It seems like love is something that you can quickly fall into and evaporate from but Kindred says “love has no recession.” The Philly couple has become an example of a young African American family that is not often portrayed in the media. Proving that yes “celebrities” have the same issues that regular people with 9 to 5 jobs have, the R&B duo stress that artist and fans alike share the same luxuries of love. Kindred the Family Soul discussed with Singersroom why real love last, their portrayal as a black family and being fully liable for their new album.
Meaning Behind Album Title ‘Love Has No Recession’… “One of the things we wanted to help people understand is that if you place it [love] at the center of what you do and you use it as your strength for things that are happening; then you can actually strengthen all of your relationships. Even your relationship with yourself because the love aspect is just not romantic love. There are songs on the album where we discuss having your self esteem smashed from losing your job or being unemployed. You have to be able to love yourself and be confident in who you are as a person and what you bring to the table in order to bounce back from something like that. What you allow to break-up or hurt your life is one thing, but love within itself is strong enough to endure all that.”
Love Last Forever… “Real love has no recession…Sometimes there is superficial love. The best things in life are free. The things that are given to you [like] the love God has for you, the love the mother has for a child, the love that a husband and wife share, is a love that is every lasting. Whether they stay married for ever or don’t stay married for ever. Once you have a certain bond or commitment with someone that is something that last forever. It stays with you. I think the emotion of love is enduring. It goes beyond what we see happening around us.”
Starting on Reality TV… “We were doing interviews and people would always ask us ‘How do you juggle your family life and what is that like for you?’ That was the question we always got asked. My husband was randomly taping something that was happening in our lives, a significant moment, which was him telling my son that we were going to have another boy because at that point my son was the oldest and he had four sisters. His reaction was so intense and so cool. It was just a cool thing to have that unplanned moment where it is just like I’m just gonna tape telling him this and see what he does. We just kept doing it and we felt people might want to see this kind of thing. That is why we started sharing with our fans.”
Representing a Different Portrayal of Young Black Family… “In terms of showing the young black family in general, we never set out or intended to be the voice for that but it end up being a blessing we didn’t see coming. I think it is important for people to see that we are a family. I think sometimes with married couples in the entertainment industry, in general people get caught up in the image of it. That image is cool to look at, especially with really attractive couples or maybe a couple you thought should be together and they end up getting together and everything is fun to think about that possibility. But the realness people miss that part. I think it is important to see the realness because that is what helps people understand they are no different from you. Everybody is living a real similar lifestyle. The same way you go pick-up your kids from school is the same way I go pick-up my kids from school. The same way you stay up to eleven o’clock doing a science project is the same I stay up to eleven o’clock doing a science project. It is all the same kind of existence. The thing that makes it different is what we do for a living. That takes the level of interest up. Whereas my neighbor chronicling their life may not be as interesting because of the aspect of music business being thrown in there.”
Awesome Moments of Watching Yourself… “The children’s development; when you get a chance to see yourself. Getting an opportunity go back and see your life flash before you kind of as a storyline is always interesting and sometimes it is enlighten. Watching the birth of our child, going back to that moment, that day and how all those things were happening and transpiring is something we will have forever. It is the coolest.”
Full Responsibility for the Album… “It’s kind of a nervous feeling because if someone doesn’t like it you can’t say that was somebody else’s idea. There is a little pressure. One thing about pressure is that it only gets more intense if you give in to it. God willing people will enjoy it and appreciate it. We are open and have always been open for people’s criticism. Mostly we feel confident and happy that we did what we felt in our hearts and I think in itself is a great feeling. After that you have to let it go and release it. It is like a prayer. Once you say it, you have to let it go and believe it is going to be all right.”
Perfect Partnership with Record Label… “We definitely have to commend George [Littlejohn] and Russell [Johnson] at Purpose [Records]. We were on another label for three albums and they helped us get our start and get our footing in this business and for that we are grateful to them.”
Knowing True Quality… “When you think about music, you don’t think about music like any other product. If you’re gonna buy breakfast cereal and you go into a store and you see a popular breakfast cereal it does not necessarily mean it is not quality. Who does not know about Special K? It is the most popular cereal ever. But it is still one of the healthiest things you can eat. It is still a good quality product. I think it is important for everybody to understand that if you give people crap and tell them ‘that is all they have to listen to’ and you keep feeding it to them, they will take it. If you take something that is good and give it to people, they will appreciate that as well. They will appreciate it even more, especially when it comes to compare. That is just a mentality that is starting to become apparent, not just amongst artists who have always known it, but certainly amongst executives. I think George [Littlejohn] and Russell [Johnson] represent that evolution of the record executive.
Aligning with SNOOP… “We have to take it back to the beginning. The reason why Snoop [Dogg] came to our attention was that Snoop does a show on the internet, where he plays music, talks about what he is playing and does his Snoop thing. Somebody brought it to our attention that he played our song “Stars” on his show. We thought it was cool and it made its rounds on Facebook and what not. We had a mutual friend who asked us about collaborating and Snoop’s name came up. We were introduced via that friend. I think it never felt weird because for us as soon as we communicated with him he expressed his knowledge of the group that was beyond our singles. That was really important for us to know that he knew album cuts from our second album. He was a fan so that was important. I think if you really look beneath the surface of what Snoop is about musically, the fact that he samples songs from The Dramatics’, he has had fantastic singers LaToiya Williams, Charlie Wilson. He aligns him self with soul music in a way that really showcases what’s in his iPod. Even him doing the song “Sexual Seduction,” doing the whole Prince thing in the video.
Be sure to pick the album Kindred’s album on July 26, 2011.
—— By: Interview By Staff
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