Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight
Brian McKnightis an American R&B singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays eight instruments including piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet. He is one of the very few leggiero tenors in the pop genre. McKnight is perhaps most recognized for his strong falsetto and belting range. McKnight's work has earned him 16 Grammy Awards nominations, though he has never won. He is second only to Snoop Dogg for the record of most...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionR&B Singer
Date of Birth5 June 1969
CityBuffalo, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I'm constantly being courted by labels and their backing. Obviously the market is there when you talk about the economics and the numbers, but it's hard to give up the freedom of being able to do whatever you want.
I just want to be as creative as I possibly can.
For me able to do the records I want to do and not have to worry about this producer or that producer or that trend, I'm not really interested in that.
I am at my core a singer/songwriter a la James Taylor or a la Billy Joel. It's not that I don't want to work with people, but I do just love doing my own thing.
There's only one thing that everyone in this world has in common: whether you want to love somebody and you want to be loved in return.
Being a musician, you want to be able to do the hardest stuff there is. People would think it's classical, but in classical, it's all on the page and the difficulty is keeping up with the music.
As I've gotten older, now I've really got to back that up with record sales. Anytime showed me that I could still have some of those elements I wanted, but you still have to come with hit after hit after hit.
It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.
People now have been conditioned to believe they should only buy one song at a time, that nobody can make an entire record that would merit you paying, you know, $7, $8, $10 when CDs in the '90s were $18, $19 and people bought millions and millions and millions of them.
I think they can co-exist. You don't have to put one down for another. I've been bitten by the acting bug, and where it takes me, it won't take away from the music.
Know the business; you need to know the business side of things.
I am just a guy that watches sports all day.
It is great to have your own label; you can cultivate your own artists... I've worked with pretty much everyone I wanted to.
I'm the fifth generation of Seventh Day Adventists and the youngest of four brothers. When I was still very small, we formed a gospel quartet.