KiwiBox.com
You may know her as Backstreet Boy AJ McLean’s former girlfriend. You may know her as one of the original members of the girl group Innosense. But if you expect any bubble gum pop music on Amanda Latona’s debut album, think again.
A year ago, when I was still the Editor-In-Chief of Kiwibox.com, I had a chance meeting with Amanda at a listening party for LFO’s second album. Being the natural goof-balls we are, Amanda, Rich Cronin and I decided it would be funny to take pictures of them kissing and leak them out on the Internet to start some controversy.
3 months later, Brad from LFO almost got into a fight with me because he thought I was the one who started the rumor about Rich and Amanda.
I sat down with Amanda just 2 weeks ago for an interview. She remembers the whole incident from last year, and after I told her about what happened with Brad, she apologized profusely while laughing at me out loud.
Her personality hasn’t changed a bit, I thought.
But as the interview went on, I started to realize how much everything else about her has changed: her looks, her attitude, her music.
When I brought the subject up about the visible change, she smiled charmingly and said “Isn’t it crazy?… yea… I think I’m more into my own. It’s more like maturity.” She goes on talking about her first single “Can’t Take It Back”, how she just knew the first time she heard it, “The song is sooo me!”
“Can’t Take It Back” is the perfect song for a female rocker. The song was just sent to radio stations across the country, and Amanda was on her way to LA to shoot the music video. It’s an edgy rock anthem about telling your ex-boyfriend to get lost, written jointly by some of the best rock music writers, one of them is none other than Meredith Brooks. On the topic of future collaborations, Amanda named Lenny Kravitz and Steven Tyler to be on the top of her wish list.
Her album hits the stores in about a month. The name of the album is “Pandamonuim” – it means “chaos” or “craziness”. I complemented her on picking such a cool name, and wondered where did the “Panda” fit in this (the normal way to spell it is PandEmonium, not a). Amanda got visibly excited, and she turned and showed me her tattoo on her left arm – a panda bear playing guitar.
Then we started counting all her tattoos – she has ten!! Here’s the EXCLUSIVE list of all Amanda Latona’s tattoos, only found on Kiwibox.com – Enjoy!
1. Daisy on her butt
2. Butterfly above the daisy
3. The Female symbol on her back
4. Chinese character on her stomach meaning “Bad”
5. Another Chinese character below that meaning “Beautiful”
6. Cross on her back
7. Panda playing Guitar on her left arm
8. The words “Rock ‘n Roll” underneath the Panda
9. Ladybug on her foot
10. Full line of music notes on her right arm
Before we wrapped up the interview, she talked about how great it was working with Clive Davis and everyone else at the J Records family. “They are so cool, but also so good at what they do. Whatever you need, just call and it’s taken care of. Clive is so involved, you don’t expect someone so big to be like that, he knows every line of my song, every bar and note, he knows everything that’s going on.”
You can listen to her single here on Kiwibox. You’ll see what I’m talking about. Amanda shed her Orlanda pop roots and is now a bon-a-fide Rock n’ Roll girl. Oh, about her relationship status, she’s still friends with AJ, but there’s no new guy in her life, except maybe for her Maltese Poodle Kasey. |
