KENDALL & KELVIS DUFFIE - KLOUD 9

Interview 18 March 2002

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Expansion Expansion Records

Let's concentrate on the album - On Kloud 9 - It's your first album isn't it? How long did it take to put together?

(Kendall Answer) Yes this is our 1st full CD, but we've been on some compilations and sang on other artist records. It took us about a year to complete.

It was recorded in various places in the US and two tracks in the UK. Why was there a need for that - was it the people you wanted to work with. Do you get a different feel at each place.

(Kendall Answer) You hit it right on the head Mike, we used various studios and producers to get different sounds and vibe. And they all live in different places...

What about the UK guys - Ray Hayden and Incognito. How did those collaborations come about.

As for the UK tracks I was living in the UK temporarily back in 1999 and that's when we recorded the Ray Hayden track, that track was actually used for Maritne Girault on a song called "Been thinking about you" I heard the track and asked Ray if I could use the track to write a whole new song to and he agreed. We changed the track up just a little and the rest is history. As for the Incognito song, I met Maysa Leak (incognito vocalist) while living in the UK through Ray Hayden, and through Maysa I met Bluey, this was all back in 1999. I kept in touch with Bluey even after I migrated back home to the states. In September of 2001, I came back to the UK to meet with Ralph Tee about the Kloud 9 deal. I was in the UK on Sept 11th and witnessed the terrible events from the T.V. in England. The next day I went to visit Bluey and we both shared similar views about what had just happened. I told Bluey we need to do a song about people promising to try and make a change.. Bluey came up with a wicked track and I wrote to the track and thus Promise was born. It was actually the highlight of the album for me, because Incognito is my favorite act! I have all their CD's :-) and I love Bluey's production.

What do you think about what's happening in the UK - tracks like Never Knew are getting dancefloor reaction but that's not really typical to the rest of the album.

(Kelvis Answer) Well we think it's great that clubs are gravitating towards Never Knew, I can't say we knew when we recorded that track that it would necessarily become a floor filler, but we knew we had to do a few tunes that had that kind of potential.

Tell me about some of the people in the US that you worked with. What about Mitchell Jones who's big in Gospel circles.

(Kendall Answer) Ok, well Mitchell Jones is one of the original members of the famed gospel group Commissioned, Mitch and I are actually very good friends. When Ralph Tee told me we needed some tunes that could reach more of the Urban crowd, I knew Mitchell was my guy, Commissioned has influenced a lot of the major R&B acts from America, and Mitchell has written and produced most of Commissioned's biggest hits. Then there's Joe Hogue, Joe has done a lot of Major Gospel stuff Including Billy and Sara Gaines "I Found Someone"..also we worked with Roger Ryan an incredible pianist and producer.. Roger has been on the road over the past few years playing with everybody from Wynonna Judd to Cece Winans to Sheila E, Kirk Franklin, you name it..

Then there's Micah Whitley, Micah is a young programmer/producer from San Diego, CA.. most recently he has been playing on the road for Gospel artist Tonex. We also have an all star cast of musicians playing on the record. On the track "With Me" we've got guitarist Jonathan Dubose Jr. who is currently on tour as the opening act for Harry Connick Jr. Jonathon has played with more people than I have time to list.. seriously.. uh.. of course Kirk Whalum is playing on "Make You Mine" I think everyone know's about Kirk's work.. wow.. so many people.. uh Mel Brown (Bassist) Mel is one of the most prominent young bass players around!.. he is heard on several Chuck Loeb CD's Nelson Rangel.. I can't name all the CD's he's played on! and is currently on the road with pop super star Marc Anthony.. he was the youngest member of Gladys Knights band.. he's playing on "Make You Mine" and "Lullaby For K.C".. I mean all the players that performed on this record are all of superb calibre and quality..

And Karen Bernod- how did that come together, 'cos she's someone I particularly like

(Kelvis Answer) Well my brother met Karen also while in the UK, she was singing with Incognito, and the relationship stayed healthy over the years. Kendall and I both love soul music, and we knew we wanted Karen on the CD, her voice is absolutely fantastic and we felt we would sound great together!

Kendall, you write all the stuff (sometimes with collaborators), but how do you individually contribute - what do you each do?

(Kendall Answer) I do write a lot, however Kelvis adds a lot of vocal arrangements to the songs. I have been writing for years! really most of my life. I went to college studying composition and arranging and I played trombone for 12 years in Jazz band, then I picked up keyboards. Creating music is very important to me, it's what makes me feel complete in life.

When you're writing (Kendall) do you always have yourself on your mind or do you write for others

(Kendall Answer) I try and write what ever I feel in my soul... then once the idea is birthed I produce it to work for whom ever it needs to work for.. It's like designing clothes, and say you just design things based on how you feel.. then if a person wants that outfit, you take it to a tailor to have it specially tailored to fit that person body.

