Part 1 of 2

Anjel Interview from Sister2Sister

A Jamie Foster Brown Interview May 2002 Issue of Sister 2 Sister

Jamie:LeToya, what is the name of your new group?

LeToya:Anjel.
LaTavia:Me and Toya were sitting in the hair 
salon under the dryer and were looking through 
a magazine and we saw the Victoria's Secret Angel 
bra advertisement. Brian (from Jagged Edge) had said 
"Angel Dust" and we were coming up with different 
names around "angel" because all felt like we've 
had guardian angels bring us from bad situations together.

Jamie: Was it difficult finding girls for the group?

LaTavia: We actually auditioned a couple of girls. 
What did we do, like three girls, LeToya?
LeToya: Yeah, I'm gonna say five to be safe.
LaTavia:Right; and then once we found Tiffany about 
eight months ago it's been jelling like crazy. She's 
from Houston.

Jamie: And Naty is from?

LaTavia:Connecticut.
Naty: I originally came down from Georgia because 
I was doing a beauty pageant for Elks Lodge at the 
same time and we had to do it up in Connecticut (also).
LaTavia: I heard Naty sing at her audition and I thought 
that she sang really well. Naty is also Puerto Rican and 
I thought that would be a great feel for our group. It 
would add a little more variety. It would help us with 
our Latin audience. She speaks Spanish and we have some 
Spanish in our songs. It's worked out really good for us.

Jamie: Is Tiffany a different nationality, too?

LaTavia: Nah, Tiffany's black.

Jamie: Why did you all have to go for four people? Why do 
you think that this will work out even though it didn't 
work out before?

LeToya: For one yes Destiny's Child was four at first. 
Now it's three and so now there really isn't a four-girl 
group out right now. So that will be a new thing. Plus, 
Naty has the capabillities to rap very well and sing, so 
it's like a totally different thing from Destiny's Child. 
I mean, it's a whole new feel from the last group. And the 
reason that it'll work is because, one, this situation is 
real. We found each other and we jell very well, we're very 
honest with each other, and it's no conflict of interest. We 
have outside people and we're just open with each other.

Jamie: Have you and Toya become closer?

LaTavia: Oh, yeah. LeToya and I, we've always been close. 
LeToya and I had to come together and do something about 
our lives. Our career was basically stripped from us. And 
that's another thing about the four-girl group that I wanted 
to say, Jamie. Even being in Destiny's Child, it was 
something that we've always wanted to do. Regardless of what 
happened, I thought that four girls would still be a great 
combination for us. Like LeToya said, it's totally different 
from anything you ever heard and will ever hear.

Jamie: How did you all find Tiffany?

LaTavia: You know what, Jamie? I think that the reason 
why I knew that we were complete once we had Tiffany was 
because she was being brought to us. Somebody brought her 
to me and somebody different brought her to LeToya.

Jamie:David, let's get you in here. Why are you involved 
with the girls again? (David Brewer is Anjel's vocal coach. 
He also trained Destiny's Child.)

David: I have been teaching LeToya and LaTavia from the 
very beginning when they were eight and nine years old 
and I wanted to be a part of making sure that they had 
everything in line. I wanted to make sure that they had 
an opportunity to have their lives fulfilled. If they 
need me I am here for them for the rest of their lives. 
I want to be a part of this group, in putting it together 
because as you know I was part of the first group and I 
happen to know that their careers were taken from them. 
They didn't walk away. It was taken from them and I didn't 
think that was fair. I don't think it's fair that people 
would say negative thing about them in trying to destroy 
their chances of having a career. So I became involved to 
make sure that they could do what they needed to do in 
order to have their lives be the way that they wanted it 
to be. Everybody deserves a chance to fail or succeed. It 
is not anyone else's right to try to take that away.

Jamie:Why do you say that their careers were taken from them?

David: I say it because I was there from the beginning and 
I know who I'm dealing with. And the people that they are 
dealing with have a tendency to want things to go their way. 
Not a certain way- their way. And if it doesn't go their way, 
they get rid of you. They say horrible things about you. This 
is a pattern that theydo. Basically, LeToya and LaTavia deserve 
the right to fail if they are going to fail.

Jamie: David, did they get rid of you?

