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.


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