How's the album going down in the States? Do you have a US deal?(

Kelvis Answer) It's kind of funny because our deal is strictly a UK deal with Expansion Records, but we keep seeing things on the internet and hearing things about the album ever here. Right now our main focus is to break in the UK and Europe and then Japan and lastly home. We do however have a song on a Compilation project entitled "With This Ring-Forever I do" that features various artist including Howard Hewett. Our song "Can't Stop Thinking About You" is on this project. It's being released in the US and worldwide through Zomba Recording Corporation. So this is probably gonna give us a bit of momentum here in the states. But we do not currently have a proper artist deal in the states.

Do you have a band and are you doing gigs right now.

Kelvis Answer) We don't have a definite consistent band, but we do have certain regular musicians we work with. We're not doing a lot of gigs here at the moment because the CD is not being officially released over here. Occasionally we do a few special gigs here and there in the states.

Will we see you in the UK

(Kelvis Answer) Most definitely, we're working on dates now.. hopefully in the next month or so we'll come over to do a little promotion on the CD and then a little later in the year we'd like to do a UK/European tour. We've already talked to a few artist about doing a package thing.. Maysa, Karen uh... Sandra St. Victor.. nothing is solid yet.. We're trying to find a promoter to bite on this, so if there's any promoters out there that would like to talk.. hey let's talk..

(Kendall Answer) also we are gonna be shooting a video to "Can't Stop Thinking About You" in the next month or so..and try to get more of the urban audience with the video.. we also may do a club tour and just do P.A's to a backing track to reach the urban audience

How did the connection with Ralph come about

(Kendall Answer) Well I met Ralph while I was living in the UK back in 1999. I dropped a CD off to him and liked on of the Cuts on it.. Over the years we kept in touch and when we felt the time was right for us to do this Album I called Ralph and asked him if he was interested... he said sure. He would just need to hear some music.. we got about half the CD finished and I flew over to meet with Ralph and when he heard it he said.. "this is terrible!"...(just kidding :-)... he said sign here! let's do it! and the rest as they say is history..

You previously did a cut for Expansion - Make you mine - was that part of this project (It is on the album - is that a different cut?)

(Kendall Answer) Make you mine was on the Soul Stepp'n compilation and I thought it was a great tune and needed to be on this record too.

What have you done previously? You were part of a gospel outfit for some time I believe. Who was this and what did you do with them. I understand you toured extensively. Did you tour with anyone of note?

(Kelvis Answer) Yes we started out doing Gospel music, we had a 4 member group called Meekness, It was my brother and I our older sister Michelle and a good friend of ours named Ray. We did a lot of shows here in the states with big gospel names such as Bebe and Cece Winans, Takes 6, Commissioned, Philip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire and lots of others. We did shows in Europe with Billy and Sarah Gaines, Vickie Winans and others. We toured in South America and all over in the states. We also sang on Bebe and Cece Winas last album together entitled "Relationships" on Capitol Records.

Tell me a bit about your background and what else you have done before - where you based? You went into the business side of things - what did this entail. And at what point did Kloud 9 the idea/concept emerge or was it always in you.

(Kendall Answer) Well as my brother was saying we were mostly doing stuff in the Gospel circles.. but even then our sound was more smooth than it was gospel.. Our mother passed away in 1994 and we moved from Denver Colorado to Nashville Tennessee (where we still live). In Nashville we just all got involved with various Gospel record company's.. My brother actually was the 1st one to start working for a company, he started working for a label called Benson Records doing radio promotion, Benson was eventually bought out by Zomba and then a year or so ago I started working for Harborwood Records which is also a part of the Zomba structure doing radio promotions and A&R... I still wanted to make music and told my brother I think we need to get back to the studio and try some new things.. I came up with the name Kloud 9.. the idea behind that was I wanted to make music that would make people feel like they were experiencing ultimate listening pleasure.. so I thought what better than Kloud 9.. I used the K intstead of C because both our names start with K and also do be a little different..

Who are your influences (both of you), cos the album encompassed adult soul, r'n'b, jazz.

(Kelvis Answer) I can speak for both of us on this, we grew up listening to the Jacksons, The Isley Brothers, Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, .. then as we got a little older Anita Baker, Sade, Take 6, Commissioned, Bebe and Cece Winans Incognito, Lalah Hathaway, The Whispers, Loose Ends .. and also some soft rock stuff like Hall and Oates, Chicago, Ambrosia..

Are there any other things that you're working on - or are you just promo ing this album for now.

(Kendall Answer) Right now our main priority is the new CD.. I think that's enough for now.. but in the back of mind I want to do some TV and movies :-) I'm also gonna be writing and producing some material for Karen Bernods next project..

Any thing else you would like to add.

(Both) We just wanna thank everyone in the UK who has been helping us and showing us love, of course Ralph Tee, Richard Searling, Stuckee and Direct Demand and all the radio stations, clubs and magazines.