Kenny & Chante' | Interview (2005)

Josiah (UBG): Talk to me about the new record and why your new and old fans should go out and pick up the album?
Chante: Because I said so! (Laughing)

Kenny: (Laughing) We did ‘Uncovered,’ which is the cd with the love songs. We wanted to make sure that we came back and gave people what we normally would give them. But at the same time the Lord time really opened the door for us to do the gospel covers portion of the double-cd. The label came to us (Max Seagel) and it was really their brainchild for us to do it. Personally, I was a little apprehensive about packaging them together. But I really have come to see how they actually fit. Packaged together they actually represent more of our lives because we are who we are 24/7. We’re married and very much in love and have our relationship. It’s filled with lots of wonderful things but as well we have our relationship with the Lord and he never gets put on the shelf. Nor do we put ourselves on the shelf to front for some relationship with him. It all becomes one in reflecting exactly who we are. It feels very liberating because when we go on stage now we’re hoping that with our new audience and with our old fans coming and listening to much of the gospel that we’ve done, that it allows us to just speak freely about our lives. We don’t have to go into our concerts trying to be too sexy or too one-dimensional when reflecting an album. Now we can just talk about who we really are.

Josiah (UBG): Who’s idea was it to cover Sade’s ‘Ordinary Love’ and why, because you guys sounds great on that track.
Chante: We don’t remember (laughing). He thinks it was me. I’m not sure.

Kenny: It was Chante and Michael Malden our manager.

Chante: But, I love Sade. I love her. She’s awesome. We were a little fearful of doing it. But what made it more interesting is, I don’t think I would have attacked it alone. What made it more different and safer is because we’re speaking about our love and it not being ordinary. The fact that we think it’s about ourselves and that there is an ordinary love that God has given us. Yeah, it’s a good song. But no, I wouldn’t sing it alone. Also, with the other songs on the cd like ‘Love Ballad,’ it also has the same concept where it’s about people not being able to really see what we see or know what we know. They don’t know what we know, that’s what I’m trying to say (Laughing). But yeah, both songs value our love in a special way.

Josiah (UBG): ‘Figure it out’ is a great single. Will there be a video for the single?
Chante: Not right now.

Kenny: No.

Chante: This industry has changed quite a bit. Right now, no. Call management and our record company and give them the idea.

Kenny: If the fans demand the song on the radio and help garner spins, it may get the attention of our label. That may help demand a video. Were in a day in age where, well it happened about maybe eight years ago with the shift. The industry just took this shift and attitude about what they consider adult music and a lot of times the record industry wants to make fast dollars instead of making careers and understanding that there’s money out there to be spent by adults, especially by adults. We have more expendable incomes than our kids and we give money to our kids. And we still go out and we spend much more money because we’re going to see the concerts and to eat out at dinner and play that music again. But somehow the industry has disconnected from the adult community because the records aren’t bought as fast, and as a result they don’t think that they know how to market to adults. I don’t think that’s true, I think it’s the effort that doesn’t really go out; the dollars are not really spent. We have a BET J now that’s gives us an outlet and a reason to make a video now. What our record company did do with us (which we’re really grateful for) is that they partnered up with BET J to do a special and to run the commercials there.

Chante: They’ll be some live footage that we’ve already done and more to come. There will be something. You’ll see it eventually.

Josiah (UBG): Just speaking about the how the industry has changed and how difficult things have become, I think back to my Mom and Dad and how in their day they were huge supporters of music artists. It’s weird because they still have money and they still have certain artists that they will go out and buy a record for; so how frustrating is it that the adult, contemporary R&B music for the black community is not being tapped into like it should be?
Kenny: We thank God that we are considered viable enough to make the records. We really do hope that people go out and support this record, not that it’s putting so much money in our pockets or anything like that. It really helps the community at large. It helps when Kim comes out and goes Gold in a couple of weeks. Or when India Arie does 150,000 plus the first week. It let’s people know that the audience is there. Hopefully, we will have similar support at retail and all the signs that are needed for the world to support on another level.


