Solange Knowles
Solange Knowles
Solange Piaget Knowles is an American singer, songwriter, model, and actress. Knowles was born in Houston, Texas to Mathew and Tina Knowles, both of whom left their careers to support her older sister Beyoncé's recording interests. Expressing an interest in music from an early age, Knowles had several temporary stints in Destiny's Child, before signing with her father's Music World Entertainment label. Aged sixteen, Knowles released her first studio album Solo Starto moderate commercial and critical success. In 2004, Knowles...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionR&B Singer
Date of Birth24 June 1986
CityHouston, TX
CountryUnited States of America
I have been writing songs since I was 9 years old, so writing has and always will be my first love and passion.
I honestly try to have the approach that this is real life, this is the real world that we live in, and I don't really try to shelter [my son] from a lot of things that he's gonna see when he looks out of the window.
I actually produced other people's vocals for a long time when I first signed my publishing deal and I had just sort of decided that I only wanted to be a writer. I would be in all of these writing sessions, and a lot of times my publisher would say, "You should get a demo singer to sing it because then it doesn't identify as a Solange song."
He [ the son]'s grown up listening to all types of music, and the natural form of rebellion is to find the one genre that maybe he hasn't listened to and to make that his thing.
I've also learned to only write songs and melodies that really work for my voice and that I won't have issues doing live. Because you can get really, really comfortable in the comping process: out of five takes, maybe one of those high notes that you struggled to do, nailed it, and then live you're having that challenge of really having to recreate that.
One time they yelled cut, and we were just going at it, but we were like, this is some real stuff, we got some beef to work out.
We are already paying bills, having responsibilities most people don't have even when they're 24 and haven't graduated from college.
Traveling is definitely something that your average 17-year-old doesn't get to do. One week we're in Japan, one week we're in Australia, one week we're back home going to football games.
I felt like when I took my weave out, I wasn't pretty, I wasn't noticeable.
The more experienced you are and the more people you meet and the more confident you get in your artistry, you fight to say, Hey, this is what I want.
I think every generation has that movement of hip-hop that you know you're playing it and you definitely have that moment of like, "Why am I saying this so enthusiastically? Why am I so stoked and psyched to say these lyrics?"
My parents only played Isley Brothers, Marvin Gaye. That's when New Kids came out, and we wanted to jam that. My mom was like, "Put that thing off and put my damn record on". So from old school to '90s to recent, it's just always been there.
There's just so, so many overlooked R&B artists and I think it's really about, again, being sensitive to whatever you're addressing culturally. I just always try to have a sensitivity to it and what that might make someone feel.
So over time, playing shows - after every show we would have pow-wow, I would have notes and we'd go over and we'd really restructure and re-do and now I feel really, really good about the show. But it's taken time.