Meet the man in charge of releasing Prince’s unheard songs from his private vault

One man gets to spend his day going through the unreleased songs Prince left behind when he passed away. He’s just issued an album of the Prince singing the songs he wrote for other artists, but what’s left in the vault?

Michael Howe’s full time job is to sift through the hours and hours of unheard music Prince left behind in his mythical vault.

That vault has relocated from Paisley Park to a data recovery centre in Los Angeles, where Prince’s old cassettes are painstakingly digitised using modern technology.

Howe has signed “a tremendous amount” of nondisclosure agreements which means he can’t be specific about the amount of music in the vault or any particular items in the vault or any future plans beyond the family’s tentative plan of an album a year of unheard material.

“I’m working harder now than I did as a full time A & R guy which I was for 20 years,” Howe says. “But I can’t imagine that there’s a more varied and voluminous vault of material in the world or one with this much cultural currency. To dive into it every day is a privilege.

“What we’re doing is a multi year process. There’s so much stuff. Some of the tapes are only partially labelled or misspelled. We have to listen to them in real time, it’s a meticulous pursuit. We have to make sure the tape is not damaged, it’s very time consuming. Plus there are a lot of commercial considerations that drift in and out of the frame. We’ve tried to be chronological about doing the archival process the way the Library of Congress might do it.”

After last year’s Piano & a Microphone, a recording of Prince rehearsing from 1983 unearthed on a cassette in the vault, the latest release is Originals.

It features Prince’s versions of songs he wrote for other artists — from global hits — Manic Monday (the Bangles), Nothing Compares 2U (Sinead O’Connor), The Glamorous Life (Sheila E), Jungle Love (The Time), Love … Thy Will Be Done (Martika), to fan-pleasing obscurities recorded by everyone from Kenny Rogers to Jill Jones.

Many of Prince’s original versions sound identical to what would become the versions released by other people. “It’s hard to imagine someone else improving them,” Howe says. “Often he’d assume the persona of the person who will eventually deliver the track to the public. It’s remarkable to hear him inhabit that with complete authority. It’s strange to hear him say ‘I’m Sheila E’ on Holly Rock but you buy it because it’s Prince. And these are guide vocals to literally guide the other artists. Even his guide vocals are by a magnitude better than many peoples’ very best work. The guy was just astonishingly good, more creatively evolved than anyone I’ve worked with, or can even point to.”

Michael Howe, who is in charge of Prince's vault. Pic: Warner

You’re My Love, later recorded by Kenny Rogers in 1986, was first recorded by Prince in 1982 (under the pseudonym Joey Coco — many of the songs on Originals are under fake names or Prince generously gave full writing credits to the artist who recorded them).

“That’s one that had not emerged in the collector community,” Howe says of You’re My Love. “It’s a side of Prince not a lot of people had heard, it’s full-on Holiday Inn Lounge vibe, it’s not Prince the arena stomping rocker, it’s sitting down with a glass of red wine.”

Howe is aware that Prince is one of the most bootlegged artists in history — from all his live concerts to unreleased songs that escaped from tapes the musician would share with friends.

“There’s no shortage of Prince bootlegs out there, from not so great to surprisingly good. When contemplating things for release we try to take in a number of factors, not the least of which is has any of this material circulated, can we offer a better version or a version with more integrity than what is currently floating around? Almost without exception the answer is yes.”

Archivist Michael Howe was disappointed with the reissue of Purple Rain. Pic: supplied

Howe is constantly asked whether Prince would have wanted his unreleased songs heard — he points to several interviews that suggested he knew that would happen and had deleted songs he never wanted heard or marked them ‘W’ for weak.

“At the top of our checklist is ‘Would Prince approve of this, is it a high enough calibre to release?’ If there’s any doubt we remove it from contention immediately. We want to do this with absolute respect and integrity. Preserving and promoting his legacy with the integrity he would demand and that the body of work deserves is priority number one.”

Howe worked at Prince’s old label Warner Brothers and worked with the artist himself on the reissue of Purple Rain. While it was released in 2017, a year after the musician’s death, it had been in the works for years, with Prince finally signing off on a remastered version of the album in 2015 which was included in the reissue as well as unreleased songs and a concert from 1985.

Sheila E and Prince in 2007. Pic: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Bangles covered Prince’s Manic Monday. Pic: supplied

Prince diehard fans were disappointed with the lack of rare songs known to exist from the era. Howe can’t say too much, but agrees.

“That’s a tricky subject for a number of reasons, it didn’t really take shape the way I envisaged. I’m glad something emerged, I wish it had been a bit different.”

There are still dozens of songs Prince wrote for other artists in the vault, not the least for Martika and Sheena Easton.

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“There is certainly enough material for volumes of Originals-type releases, and I suspect that whatever the consumer’s desire is, from the most obscure to the most common, could or would be met at some point.”

Fans are tipping 1982’s 1999 will be the next album to receive the reissue treatment, which Howe doesn’t confirm or deny.

“I know people are awaiting that. All I can say is that the ability to release vastly expanded bodies of work in a much more comprehensive way than Purple Rain is being contemplated certainly.”

Prince Originals (Warner) out now.