Cherish: Bonded by Love

The four King sisters of R&B group, Cherish made us all stand up and take notice in 2006 when their single, “Do It To It” was featured on the ATL movie soundtrack. Sisters Farrah, Neosha, and twins Fallon and Felisha come from a musical background and have all been singing since they were little girls. Their father, who is also their manager, was a member of POP (Professions of Sound) and toured with Earth, Wind, & Fire. Originally signed to Reprise Records in 2003, the group recorded several singles, including “Miss P,” which was produced by Jermaine Dupree, along with a whole album that was eventually shelved for undisclosed reasons. After landing another deal with the Capitol Records imprint, Sho’ Nuff Records, the ladies released their debut album, Unappreciated in August of 2006. The disc was certified gold and reached number 4 on the R&B charts. The young ladies of Cherish are now back with their sophomore release entitled The Truth. The first single, “Killa” features rapper Yung Joc and was produced by Don Vito. Cherish took some time to give us some insight into their new CD, fashion, and their opinion of R&B music today.

Singersroom: Were you all born and raised in Atlanta?

Cherish: Actually, our parents used to live in Chicago. Fallon and I were born here in Atlanta but Farrah and Neosha were born in Chicago. My mom came back to Atlanta in 1987.

Singersroom: Who is the oldest and who is the youngest?

Cherish: Farrah is the oldest and Fallon and I (Felisha), the twins, we’re the youngest and I’m the baby out of all of us.

Singersroom: Do you all pretty much get along with each other?

Cherish: I mean we’re sisters so no we don’t get along [laughs]. We fight and we argue like regular sisters but at the end of the day we still love each other and we wouldn’t want to be in a group with anybody else. We know how not to push each other’s buttons.

Singersroom: How hard is it for you all to incorporate your different ideas and experiences into your music?

Cherish: Everybody had a share in this project and that’s why we wrote the whole album ourselves. Every single song is about a personal experience from one of us. We just took each other’s experiences and put them into different songs and it worked. We all put our heads together and developed it together as a group.

Singersroom: So you guys wrote the entire record?

Cherish: Yes, we wrote every song on the album except for one song that was written by The Dream.

Singersroom: Besides The Dream, who were some of the other producers that you worked with?

Cherish: We worked with a lot of producers [like] Bryan Michael Cox, Eric Hudson, J. New who produced ‘Amnesia’, Don Vito, and Jazze Pha. We definitely had our share of producers [on this album].

Singersroom: I know that you all have quite a musical background and have all been singing since you were little. Tell me why it is that you all love R&B?

Cherish: We were raised on some really good old school music like Earth, Wind, & Fire, The Stylistics, The Delfonics, The Emotions, people like that. Our Dad, he was a really old school man and that’s where we learned how to sing. He taught us harmonies at such a young age like when we were 6, 8, and 10 years old. So the love for music and R&B music has been there since we were little girls. It’s always been a dream of ours, we’ve always loved artists like En Vogue, Sister Sledge, and TLC. We’ve always shared this dream together and we decided to do it together as a team.

Singersroom: What is your opinion of R&B music today; do you think it’s moving in a positive direction?

Cherish: I think it’s so important for artists to write their own music in order to portray how you want your fans to portray you. I definitely think that R&B music is doing great right now especially with Usher back, and he’s doing it big for R&B. And of course, we’re here and you have people like Mario that’s doing it for R&B. R&B is definitely important and sometimes people will try to make other genres of music that are out there a little more known but it’s definitely important for our people to understand the real R&B music, and that’s what we’re going to try to bring back today.

Singersroom: What other types of music do you all listen to?

Cherish: I love rock music, I am a rock music fanatic. I mean from Blink 182 to Snow Patrol, I just love rock music. Of course we all love old school music and we all love Usher, Whitney, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion. We love it all.

Singersroom: What other interests do you ladies have?

We actually are about to get into some movies and do some acting. That’s another love and passion of ours. We’ll be shooting some movie clips this year and basically be everywhere. I mean, our talent is definitely going to go far.

Singersroom: You all seem to have a wonderful sense of fashion, who are some of your favorite designers?

Cherish: Actually there is this stylist name Ellie Mae and she has her own clothing line. She is one of my favorite designers, and she designs all of our clothes. I mean, I’m pretty simple when it comes to clothes. I’ll put on a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, a hat, and I’m good [laughs].

Singersroom: What would you say is your favorite fashion accessory?

Cherish: I gotta have some shades at all times. I love the different frames. I gotta have my Dolce, or my Dior, I need my shades.

Singersroom: Do you all ever attend any of the designer shows?

Cherish: Actually we did a designer show for Vogue, and Vogue actually gave us a bunch of free glasses and we all thought it was just great! We’re actually going to try and go to a couple more. That would actually be amazing for us to be able to attend more of the fashion shows.

Cherish new album ‘The Truth’ in stores now!!! —— By: Interview By Tiffany H.