*TV One’s award-winning “Unsung” series will highlight R&B singer Avant on Sunday, April 8, and the Cleveland native tells EUR/Electronic Urban Report that the episode also “shines a good light on the industry itself and the ups and downs” of fame.
Avant is best known for his hit singles “Separated,” “My First Love,” and “Read Your Mind.” Following their success, he has been on a non-stop journey having released seven albums in the last 15 years.
More recently, he’s finishing up a new album while simultaneously preparing to hit the road and introduce followers to his new music. He also dishes about another passion project he’s currently “funding,” how digital music impacted his career and the advice he would travel back in time to give his younger self.
Check out our conversation with Avant below.
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There’s this quote during your ‘Unsung’ episode: “Avant speaks to women the way women like to be spoken to,” and it seems to be a language that no other popular male artists are speaking today. So what does Avant think about the current R&B landscape?
Avant: That’s where we’re all unique. If you listen to any of my music, it’s more of like questioning: “Is it okay?” Like, when you hear “Don’t Say No, Just Say Yes,” it’s not a beg. I don’t like to hear a lot of begging in music, especially for a male. A male should be a male, at the end of the day, we have to represent that side. But it’s okay to ask every now and then. Instead of saying, “Yo, I just want to see it. Show me “The P” or show me “The D.” It’s like… you don’t leave any grey area at all? Nowadays, that’s where we are right now. There’s no grey area. It’s just straight to the point and it’s like, “Hey, we just met but this is what I want to talk about. I don’t want to talk about your day. I don’t want to talk about if your feet hurt and I can massage your feet. I just want to talk about “The D” or “The P.” Everything is like the microwave. This is the life we live right now. Will it go back? I don’t know. My mom told me that a train can’t back up, so…
Viewers will also learn how the internet and digital music impacted your career.
Avant: The impact is drastic. I started my career doing what Master P did and that’s selling records out of my trunk. I started off out here in Cleveland then I pushed that over to Chicago and Chicago actually catapulted my career by having a connection with radio. But the Internet, when it kicked in, it made it more comfortable and actually, we wasn’t getting anything from it. We’re trying now to get residuals from it but it’s free music. People was just downloading it or going on to YouTube and just listening to music. So why would I have to buy your product? So you have to be more creative now on how to get people to buy the product. It really changed the way that music is brought out now. It’s pretty rough at this point. Especially after coming from the era that I came from where in one week you can go gold. You can go platinum in a week and now it’s like, those days are far far gone.
Social media is such an integral part of an artist’s success today.
Avant: I’m one of the slow guys on it but at the end of the day, it’s definitely something that needs to be part of music now, in general. The crazy part about it is you don’t know what’s real and what’s fake, with the followers and the whole nine, so it’s still giving you a spin on what reality is. It’s all really challenging, but like everything else in this world. We went from cassette tapes to CD’s and before that you had albums. It’s the transformation that music always brings. Music is like a fetus at all times. It grows and then it goes back to fetus mode for another branch of itself. So we have to adapt.
In what ways have you continued to grow as an artist year after year and what has remained the same?
Avant: Well, really nothing has remained the same. I learned early on in my career that people want a true story. I’m a storyteller when it comes to music. They love a true story or a story that makes them feel a certain way. I might go into a Starbucks or anywhere anyone is telling what’s going on in their day and I try to write from those different elements because I know if there’s one person going through it, it’s many more people going through that. I try to keep myself (abreast) that way. Where I’m dealing with real-life situations and a lot of people say, “Wow, it seems like you went through a lot in your life.” Well, I don’t write everything about myself. I write from different scenarios. You’ll hear songs like “When It Hurts,” or you’ll hear songs like “Don’t Take Your Love Away,” and “I Can Read Your Mind.” It’s all different types of scenarios that I might hear other people go through or I might go through myself. That’s how I try to keep myself relevant in this situation.
You’re currently working on new material, and earlier this year you released the single “You & I” f/ Keke Wyatt. How will your next album differ from your previous efforts and how is it similar?
Avant: I don’t want to stray away from who I am. Nowadays, everybody wants to go to the young end and that’s cool. It’ll have elements of that but it will still be that Avant storytelling and stuff that matters to people. I will always do that because I know that’s my large fanbase. If I can get a few of the youngsters, that’s fine, but I want to make sure I get my core fanbase to understand that I’m with you 100%. I understand your day-to-day struggles or even if you’’re having a good time, we’ll have all that type of music on there. That’s the main focus for me.
When you reflect on your career, what was the moment that you felt like you made it as an artist? Was it when you heard your song on the radio for the first time or your first live performance — when was your “Momma, I made it!” moment?
Avant: When I was able to buy her a home. But actually, it was a combo of all those things too, ‘cause to me, it’s about progress. Progress is the process. To go in a record a HIT record — ‘cause you can go in a record a lot of songs but you can feel within yourself, “This record is nice!” And I would start to compare my records to the records on the radio, like… “This can hang with the records on the radio.” And then to hear your record on the radio and then to perform your record and people singing along with your record and then the royalty checks from the record selling and then you’re able to buy your mom things. All of those things are like a combo. They’re all a precious part of my growth.
Growing up, did you always want to be a musician? Was there a time where you thought of doing something completely different?
Avant: I always wanted to be a musician. Through high school I stopped growing so I couldn’t be an athlete. I started to work these common jobs and I had a job called No Problem Packing and it was definitely a problem packing. I worked at a peanut factory. So I tried those kinds of circuits for a couple of months and I said, “No, No No… I need to get back to this music thing.” And it was a great thing that I didn’t waste years trying to do other things. I got right back to what was my main focus and my goal, music. And I was blessed to get into it and do it.
If you could travel back in time to your early days of hustling in this industry, what would Avant today tell his younger self?
Avant: I would tell myself to understand the politics of the business. Once you get a deal you gotta find out how much you matter to a record company. How much they’re going to invest in you. How many people are on the label? Who are they focusing on? These are all the things that I would want to have younger artists to focus on. Of course, if you’re paying the bills for ‘em they’re going to keep you around but if you’re not the main focus then you’re not going to get that presentation that you’re looking for. So that’s what I would do. I would go back and try to find out more about the way they operate inside.
So what’s next for Avant? When can fans expect the new album and will you be touring this year?
Avant: It’s date popping up all the time but I’ve also helped this young man, Vincent Dixon, and he has book called “Trail of Mankind,” so I’ve been funding that. It’s basically a book about animals and how we mistreat the animals but what makes it so beautiful is that he made it that in this enchanted forest these animals can actually speak. So they can talk about the things that they’re going through with the human race. It’s kinda cool ‘cause it’s for the kids but it’s for adults as well and it’s in rhythm and rhyme. It helps the kids understand animals more too. So that’s what I’m focusing on now.
And the album release?
Avant: More like fall or winter. It’s gonna be Avant, baby… I gotta keep it real.
“Unsung” featuring Avant premieres April 8 at 9P/8c on TV One.
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