Before Atlanta R&B group silk was topping the Billboard Hot 100 with their hit song "Freak Me," two of the members worked for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The group revealed this fun fact recently while promoting their new album "Quiet Storm," which was officially released today (March 18). Over 24 years after being discovered by Keith Sweat and releasing their debut album "Lose Control," the band is headed to Columbia, S.C., to celebrate the release of their sixth studio album. It's a project that took a decade to complete, so the men are happy to finally be able so share the new music and celebrate with fans.
Ahead of the album's release, four of the five members (Gary "Big G" Glenn, Gary "Little G" Jenkins, Johnathen "John John" Rasboro, Jimmy "Jim" Gates Jr. and Timothy "Timzo" Cameron) met with the AJC in Decatur to discuss the new album, Atlanta's impact on the music industry, their forthcoming show at Wolf Creek Amphitheater and more.
On why it took a decade to make "Quiet Storm":
Gary "Little G" Jenkins: "A lot of people thought that we were on a hiatus, but we were actually working [during] those 10 years."
Jimmy "Jim" Gates: "We've been building a catalog. Just to [select the songs for this] record, I think we went through at least 30 songs."
Timothy "Timzo" Cameron: "We have a lot of great songs that didn't make the record, so hopefully it won't take us another 10 years to do the next record."
On sticking with their signature sound:
Gary "Big G" Glenn: "I think ["Quiet Storm"] stands alongside the other albums that we've done. We didn't stray away form our formula, as far as doing music that feels good, and you can do things to the music that makes you feel good. It's love music. Sometimes it's more about the physical and sometimes it's more about the emotional, but at the end of the day it's love music and that's kind of what Silk is known for. We didn't leave that formula."
Timothy "Timzo" Cameron: "We call it classic Silk."
On working for the AJC:
Timothy "Timzo" Cameron: "We were selling papers."
Gary "Big G" Glenn: "This is back in the day when there weren't [any] computers. We were [doing cold calls]. I had two jobs. I had to work at the AJC and then I had to work every day to get [Timzo] up."
On how Atlanta's current R&B and Hip-hop sound has impacted the group:
Gary "Little G" Jenkins: "It really affected us in a positive manner more so than a negative manner because it left the door open for our generation, or demographic and our genre of music to actually come back full force. It left a hunger in people's bellies for our music."
Gary "Big G" Glenn: "You have your Bryson Tillers and your Tory Lanez. I don't hate. I love artistry. 20 years ago we were the cats that older cats were saying '[Have] you heard [those] dudes singing 'Freak Me? What do y'all think about that?' It's not about hating. It's just about respecting everybody's individual artistic view."
On Atlanta’s musical roots:
Gary "Big G" Glenn: "You forget how deep the roots are in the Atlanta music scene. Even if [artists] weren't from Atlanta they were coming through Atlanta to get a taste of that sound."
On the upcoming (August 6) Wolf Creek Amphitheater show with Jagged Edge and 112:
Gary "Big G" Glenn: "They started calling that [show] the "All ATL show. You can [go] other places with that show and it'll still be all ATL. We all [have] love for each other."
Gary "Little G" Jenkins: "It's gotten to a point where we started [to be] booked so many times together that if one of the artists weren't on one show everybody would be asking 'where's Silk? Where's Jagged Edge? Where's 112?'"
Stream Silk's "Quiet Storm" on CentricTV.com.
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