Interview w/ R&B Singer/Songwriter Avant

By J9 of J9's MusicLife

October 7, 2011 - The Park at Fourteenth - Washington, DC


Avant (real name Myron Avant) is best known for his chart topping hits like Separated, Making Good Love, Read Your Mind, as well as his beautiful ballad duets My First Love and Nothing in This World with R&B singer KeKe Wyatt.  It's hard to believe that this Cleveland, OH native has been in the game for 10 years.  In December, he released his sixth album The Letter, which holds the same smooth R&B vibe he is known for and contains many songs he co-wrote and co-produced.  I sat down with Avant to talk about his career, music, of course the new album, and discover his MusicLife.

One-on-one w/ Avant

MusicLife:  You're about to give DC a live performance to show them what you're all about.  Now I know for me, a live performance is the epitome of getting to know the artist and their style.  If you can name an artist or group that you've seen in concert, who puts on the best live performance?

Avant:  There's a lot.  I respect the ol' skool so an O'Jays concert, The Isley Brothers, my man Charlie Wilson, New Edition, R. Kelly.  There's a lot people that love music and it's about loving music to me.  Some people get up there just to get paid, but some people really love the music and that's what I'm into.


MusicLife:  You've done amazing duets and everybody knows you for the ones you've done with KeKe Wyatt with Nothing in This World and My First Love.  If you could name another artist that you would do a memorable duet with, who would it be?

Avant:  It used to be my man Michael Jackson.  I've been blessed to work with a lot of different artists.  If you got that true flavor and are about the music, it's about the voice so you have to have an amazing voice to pull off a true duet.  So, it would be Beyonce.  You know what, but I would say Kelly [Rowland] cause I did a song with her too so I'd do another one with Kelly.


MusicLife:  You know the sound of music is always evolving.  And you see sometimes artists that can't keep up with the times and they fall off.  Then you have some artists who feel they need to change their sound completely and be totally different.  In your musical career, have you ever struggled with that?

Avant: Nah, once you get a true fan base like me, I've been blessed to have over 12 hit records so for me to switch up and go all the way left, I would lose all of my fan base.  Now, if you're an artist that has been in the game and hasn't established a true base, then I understand you trying to figure things out.  But once you get a true base, you really gotta give 'em what they want.  You can do a few different things but you gotta basically stay with the base.


MusicLife:  At the end of last year, you released your sixth album, The Letter.  And you said that was like a testimony, a letter to your fans to tell them what you've been going through.  If you could tell your fans what you would want them to get out of the album, what would it be?

Avant:  It would be to just have fun. Know that your life is in part of this album.  I know the people that listen to my music.  That's why I try to really strategically sit back and plan the album.  I wanted to deal with the issues that my people go through.  So if you listen to it, just know that I wrote it directly for you.  I have a song called Wake Up on the album and if you've been in a relationship, you know exactly what that song means.  So that's what I try to do, I try to feed into what the fans really want to hear. 

To read the rest of the post, click here.