"KING" on the "otherness" of their music
The Grammy for urban contemporary album might have gone to Beyonce on Sunday, but sisters Paris and Amber Strother and their friend Anita Bias of KING are still celebrating their first-ever nomination for their debut album “We Are King.”
CBS News caught up with Amber, Paris and Anita to talk about the album (which recently celebrated its first anniversary) and the inspiration behind their unique sound.
Your debut album, “We are King,” gave you three the first Grammy nomination of your career. Can you talk about what this album means to you and what you wanted it to represent?
Paris: We really wanted the album and each song on it to represent who we are personally. We wanted to spend the time making sure we left no stone unturned, as far as musical or lyrical ideas. It is truly the kind of music we always wanted to hear growing up. And every musical idea we had is in those songs. So we wanted to kind of find a way to make a home for them. I think we created this landscape and soundscape for people to be invited into when they listen to our music.
It is hard to pinpoint exactly what genre your music fits into. How would you describe your sound?
Anita: It’s interesting because it doesn’t seem to fit exactly into any one category. The more fun phrases we have heard people use to describe it is, “dream pop” or “dream full.” Some people have said “LSD R&B” which was funny, but I think all these things kind of hit at the “otherness” of the music. It was definitely raised in the feeling of many different genres.
What artists and groups influenced you?
Paris: There is kind of a wide list of influences. From the soul genre you definitely have someone like Stevie Wonder who was a big influence, especially the way he used different textures and sounds. Then you have Herbie Hancock, who kind of gets into the jazz world. Also songwriters and storytellers like Joni Mitchell. Across the board, there are all different types of artists we draw from for our music.
The three of you also received an early endorsement from Prince. How did he help guide you when you were starting out?
Amber: It was a really wonderful relationship in just the way he was an early supporter and encouraged us. Really having his counsel to always stay true to who we are and make the music we love is authentic to us and something that has stayed with us through the beginning of our career.
Speaking of Prince, but on a completely different topic, how did the name “KING” come about for your group?
Paris: For us it’s always been the three of us making the decisions, musical or otherwise. When we were writing the songs together the name kind of came to us and made a lot of sense at the time. It was always just the three of us creating this musical kingdom. And that’s what it felt like we were building when we created these songs. The name seemed to fit and was something we’ve all loved and I think we’ve been growing into it ever since.
As you mentioned, you write and produce your albums and music videos. How does this artistic freedom affect the process of creating music?
Paris: At this point I think it’s something that shines through when people hear our music, they know it really is us authentically making it. Of course we are open to collaborations and have fun working with others, but there is something really special about being able to see a musical idea through from the conception all the way through the end.
You have also chosen to have all five of your music videos be animated videos. How did this idea come about and why does it fit your sound?
Paris: The songs are written in a kind of dreamy world and we always knew what they represented visually couldn’t have boundaries. So when we started working with animators to come up with the visuals for these songs it was kind of incredible to have someone draw anything worldly, otherworldly and getting into cosmic stuff and having that freedom to express the music in visual and colorful ways was really special to us.