David: They couldn't get rid... I'm an international opera 
singer. I sing all over the world. So I wasn't sitting around 
in Houston waiting for Destiny's Child to call me for a voice 
lesson. I felt that I had done my job. They've won every award 
imaginable and my career is going forward and getting bigger 
and better, so I couldn't just sit around and wait on them. I 
know that they have tried to paint me out to be the disgruntled 
voice teacher. I'm not a disgruntled voice teacher. I choose who 
I work with. I have an international career. I have CD's that 
you can buy in Tower Records. I'm not somebody who's sitting in 
his house with nothing to do. From what I understand he bought 
the rights to the name behind the girls' backs and when they 
asked for new management he wasn't going to have that because 
he feels that he is responsible for Destiny's Child-he found 
them, he created them and that is not true. I did all that work. 
He took all the glory and I did all the work, which is fine because 
I'm and international opera singer. I'm not trying to be a pop singer.

Jamie: What work did you do?

David: I trained them vocally, I taught them how to do interviews. 
I taught Beyonce how to build chords, I taught them about etiquette 
in the studio, how to go into the studio, how to work in the studio. 
I put their first showcase together that they did for Darryl Simmons
[the owner of Silent Partner who was the "Silent partner" of the famed 
music-making squad, L.A. & Baby face]. I designed it, did the lighting, 
did everything.

Jamie: Who put the girls together in the first place?

David: The girls were already together. Matthew was a parent and Ann 
Tilman was the original manager. Ann Tillman became very ill, which 
was two years after I had started teaching all of the girls.

Jamie: Okay, who put you all together, LaTavia? The first time 
I ever heard about you girls, Darryl Simmon's wife was managing 
a group out of Texas.

LaTavia: As far as the group that became Destiny's Child with the 
members of Destiny's Child, you know LeToya, myself, Kelly and 
Beyonce, we were performing at the Black Expo. Carey Simmons was 
out in the audience. Toya do you remember if Darryl was there that 
day?
LeToya:No.
LaTavia: She spoke to Darryl about us and then later on we met, 
but Matthew was managing us by that time.
LeToya: Honestly, the group Destiny's Child was four members- Beyonce, 
Kelly, LaTavia and LeToya.
David: Well the way I know it to be was Ann Tillman was the original 
manager, Matthew was a parent. Two years later, Matthew became partners 
with Ann Tillman because she became very ill with lupus and they split 
the management rights half and half. I had already been training the 
girls and putting them together vocally and artistically. When Matthew 
became the manager I continued doing that; polishing the group, putting 
it together, giving it voice lessons, working on technique for dance, 
all that stuff. Several years later they became Destiny's Child. I 
worked with them up through the second album and from what I understand, 
Matthew found the group, he found their voices.

[Warren Fitzgerald, lawyer for L&L, enters the conversation] 
Warren: If I can interject, I believe the exact origination of 
the group came about through auditions.
LaTavia: That's what I was about to say.
Warren: And these ladies wanted to put together a girl group. 
Debra and Denise were the first people to put together what would 
eventually become this group. They held an audition and LaTavia and 
Beyonce and some other girls were selected. Matthew came in only as 
a parent who's daughter had been selected.

Jamie: Okay David, tell me what the sound is gonna be like for Anjel.

David: They are all singing solo lines. And so that the readers really 
get a clear, clear picture of what I'm talking about, I would say that 
LaTavia is a better T-Boz. This is the sound that they can expect coming 
from LaTavia. It's T-Boz but better. LeToya is a cross between Minnie 
Ripperton, which is out of the stratosphere with her high voice, and 
sometimes there are hints of Mariah Carey in the middle voice. But the 
top is fantastic. And Naty is what I would call, well she wipes Jennifer 
Lopez off the planet and she has the sound of...do you know who Sarah 
Connor is? She's a pop singer. So basically Naty has a very clean and 
popish sound that she can add flavor to. I would call it very spicy.
And then Tiffany brings us the whole black experience in her voice. She 
opens her mouth and you hear elements of church, you hear elements of of 
classical music. There are so many elements to her voice, but the warmth 
of it puts me in the mind of a young Patti Austin. I mean your readers 
might not know who Patti Austin is, some of them will, but it's a young 
Patti Austin with a little bit of soulful Anita Baker kinda warmth in 
the voice. So you put put the four of that together and you got something 
really hot. Now the last group, Destiny's Child, had all of those elements 
as well, but unfortunately they weren't visible. They weren't given the 
opportunity to sing.

