Nello Rubio Interview with Sevyn Streeter

I recently got a chance to sit down with rising R&B/Soul singer/songwriter Sevyn Streeter, who is currently on her Girl Disrupted Tour in support of her upcoming long-awaited and highly anticipated debut album of the same name.  After her very amazing show last Friday the 13th at The Promontory, for the Chicago stop of her current tour, which was filled with great singing, choreography and just overall fun, I got a chance to sit down with Sevyn.  We talked about everything from her very beginnings with the girl group RichGirl to her journey to get where she is now to prepare for her debut album, her great dancing background and her many influences among other things.  One of the most sweetest and cool interviews I have ever had, get to know the very talented and beautiful singer/songwriter below.

Nello for TheHipHopDemocrat.com to Sevyn Streeter: My name is Nello Rubio, I’m with TheHipHopDemocrat.com  We are a mostly Hip-Hop based website.  We cover a lot of politics and obviously a lot of R&B and Soul as well.

Sevyn Streeter: Nice. Dope.

Nello: So, I know you have been around for awhile doing a lot of singing and songwriting.  I know one of the groups you started out with was RichGirl, right?

Sevyn Streeter: Yes, I was.

Nello: What has the journey been like since than till now?

Sevyn Streeter: It has been a real crazy journey coming from RichGirl to now.  It has been a really crazy journey, but well worth it.  I learned a lot of lessons from being in girl groups.  Just I learned a lot and learned to just trust your life’s path.  I had no idea that from RichGirl I would end up meeting our manager Tina Davis, who ended up introducing me to Chris Brown and then I end up writing songs for Chris.  That lead to writing songs for a lot of other artists and me writing and doing songwriting, actually turned into me becoming a solo artist again.  You know I had the record with Chris Brown, Won’t Stop.  Which was amazing and it has been a long time coming for my fans.  They are like, “OK, can we get an album now?”  You know I put two EP’s.  I had Call Me Crazy, But… and Shoulda Been There, Pt. 1 and than here we are now, where it’s time for the album.  Which is Girl Disrupted and we are here on tour and I’m extremely excited!  I hope you had a good time.  “Did you have a good time?”

Nello: Yeah.

Sevyn Streeter: Awesome!

Nello: That’s lead to me ask, “I know you are one of the few artists left that does a lot of dancing and you have a good dancing background.  Besides you, I know Mila J and Tinashe are really like the only good dancers that there is.  I actually like that aspect a lot and I think that it’s refreshing to see that; because I grew up around a lot of that with obviously Aaliyah, Michael Jackson, Janet and all of them.  I actually have a brother who tap dances professionally.  *Sevyn jokingly asks me, “Do you dance, can you dance?” My response with us both laughing was that, “Yes, I can a little bit.”  My brother has actually traveled a lot of the world doing it and recently got back from Germany about a week ago.  So he has been to a lot of different countries and so I have been around the dance since I was younger.  I actually have two nephews that dance now.  Which is why I like seeing it coming back from a lot of artists like yourself.

Sevyn Streeter: Nice.  So basically, you know the dancing when you see it and think I did, alright.

Nello: Yeah.

Sevyn Streeter: Alright, “Hi, five!”  Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

Nello: So that dancing aspect and just being on tour that gets you excited, does it not?

Sevyn Streeter: Yes, I’m really excited.  This album, it will finally be out this spring and I’m just excited to be on tour.  A lot of people say, “Oh, you are on tour before your album comes out.”  But for me it’s all about just being in the faces of my fans.  I want to see them.  I want to get them excited in a different kind of way.  I don’t just want to tell them, “Oh, the album is coming out! Go buy it and then I’m out on tour!”  No, it’s like I want to come out and party with y’all.  Play some snippets and give you a great show.  You know, get you excited about the album.  Get the album out and then we come back and have an even bigger and better show.  You feel me?

Nello: I know besides Aaliyah, you have a lot of other influences.  I know the one record that you did, Before I Do, was kind of ode to Aaliyah.  So besides here, who are some of your other influences?
Sevyn Streeter: I love Janet.  I love Janet Jackson.  I never met her.  If I ever met her I would *laughing about it* probably faint.  I love Janet.  I’m obviously obsessed with Whitney.  Back in the day too.  I loved Paula Abdul.  You know I love what she did.  Other than her, I love Jody Watley.  I love Jody for what she did.  People love to forget about Jody Watley, but I think she had some really amazing visuals.  Which is dope.  And I love girl groups like TLC, Destiny’s Child and those types.

Nello: Yeah, so you obviously have the album coming in the spring like you said.  I know you have put out a few videos already.  That’s one of the other aspects that I like a lot from you.  I know a lot of artists don’t really put all their efforts into the videos as much as I think they can or should.  I know a lot of your videos are kind of fun, like the Before I Do and D4L videos, where you even have kind of seductive, but classy in a way type videos.

Sevyn Streeter: Yeah, sexy, but not trashy.

Nello: That’s what I and I think a lot of others like too.  So my question was, “Can we expect more of this or just more videos in general?”

Sevyn Streeter: Yeah, I’m definitely going to be doing more and we are going to be doing more for the album. We are definitely going to be doing more visuals, as we put out more records. So you will be seeing a lot more videos. “Sexy, not trashy.” So expect a lot more visuals and records to come out leading to the album’s release in the spring.