Josiah (UBG): Still speaking about the industry, how do you guys balance yourselves as far as being two celebrities in your own rights in this business? We’ve seen time after time, all the celebrities that get married break up at some point. How are you guys balancing being in the spotlight and dealing with people trying to tear your apart?
Chante: We don’t have that lifestyle with people trying to tear us apart. If they try to tear us apart they will be exiting my presence. People can talk about you all day long but that doesn’t change your life from day to day. It’s about us. It’s about our everyday life and what energy we put into our relationship. It’s about the prayer that we have inside that says you know, I’m going to sacrifice whatever it takes to make this relationship work. We’re committed to one another and really they can’t penetrate what we don’t let them penetrate. It really isn’t a worry as far as that’s concerned. The problem is sometimes we as people don’t put the energy or the time into one another. We work so hard to make money or to do the things that we want to do in life but we don’t put that same energy, concentration and focus on our relationships and on ourselves in that relationship. You can’t look at somebody else to make you happy. That’s the thing is that people don’t always look at relationships in that way. But they do fail and it’s not something that they mean to do. Certainly we are attacked more by the enemy within ourselves sometimes more than other people coming into our relationship.

Kenny: It’s Hollywood too I think that’s the cause of relationships gone bad. I think that the foundations of a lot of relationships are just wrong from the beginning. They are based on things that are nothing about a relationship. It’s based on, “I can make a lot of money with this person. And I can get more publicity, etc.”
Chante: For some people it’s not about really becoming attracted to one another. They say, “I’m hot, you’re hot and then they wanna do it and then get married.” But that’s not why you marry somebody. Sometimes it gets confusing because this business doesn’t promote the real essence of what love is. We’re so stuck on sex all the time that we don’t see what a relationship is really about. But we thank God that we found each other because we have the same sense of how we want a relationship and how we want to live and grow old together. There’s a lot of people I could have dated but they weren’t gonna go to Bible class with me on Wednesday and Sunday morning service and be a father to my daughter and really be a leader in the household spiritually, to be able to handle me and to be able to keep me happy in another sense when I know that they are gonna be there always. To be supportive and be a man of integrity. You get what you look for.

Kenny: I think it’s hard for celebrities too because sometimes it’s like, who do we date? A lot of times we gravitate to one another because you go in and you get a psycho fan that’s a stalker or something. That’s a reality in Hollywood. I think that’s what makes celebrities draw to one another.
Chante: Sometimes it’s the success that will draw you to people. It can be a very intoxicating thing to meet somebody that has money falling out of their pockets and can just point and that’s what they can get if they want it. That can be a little blinding if you can’t really see who that person really is. You think the money is going to make you happy but usually the money is the last thing you’re thinking about when they are on your nerves.

Kenny: Sorry, because we are going on and on with this.

(Josiah & Chante laughing)

Kenny: Let’s try and do at least one more question. We’ve got a bunch of interviews left.

Chante: Do you have any more questions? (Laughing)

Josiah: Yes, let me see if I can squeeze in a couple more. Do you guys plan on working with Brian Michael Cox again in the future?

Kenny: We definitely enjoyed working with him and definitely plan on working with him again in the future.

Josiah: Do the two of you plan on having any more children?
Chante: We have one that’s already three. We beat ya. My daughter is ten and our son is three. We did that already. No more though.

Josiah: No more?
Chante: No, no, no now (laughing).

Josiah: Speaking of your marriage and relationship, have you ever considered doing a reality television program?
Chante: No, no, no. Talking about keeping your relationship together, keep folks out of it! Nobody is coming to my house ever.

Josiah: Besides music are there any other upcoming projects that your fans can look forward to?
Chante: Nope, just singing (laughing).

Kenny: The fans can check back at www.myspace.com/kennyandchante or www.kennyandchante.com. We are going to post up tour dates and all the new stuff that is coming up. We’re going to have all this available online.