Red Carpet Q&A - Soul Music Husband/Wife Duo KINDRED THE FAMILY SOUL (Aja Graydon & Fatin Dantzler)

The Date: Thursday, 2/9/2K12
The Locale: Carnegie Hall, New York City
The Event: A Tribute to the Music of Motown

RG: Share with me your thoughts on the effect that the music of Motown has had on the both of you.

Aja: Well for us,  I think it has given the type of exposure to African-American music from a worldwide perspective. There's no place you can go in the world that is not familiar with some form of Motown music. What it gave us was an inspiration of being internationally viable artists, and understanding the world's acceptance of our music and our culture. It just gives any up-and-coming Black artist that confidence - that level of saying 'Oh, this can be huge - I can do this!'

RG: The both of you are proud parents of six children. What's the best advice you give to them as far as just getting through life in general?

Fatin: The best advice that both myself and Aja give to our kids is to be kind, gentle, loving and to respect others the way that they would like to be respected. We want our kids to forever be grounded through love, faith and honesty.

RG: One day, I was watching the VH1 SOUL network, and they played a video of yours, and afterwards play a video from the legendary Ashford & Simpson. How coincidental is that to the both of you from a subliminal standpoint?

Aja: It's an honor, but we've always told people that we felt we weren't really up to that point to be compared to them. The late Nick Ashford and his wife Valerie Simpson are legendary producers, songwriters and recording artists, so we're both trying to get our weight up so we can legitimately be in their category and not be placed there simply because we're a husband and wife team like they were, you know what I'm sayin'? (Laughs) We have more respect for them than that, and our whole thing is to understand their legacy, and hoping that other people really understand the true worth of their amazing legacy in the history of music, so that both myself and Fatin can one day live up to that comparison!

http://www.kindredthefamilysoul.com/