Jamie: Will this group be given the opportunity to sing?

David: Absolutely. I set a song on them called "Aint no way" Aretha Franklin's 
old song and they've decided that they all will sing solo parts. They will all 
do leads on songs. So this is a total collaboration. And what I would like to 
say as a professional voice teacher and singer myself; they all have the goods.

Jamie: Thanks a lot, David. I appreciate it. Have any of you been in the studio 
recording at all?

LaTavia: We've been in the studio for quite some time now and we've been working 
wit Brandon and Brian Casey (from Jagged Edge). We have about 22 songs recorded 
and we're shopping our deal as we speak. We really have a whole album, but we just 
have songs to choose from. Whenever we get an opportunity we're in the studio and 
that helps us grow as a group. We're able to feel eachothers voices. It's also been 
an opportunity for us to help eachother because I know that LeToya and myself, from 
our last experience, you know, this is totally different. We're singing leads now, 
all four of us.
LeToya: Everybody has to show their talent, show what they do.

Jamie:Now, people are going to naturally compare you to Destiny's Child.

LeToya:I know they're naturally going to compare us to Destiny's Child, for one 
because we are original members of Destiny's Child and nobody will ever be able 
to take that away from us. But the thing that's going to make a difference is we 
do have a new sound. It's totally different. It's doesn't sound anything like 
Destiny's Child. It's a totally different look. Our style is different because 
we have the diva thing going on, but at the same time we're like more laid back 
and not always going to be in heels and short stuff.
Naty: We're basically kicking it off like some around the way laid back girls.

Jamie: The public is not going to care about any of that.

Naty: We're not stressing the outside. We're just telling you what we can do 
together as a unified group within ourselves.

Jamie: Let's talk about this: You all are working wit Brian and Brandon?

LaTavia: We are finished recording for right now until we get our deal. I'm 
sure once we get signed we'll work with some more producers. Somebody else 
did some of the tracks that we recorded, too. Brandon and Brian didn't do 
everything. Right now, with the position that LeToya and myself were in, we 
know the guys and they were willing to help, so we took the chance. And it's 
been really great in the studio. The collaboration has been fine. We've been 
doing some writing. They've been doing some writing. So it really worked out 
well.

Jamie: Are you two still with Brian and Brandon personally?

LeToya: Not me.

Jamie: Who were you going with, Toya, Brandon, or Brian?

LeToya:Brian.

Jamie: But Tavia, you're still with Brandon, right?

LaTavia: Yes, but I really wasn't trying to broadcast it.

Jamie: I understand that, but I have to get to the questions that 
our readers have asked me. There have been all kinds of questions.

LaTavia: To answer your questions Jamie, yes.

Jamie: Which one of you bought a house close to their boyfriend?

David: Neither on of them bought a house close to their boyfriends. 
I've been there and neither one of their house are close to the Casey's. 
It's not far, but not close like as in you can get there in 15 minutes.

Jamie: No? Someone told me that the guys convinced you all to leave the 
group and that one of you all bought a house right behind your boyfriend 
and then the boyfriends broke up with you.

LaTavia: Neither one of us bought a house behind the boyfriends. Brandon 
and Brian were not the reason that we left Destiny's Child. Brandon and 
Brian were the main people saying "Ya'll better make sure that this is what 
ya'll want to do. Ya'll better make sure that ya'll have tried to work this 
out as long as ya'll can." They never condoned it one bit. Now did they think 
that there were thing being done wrong in the group without a conversation with 
LeToya and myself-thinking that things are going the way they were supposed to 
go? And the majority of the artists that we would speak to in the industry, 
everybody was like, "That ain't how it was supposed to be going." So listening 
to Brandon and Brian, as well as other artists did open our eyes.

Jamie: Naty, how did you feel about joining the girls after what happened 
with Destiny's Child? Was there anything in your head make you fearful of that?

Naty: Naturally, I did get a lot of fear. When I first came down here the first 
person that I really met was Brandon and Brian's mom. Then I met the fellas and 
then I met Tavia. I look at the whole situation as a blessing because outside of 
the whole music business side of things, as individual people , being that I was 
coming on my own so far from home. I really wanted to look at who I was gonna be 
pratically living with- you know, spending the rest of my time with.

Jamie: Are you all living together?

Naty:No.

