Shaina and Jakiya are more than two extraordinarily talented singers who form the phenomenal music duo, The Amours. They are siblings who spent nearly all of their lives together doing the one thing they both love making music. Their unbreakable bond is one that is stronger than any of the challenges they may ever face as rising stars in an industry that can be far from kind. It’s written in their DNA.
How did you both discover your passion for R&B music and decide to form a duo?
Shaina: Well, we started singing when we were kids. Professionally, it was 2013. And if it wasn’t, our mom played gospel music for us when we were growing up, but then, as we got older, all we listened to was R&B. When we decided to make a group, we were like, that’s the perfect medium. R&B is a balance of soul, blues, gospel, and so many different things mixing into one. So, we were like, that’s the perfect genre for us.
Jakiya: Yes, we grew up singing in church. When she was saying our mom played gospel, she only used to play contemporary gospel. She would only play like Mary, Mary, the Winans, Commission, and all the gospel that pretty much sounded like R&B back in the day. That’s when we found our passion and our love for that.
Now, what inspires your unique sound and style?
Jakiya: We’re sisters. So, it’s just like that best friend kind of sister relationship that helped groom what our style has become because we like to just do things in sync and stuff. I would say that we were inspired by acts like Mary Mary, Brandy, and Jasmine Sullivan. Those are the people that have influenced our style.
Shaina: And one thing that’s super important to us is blending and singing as a family. We spend so much time doing those things and just making sure that our voices sound like one. We give credit to the other family bands or family groups who also do the same thing. There’s nothing like singing with your sibling.
Can you share some of the challenges you both have faced as women in the music industry, particularly R&B?
Shaina: I’m not sure we’ve experienced too many challenges yet, but we definitely face everything head-on.
Jakiya: We’re both alpha females. We always tell everybody that because we’re from the East Coast. We have a very direct, blunt, headstrong kind of demeanor about us. We know what we want. If you listen to the project, our mama says at the beginning, “Y’all young, but y’all know what y’all want.” That is like a real thing. So, I think if anything, the challenge is just proving to people we work in a male-dominated industry. Most of the people that are around us are men. It’s just always just showing up and doing our part. We haven’t really reached too many challenges. And we know, of course, that’s just the name of the game. You’re going to come across them. But we’ve been blessed to be able to be heard in the rooms that we walk in.
Now, how do you approach songwriting and creating music together as sisters?
Shaina: So, we are very clear. We have strengths and weaknesses like any other people. One day, she might have a melody, and another day, I might have a melody. One day she might have words. We don’t really step on each other’s toes when we’re creating. We both have our own separate ideas and then we just bring them together. That’s how we pretty much create.
Are there any artists and musicians who have significantly influenced your music and career?
Jakiya: Yes, for sure. We always tell people, we always say we are the descendants of Jasmine Sullivan and Brandy and Mary Mary, with a little hint of the Clark sisters. Those are some of our biggest inspirations. We love how Brandy and Jasmine approach music. They really make you feel it. And we were like, if we ever are doing R&B on the main scale, we need to be hitting and touching people like that. The great thing about it is we’ve been blessed to have Jasmine on our journey as far as like encouraging us when we were when we first started out in 2013. It was like this random show Jasmine was in DC.
However, I think her opener got sick. Mind you, we had no music out, nothing. Jasmine hit us on Instagram and was like, “Can y’all come open for me tonight?” And we went and sang a bunch of covers. And she was so happy and thankful. It’s just like being able to look up to someone and then they treat you with so much respect. And even still to this day, she’s still rooting for us and stuff that that means a lot. So those are our people.
What do you hope that what do you hope listeners take away from your music and performances?
Shaina: We hope that people really hear how honest we’re being in the music. We want them to feel our honesty, our love, and heartbreak. It’s such a rollercoaster with the way we live our lives and the emotions we experience. One day we’re happy, one day we’re sad, one day we’re madly in love, one day we’re frustrated… Whatever the emotions are, we want that to really come through to the music and to be understood. It’s okay to embody all of those emotions because that makes you who you are and you go through changes every day. We always talk about that. One day, we’re at our goal weight. One day, we’re not. One day, we’re happy with who we’re dating. One day, we’re not. Those changes are vital in your life, so we want that to really show through the music.
Jakiya: Piggybacking off of what Shaina was saying, vulnerability is something that’s the most important thing to us, especially in this society. There are so many influences and stuff on Instagram, social media, across the board, where people aren’t real anymore. We want people to really be able to relate to us at shows, through the music, through everything we do. We want them to see us as real women who are going through real things.
What would you say is the biggest misconception that aspiring artists have now that you have, now that you’re signed?
Shaina: One thing that is huge is that it does not happen overnight. This is our 11th year, and we’ve been through so many different changes, no pun intended. Whether it’s learning about different parts of the industry or learning more about us, we keep growing. Everything we have gone through has shaped us to get here now. Now we’re ready. We’re as ready as we’ve ever been, but it does not happen overnight. It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of discovering you have to live outside of the music to come back to the music, to figure it out. It’s a lot of different processes that you have to go through to really get here. So that would be my biggest takeaway.
Jakiya: The biggest misconception that I feel is some people feel like once you get a team behind you, you can just relax and chill and let them do all the work. And that is not right. That’s not the truth. Honestly, once your music comes out, that’s when you have to start working 20 times harder. You have to post on social media. You can’t just stop. You have to keep going. You have to figure out different content pieces. You have to keep that momentum going because the people who are working with you can only go as hard as you do. I think that is the one thing that most people think once they get signed, somebody else is going to handle it. And it’s like, no, you’re the glue. You have to do your work so that everybody else can do theirs. And Shanna, it’s really important to keep reinventing yourself. You have to figure out a way to keep connecting to the consumers.
How do you balance your personal relationships with being public figures?
Shaina: I would say, making just privacy is key. Knowing what to put out there, knowing what not to share publicly. People know as much about you as you give them. I think that’s one thing we do very well. We are very, very private just because it just protects your peace. It protects everybody around you and the things that you love the most. You should hold certain things to yourself and let them be sacred. And with artistry, it’s easy for us because we have that relationship as sisters.
Be’n Original
