Gypsy Soul contributor Shani Elliot sat down with Kindred The Family Soul before their performance in Annapolis last week, check out the back and forth!
Photos by Edith Williams & Diamond Digital Portraits
Thank you to Frank Sheffield
We caught up with Kindred the Family Soul, husband and wife soul duo, Aja and Fatin Dantlzer along with their newest edition, Deen in
Shani: You have a have a beautiful family. You are great example of Black Love and Black Family, doing wonderful things. Besides performing, you have your own virtual reality show on Vimeo, “Six Is It”.
(Aja lovingly places her hand on Deen’s head)
Aja: This is number six!
Fatin: And he is it!
Shani: Alright! The show features all six of your children. What are their names and ages?
Fatin: This is Deen. Deen is about to be 8 months soon. Our oldest son, Aquil is here too. He’s eleven. We have four daughters, a set of twins Lanaa and Ain, they are two, about to be three years old in December. Our middle daughter, Nina is six. Our oldest daughter is eight and her name is Diya.
Shani: I had the pleasure of watching the latest episode, where Nina turned six. As far as the children, do you see the “talent” gene in them? I do believe that there is a talent gene that runs in some families.
Fatin: The “talent” gene?
Shani: Yes, the “talent” gene. I have noticed that sometimes creativity seems to run in families and travel down the family tree. In the video with Nina, you had posted that she was showcasing he r songwriting skills.
Fatin: We are very blessed in all of our children take on different talents. I don’t know if they’ll all be musical but they do enjoy the music, it’s a big part of our household. We try to culture them with not only our music but all different types of music and try to stress the importance of education in general. We want them to be well-rounded children, my son is really big into sports. His father is not really a sports person, but he has found something in that realm to be passionate about, my daughter is into to fashion design. So, everybody has got their own lane. Nina is really the one who has taken the most liking to performing , as well as my little daughter, Lanaa. She’s one of the twins.
Aja: They are both hams. Whenever I see that part of the show, it really cracks me up. I never get tired of it.
Shani: I saw that Nina is very theatrical when she performs her songs. I also saw the twins on the piano. Aja, do you see yourself in Nina?
Aja: Oh, all day long. Sometimes I catch her in the bathroom, in the mirror, doing the things that I do. I remember being that kid, but I see her. I see a little of myself, but it’s so exciting to see this new person, this new personality. I hope she never tries to quiet that in herself. I hope she is always that little girl. From a generational thing, we’ll be the matriarch and patriarch of a very large family. The thought of it just pleases me that we have a large family, one day that they will have children, and those, children will have children. If God is willing, I might be old enough to see great-grandchildren be born.
Shani: You came onto the scene with your first cd in 2003. This is your seventh year, does it feel like the 7 year itch.
Aja: We have been married for 12 years, so we kinda passed the seven-year itch in our marriage.
Fatin: We have been in the music business for far longer than the seven years that we have been releasing music as Kindred the Family Soul. In terms, as the group and people coming to know us as an entity, you can look at it that way. We are working on fourth album right now, trying to bringing that to the market place and having something strong and relatable in 2011. We’re trying to stay in tune and in tact with what gotten us here, which is being honest and going with what comes from the heart. We want to add and contribute to the musical library with greatest, with striving to be better than we were before and do good things.
Shani: Do you have any collaborations that on this new project?
Fatin: We have quite a few that we are working on. We have a collaboration with Snoop Dogg. Marsha Ambrosia has written on a song that we are working on. We’re very excited to be with so many artists, we will see what will make the cut. Every album we always have guest stars.
Aja: We’re a duet, so it’s a little harder to always have guest stars, but we do it. It works out well. It has to be synergy and feels right. I like a lot of artists, in terms of what they do. Usually, we are working on a song, and go, “You know what would be good with this?”
Fatin: On our first cd, we had almost every underground artist out of Philly, Jill Scott, Bilal, Vivian Green, Jasmine Sullivan and Carol Riddick. On the second cd, India Arie and Quest Love did a guest spot.
Shani: Fatin mentioned that you have some wish list guest. Who would you love to work with?
Aja: In the past, I have always said Missy Elliott because I love her. I think it’s really about the synergy. You don’t want to have forced collaborations.
Fatin: I’m working to get Cee-Lo on the records. I love what he is doing. Ledisi, Lalah Hathaway, and Jasmine Sullivan, we are lucky that most of the artist are our contemporaries and some of them are our friends. It’s not as difficult for us to get in touch with them to get on the record but sometimes it’s political with the record companies.
Shani sharing the stage with Kindred
Shani: Do you have a name for the fourth cd yet?
Fatin: Right now, it’s untitled. It’s coming along really well and has some nice guest stars. It should be a great project that we hope to have in the market January or February of next year.
For more information on Kindred the Family Soul, please visit their web site at: www.kindredthefamilysoul.com
The official Fan Page for Kindred the Family Soul HERE
www.twitter.com @KindredtheFam
0 comments:
Post a Comment