, Jones as the guitarist, Mark
Stevens on bass, and Charles Carter on keyboard and
did horn arrangements. The group initially signed to
Dream Records. Their first album Aurra was not a
commercial success in the US, but became a cult classic
as it became huge in some countries in Europe. Curt
approached Stevie about him and Starleana doing their
solo thing and he gave his blessing.
Curt and Starleana still were performing and recording
under the name Aurra until Stevie Washington, who
legally owned the rights to the name felt it was a conflict
of interest. Virgin didn’t want to get into any legal
ramifications over a simple name change, so he asked
the two to pick out a new name and he would support it.
Their now manager Andy Gould sat with the duo as they
went thru a dictionary and came across the French
scientific term, déjà vu as they both they felt and knew
they had done this recording process before.
They started work on Aurra’s second album “Send Your
Love” on Salsoul Records which produced the Top
Twenty hit, “Are You Single” in 1981. Aurra’s third
album, “A Little Love” produced two hit singles, “Make
Up Your Mind” and “Checking You Out” in 1982. Curt
continued with Aurra releasing two more albums, “Live
and Let Live” and “Like I Like It” (10 Records) / Bedtime
Story (Next Plateau Records Inc.) which were mostly
promoted in Europe. While overseas, the group met
Richard Griffiths (Virgin Records) who was interested in
signing Curt and Starleana as they were now a duo.
Jones and Young agreed that signing with Virgin was
what they needed for with the duo’s new sound. The
music exec was not able to sign the two right away as
they were contractually tied to Next Plateau. Once the
agreement was up Griffiths signed Curt and Starleana
to Virgin Records and enlisted A&R producer, Nick
Clarke who had a passion for American music.
They shortened the name to Déjà and star duo were
reborn. That same year, Déjà release their debut album,
“Serious” which produced their big hit, “You and Me
Tonight” that reached number 2 on the R & B charts and
54 on the US Pop Charts. The single also reached its best
showing at number 12 on the UK Singles Charts. On the
first album cover, Virgin would print, “Formerly known as
Aurra” for marketing purposes to keep their core fans
and it worked as they sold 250,000 copies out the gate.
Before the release of their second album, Starleana and
Curt mutually decided to part ways. Curt along with
Virgin went on a search for a replacement for Young. A
vocalist by the name of Mysti Day, who was from
Houston, Texas sent in a VHS tape of her performing with
her band which is something none of the other hopefuls
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Clarke started planning right away for the group to start
working with legendary producers, Jimmy Jam & Terry
Lewis (long-time producers for Janet Jackson), however
the successful duo were busy producing other acts like
Alexander O’Neil and others. Virgin didn’t want to wait.
They turned to Monte Moir who had worked with
Morris Day & The Time on keyboards. Moir flew them
out to Minneapolis in 1987 for a few days to plan and
sort things out. Curt and Monte hit it off right away.
Lawless Entertainment Magazine – www.llemag.com
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