MAMA EARTH Magazine

Kindred the Family Soul  is a hot recording and  soulful vocal duo from Philadelphia consisting of husband and wife Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon. Both began as solo performers. However, the two magnetically united and began writing songs. Eventually, true love engulfed the air, Fatin and Aja married and started a family. During the beginning stages of their family, Fatin had put the music on the back burner and worked as an appliance salesman. This only lasted for a while before the passion of music and performing was calling the both of them. Fatin and Aja began performing at the Black Lily Club where they caught the attention of, our girl, Jill Scott, who took them to her label, Hidden Beach Recordings. Yes they were signed and their debut album, Surrender to Love, was released in February 2003. Mama Earth Magazine caught up with Kindred the Family Soul in Berkeley, just hours before their show at Kimball’s Carnival located in Jack London Square. So incredibly inviting and warm, this husband/wife duo openly shared their love and appreciation for their  family as well as the ins and outs of balancing family life and their professional musical career.

 
Mama Earth:What’s it like raising a family and being professional recording artists like you are?

Fatin: “It’s a lot of joy and pain. But it works to our advantage

For the most part, we’ve been very blessed to share a passion for something that we love, to get the opportunity to do it, and raise our family at the same time. There have been obstacles at times because when we are at work, we both are at work. That means that somewhere along the lines that doesn’t mean that when mommy’s out daddy has them or when daddy’s out, mommy has them. So, we constantly have to keep plan B. Also, keep the children’s life in a regular cycle and not allow them to get caught up in what Mommy and Daddy do. We try our best to keep our family first. At the same time we recognize we provide our family with a security blanket. It’s push and pull. That’s why I say “joy and pain”

 Mama Earth: When many artists or performers begin to have their children, other family members encourage them to put their art on the background. How did your family respond to you all pursing your career?

 Aja: We didn’t have that issue. I got to speak up and say that. Our parents and family are one hundred percent behind us. When we got married and had our children a lot of them were disappointed that we didn’t make music as much of a priority as before.

 Fatin: And I was the one who said, “ Maybe we should put this music on the back burner and focus on the kids. Our family has been like, “ Look, we’re here to help facilitate your dream.” Even today as we speak that is what’s happening. Our family has been amazing. They never said, “Choose!” They have always said, “What can we do to help you?” We consider our family the 5th  Beetle. They really are the 3rd member of Kindred and The Family Soul because without them we wouldn’t be able to have this conversation with you.

Fatin: At least without some crying going on.

 
Aja: And some running around. And believe me. We have had some meetings and interviews with that. Trust me! (laughter)

 Mama Earth: Where did the name come from?

 Fatin: The thesaurus is where kindred came from. We went to trademark the name and there were some other groups with the name Kindred or Kindred was somewhere in their name. So, we added The Family Soul—kind of self-explanatory. We were a family and we did soul music. We were just looking for a clever name. Of course, we were aware of Sly and The Family Stone, Mother., Father, Sisters, & Brothers out of Philadelphia. We just wanted that feel. We just wanted to come up with an original soul name that would be memorable for a long time and that it would really describe who we were.

Mama Earth: What themes are you wanting to communicate through your music?

 
Aja: The overall theme in what we are trying to do is taking pride with where you are in your life. That it’s not the end of your life. It’s just another journey that you’re going through. Just trying to explore our lives in a realistic way. Just speaking about where we are. It doesn’t make sense to sing songs about being at a club partying, when we only do that on occasions. It really makes more sense to talk about the love and what our life is about. It’s about our relationship. It’s about our children. It’s bout all of the challenges we face playing those different roles. I think people who play our music and are in those same situations wear our music as a badge of honor;; in as sense that they look at what they are going through as something worthy of artistic expression. I also think (our music) takes a little bit of the fairytale edge off of what people believe marriage and kids is all about….If people really listened to our music they would hear that we  don’t have a “perfect” relationship. They even say, “You know, I thought marriage and kids was this and that, but you guys really gave me a lot of hope.”  It makes people feel like there situation is not that bad. Yes, because we have grown and been through a lot of things. Yes we have struggled with the different roles we  play.  don’t always feel like a “glampuss” all the time. I think the message we are trying to get across is own who you are. It’s okay. It’s a beautiful thing!

 

To Find out more about Kindred the Family Soul go to www.kindredthefamilysoul.com and also listen to KBLX. They play them all the time!