I can’t begin to speak on how excited we are for the release of Chanté Moore’s new album, The Rise of the Phoenix. It’s one thing that she’s releasing a new project. Sure, there’s a certain level of anticipation that’s already there, yet, there’s something different about this project. This truly is a rising for Chanté. Her life has taken her in so many different directions. She’s had an amazing career, but like any other artists she’s experience some good and definitely some bad. This album represents her new beginning. She has truly risen to the top again, and the result is a beautiful project that the world can enjoy in it’s entirety. She also has a bonus coming in the form of a Christmas album that all release two weeks after The Rise of the Phoenix. It was an absolute blessing to connect with Chanté to talk about the new projects and what we can all expect. If you’ve heard the new singles ‘Real One” and “Something to Remember”, then you know she ain’t playing no games with this album. So enough talking on our end. Let’s jump right into the exclusive….
U.G. Digital Mag: Ms. Chanté Moore! How are you?
Chanté Moore: I’m great and you?
U.G. Digital Mag: I’m doing great. I have to thank you for doing everything you are to keep good R&B music alive. You are absolutely killing it right now.
Chanté Moore: I’m trying so hard, so thank you [laughing].
U.G. Digital Mag: You make it look effortless. I was at Essence Fest, and you were so beautiful, professional, and I could see this beaming happiness on your face when you spoke about the project. Obviously, at that time, I hadn’t heard any of the songs yet, but I’ll tell you .. with Real One, I have absolutely driven that song into the ground with my wife and she thinks I’m crazy. I love the song, and love the video. With the pre-download, you also get “Something to Remember”, and you get the Intro. What went into putting this together, because it’s almost like a new artist who comes in and kills the game.
Chanté Moore: You know, I just feel renewed. I really do. The Rise of the Phoenix is purposeful. The title is very purposeful. I feel like I have been through a lot of ups and downs, some good stuff, negative and positive, and it all worked together for the good. I’m just trying to give it my best. I feel like it’s time to be authentic, as usual, but what I love is the new producers I work with on this album are people like Lil’ Ronnie. I’m sure you know who he is, with songs from Usher’s “Same Girl” with R. Kelly, and the new song with K. Michelle, and he’s been doing very well. I love that he understands the music. It’s like adding chemistry. It’s like adding one thing with another and it doesn’t cease to just be one. All the elements are still present, but it becomes something new. That’s what I think happened with the music. With the writers, Felly the Voice is amazing; I love singing his words and writing with him. The melodies he comes up with are so beautiful. A new guy, @Sickpen, @beats4thestars is lil’ Ronnie, and we had so much fun making this record. We had so much fun that we did a Christmas album as well. So that’s pretty exciting, and we had so much fun. It has been work, but good work. We had the best time.
U.G. Digital Mag: I was going to ask about the Christmas album, and still will, but I have to say that the producers and writers you’re connecting with stand as a testament to the type of person you are as an artist. These people see how genuine you are, and they want to work with your caliber. It speaks volumes. It’s people like you, and I also credit Faith Evans because she is amazing, but going back to the songs, I always say if they have a good intro, they got me. I interviewed Faith as well, and every single interlude and intro she does to me should be a full song.
Chanté Moore: She is so incredible. I love her so much. She’s so funny and talented. Every time she sings, it’s like dang, I want to do that. Ooh, that’s a nice run. Just the way she soulfully approaches every song, I love her too, so you got my praises on that.
U.G. Digital Mag: But it’s the same thing with you. With “Real One”, for someone like me who can not sing a lick, I can admit that I go to town in the car on that song. My wife and son are so sick of me right now, but I love it [laughing].
Chanté Moore: It’s funny about “Real One”. It seems like a really easy song to sing, but that sucker is hard. When I sing live, and this song is new for me. We just wrote the album, finished it and mastered it. It comes out in two weeks, so these are new to me. Singing them live is a new experience for me. I sang “Real One”, and “Something to Remember” back to back; oh that’s never going to happen again [laughing]. That made me so tired. Then I did “Chante’s Got a Man” after that? I was worn out. It was form, but it wore me out. I was like, OK, enough.
U.G. Digital Mag: Why was it important to bare your soul with this? I feel like you give us your life with this album?
Chanté Moore: Absolutely. That’s been something I have done from the beginning. The songs I sing come from the heart. When I do it for my own learning and growing experience, I also do it for others. So many times, people come up to me on the road, and after the show there are tears for both of us. They say things like “if it wasn’t for your music, I wouldn’t have made it through this breakup”, or “I wouldn’t have made it through losing my mother”, or “if I didn’t know you were alone like that, I wouldn’t have felt like I could deal with it too”. Everyone always makes this thing of who they think you are and that regular stuff doesn’t happen to you, but it happens to everybody. We all get our hearts broken. We’re all get let own sometimes. We let other people down. We’re not exempt and we have that human life experience, so that’s what I endeavor; for people to know they are not alone. I’m not alone either. I put on my music sometimes and sing it to myself.
U.G. Digital Mag: The Christmas album. It’s amazing, but my biggest question is why it’s so close to this album?
Chanté Moore: Stuff kept happening over and over to push it back. We’ve been trying to release this project for like six months. My fans on Instagram and Twitter are like yelling at me like, Chante, really? If you push this back one more time, we are coming after you. It’s been for different reasons, and I don’t know exactly why because I really wanted it to be released February 17, 2017. It’s the 7th album release for me. 2/17 is my birthday. Then it was pushed back. I don’t know what happened, but I do know at the end of making this, and finishing up and adding new songs, we still wanted to keep working. We said let’s do a Christmas album. We had no idea it would happen so quickly. We said let’s just put it out. Radio just plays the radio stuff, and they don’t play a lot of R&B and the other genres. We’ll be in the middle of that, and then next year, we’ll add another, and another the following year. What’s beautiful is it keeps living on. We were excited about making more music, and it made sense to capture the holiday spirit because I love Christmas so much.
U.G. Digital Mag: I like the concept of adding a new song each year so you don’t get the same thing over and over.
Chanté Moore: This CD is so unique that I can’t wait for the world to hear it. I play both all the time, and put them on shuffle. That’s how I know this is music I love and I’m happy about singing it because I’m playing it. Usually, I finish a record and want to take a break from myself. Listening is work, singing it is work, and performing it live is work and making sure people get it, and there’s so many aspects that can be tiring and draining. I find that these two CDS are my favorite listen right now.
U.G. Digital Mag: Any last words or comments that you want to get out, and what can we look forward to in the next couple weeks?
Chanté Moore: I’m trying to do as much press as I can. I’m going on tour. I can’t give you the exact dates, and if I did, I’d be wrong [laughing]. Go to chantemoore.com, where we will put up the calendar. Please come see these LIVE. We’ll be performing the Christmas stuff as well as the new album. I’m having a great time. The band is amazing; I have a new band. The dancers are there when I have room on the stage. I’m giving my all like it’s my last.
VIDEOS: REAL ONE & SOMETHING TO REMEMBER...