Jamie: And where is Tiffany living?

LeToya: Tiffany stays with me.

Jamie: So you all just brought them in the house? You're becoming sisters like 
Kelly and them?
LeToya: Yeah, we're real sisters. If we gotta have it out, we gon' have it out. 
We ain't got nobody's mom or daddy saying, "Hey, no fightin', no arguments." No. 
If I have a problem, I'm gonna tell Tiffany, if Tiffany has a problem, she's going 
to tell me. That makes the situation a lot easier and that makes it real. It's like 
real sisters. Like, I'm not afraid to tell my brother things and he's not afraid to 
tell me things.

Jamie:But wasn't it like that before? I mean you all (Destiny's Child) were 
like real sisters and stuff?

LeToya: We were real sisters, but at the same time, we had 
people down our backs. Like if I had a problem with B or 
Kelly, I had to be afraid that it was gonna be a group meeting 
converning a little something that me and Beyonce had. I mean 
like I wore her shirt today- that don't mean we gotta call a group 
meeting. Like that's what I was afraid of (in DC). It was always 
the fear of making trouble and that's not what we want to do, even 
thought that's what everybody was claiming that we were trying 
to do. That was the real problem in the situation, that me and Tavia 
almost had a fear of not making trouble- that we couldn't be open and 
say things. Same thing with Beyonce and Kelly, because we knew it 
would get bigger than what it really should have been. If things were 
kept between the group and between the group only, and we were able 
to handle things as girls and as sisters, then it would have been fine. 
But we always had the fear of it turning into Matthew, Tina, Solange, 
Angie... everybody else's business instead of ours.

Jamie: They said that Beyonce had a hard time with the loss 
of you and LaTavia-that it was a big loss to those girls and 
Beyonce was feeling really down. Do you feel that was true?

LeToya:Honestly, like for real, I can understand why. I mean it's hard to 
take girls that were together for about 10 years every day of their lives 
and just rip them apart and not say anything in between. It's terrible. That 
hurt me as well. It felt like I was really losing a friend forever.

Jamie: Right. Well I think it really did bother her.

LeToya:Yeah, it bothered us, too. I saw something on TV the other 
day that I wasn't happy with at all. I'm gonna go on and say this 
for the record, about that whole "they knew" thing. Somebody said 
on TV the other day that me and LaTavia were aware of what was 
gonna take place.
LaTavia:Beyonce said that.
LeToya: Yeah Bee said that we were gonna be kicked out of the group 
and that we were gonna be replaced. Okay let me say something and I 
will put this on everything I got...
LaTavia: She wished us well and we knew that we were being kicked 
out of the group. We say "Say My Name," when the rest of the world 
did.
Warren: I think it's official to say that what she said was not true. 
That was an interview conducted with Beyonce and Kelly on "E!" and it 
was aired a couple of weeks ago. Beyonce made some comments concerning 
what happened prior to the breakup and she said LeToya and LaTavia's 
claim that they didn't know that they were being put out of the group 
of a bunch of bull. She said, verbatim, "a bunch of bull." And that is a
 comment on their original lawsuit, and it's prohibited by the settlement 
agreement. Legally, I don't want LeToya and LaTavia to make the same 
mistake of commenting...
LeToya: Can I just say it was a lie?
Warren: You can do that.
LeToya: Okay, it was a lie from the bottom of hell. I promise it was a lie.

Jamie: You all did not know? When did you all know that you were 
out of the group?

LaTavia: The day that they world-premiered "Say My Name" on BET. We 
hadn't spoken to them since that day.
Warren: I think we want to confine it and say that Beyonce's 
statements on "E!" were totally false.

Jamie: But I'm not talking about that. I'm trying to talk about what 
really happened. When did they know that they were out of the group? 
They can't say that?
Warren: Well all of that has been settled. In the settlement agreement 
it says that they cannot comment on the claims that led up to the lawsuit. 
And those claims arise out of their expulsion from the group.

Jamie:When you said that all of that has been settled was there a 
settlement amount given to the girls?

Warren:There was a settlement amount. It has been reported in other 
media, however that report was not based on a quote by me or any of 
the members. That was a reporter who reviewed the documents on file 
at the courthouse and that amount was grossly overstated.

Jamie: Do you all feel happy with the settlement?
Warren: Well, they agreed to the settlement and were prepared to go 
on with their careers.