Is Kelly Rowland gearing up dally with Dance music again? It certainly seems so.
Recently, the heavily pregnant performer chatted it up with our friends over at The Fader about her fifth solo album and revealed that she’s paired up with renown Electronic Dance DJ Tokimonsta to record new tracks for the set.
Peep the insightful soundbites below…
How did you start working with Tokimonsta? I heard different mixes when I was out and then, when we finally got a chance to meet up, we talked about doing a project together. It was organic, really, the way it happened. I like to do things like things that, I don’t like for anything to be forced. It was really easy—she was super cool. I loved her style, and I love everything about her style of DJ-ing, the way she makes music, how she puts different rhythms and beats and melodies together. I just felt like it could be something special.
It feels like you’ve really embraced dance music over the last couple of years. Has that been a natural progression, or have you been reaching out to it? I think that spending a lot of time in Europe—and just in different countries, period—allows you the opportunity to hear all these different types of beats. Sometimes you really want to try it and everybody around you will think that you’re crazy for wanting to try it, you know what I mean? [Laughs] “You’re bugging, you’re on some musicianship thing.” But I think there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that that’s really being an artist: being creative and trying new things, and seeing what works and what doesn’t. It’s just that simple. When I like something I gravitate towards it. I want to try it.
When is your collaboration with Tokimonsta coming out? We’re still working on it. We want to pinpoint everything to make sure it’s all right. That’s all we really care about: it being a moment. It’s always about creating moments, especially because there’s so much freedom now in music. I feel like there are no rules. {Source}
Interesting, especially given that Kelly seemed to do away with the Eurocentric sound once ‘Motivation’ gained momentum back in 2011.
At the time, it made total sense given that a) she had an R&B hit – as such she’d naturally be expected to deliver an Urban body of work album-wise and b) the US just didn’t seem to be taking to her (amazing) Dance-dipped material.
Fast forward three years and, with Rowland now a free agent after leaving hersituation at Universal Republic, it appears as though she’s cooking up an eclectic set of songs – recorded on her terms – before settling at a new major.
As for teaming with Tokimonsta, we’re all for it. For, her brand of EDM sounds easily fusible with Rowland’s R&B humblings. See what we mean below…