Kindred the Family Soul gives lessons on love, life and marriage
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Fatin Dantzler and Aja Graydon are more than just musical collaborators. As Kindred the Family Soul, the husband/wife recording duo behind such tender-hearted hits as “Far Away” and “Where Would I Be (The Question),” they have long been each other’s backbone. In celebration of their latest album,The Arrival, and the birth of their twin girls (hence the album’s title), ro caught up with the couple, who shared their thoughts on love, life and what makes a marriage work. –todd williams
ro: How has the bond between the two of you strengthened as your family has grown?
Aja: Our bond has become much stronger. When you [initially] fall in love with somebody—things are so intense. There’s always this [fear] and you don’t want to lose this feeling that you have. Once it’s real, there’s aknowing there. I know this person—who they are and what I need from them. There’s a trust. As we’ve invested more years together, we’ve become much more mature and gone through the ups-and-downs that it takes to get to that certain place.
ro: How is your personal togetherness translated to your artistic chemistry?
Fatin: Even before we got married we had good artistic synergy. I was writing some songs for Aja for a solo project she was working and artistically we meshed and jelled early. Soon after we got into a relationship and married, we put the music on the backburner as individuals. Our first and only son was born and soon after I lost a job that I was working on. We knew that we were very good at what we did individually and we just tried to make it a collective. You know that old saying—‘two heads are better than one.’ Ever since, we’ve been growing and developing our craft, and just coming together as a team more and more.
Aja: Our [personal] connection is at the basis for what we do artistically. [We] express how we’ve come together and what’s come out of that relationship, the dynamics of that relationship … how it’s helped us grow as individuals. Our spiritual and personal connection really means everything to us artistically. But we are not just the sum of our relationship, we are two individuals who are individually talented and who have uniquely different views on the world and we feel we bring all of that into what we do as well.
ro: What has kept you guys committed to each other for 10 years?
Fatin: Our foundation is love and we respect one another. We realize that we’re working [towards] a common goal. We have a strong supportive family. Without them, there would be no Kindred the Family Soul. We all love each other genuinely. But it’s not all peaches ‘n cream—or Peaches & Herb!
