Singer Solange Knowles stuns on the latest cover of “Interview” magazine and opens up in an interview conducted by her superstar sister Beyoncé.
Solange, who released her acclaimed album “A Seat At The Table” in September, talks with Beyoncé about a number of captivating topics including womanism, family, love and some of the most personal decisions she’s made to date. In the interview, which is conducted over a phone conversation the Knowles sisters shared, Beyoncé prompts Solange to discuss how she has been able to define and express herself through her art. It includes comes some congratulatory praise from big sis, too.
“I remember thinking, ‘My little sister is going to be something super special,’ because you always seemed to know what you wanted. And I’m just curious, where did that come from?” Beyonce asks in the interview, to which Solange replies:
“I have no idea, to be honest! I always knew what I wanted. We damn sure know that I wasn’t always right. [both laugh] But I’d sit firm, whether I was right or wrong. I guess a part of that was being the baby of the family and being adamant that, in a house of five, my voice was being heard. Another part is that I remember being really young and having this voice inside that told me to trust my gut. And my gut has been really, really strong in my life.”
The two go on to pay tribute to their mother Tina Lawson and father Matthew Knowles for the valuable lessons they instilled in them growing up, both of whom are featured on Solange’s latest album.
The “Cranes In The Sky” singer also opens up about the inspiration and meaning behind the hit single and why she chose to bare her soul through her music.
“’Cranes in the Sky’ is actually a song that I wrote eight years ago. It’s the only song on the album that I wrote independently of the record, and it was a really rough time,” Solange says. “I used to write and record a lot in Miami during that time, when there was a real estate boom in America, and developers were developing all of this new property. There was a new condo going up every ten feet.... I think we experienced Miami as a place of refuge and peace. We weren’t out there wilin’ out and partying. I remember looking up and seeing all of these cranes in the sky. They were so heavy and such an eyesore, and not what I identified with peace and refuge.”
That was until, Solange says, she realized the cranes in the sky symbolized a much deeper meaning that eventually seemed to bring things full circle in her life.
“I remember thinking of it as an analogy for my transition—this idea of building up, up, up that was going on in our country at the time, all of this excessive building, and not really dealing with what was in front of us,” she said. “And we all know how that ended. That crashed and burned. It was a catastrophe. And that line came to me because it felt so indicative of what was going on in my life as well. And, eight years later, it’s really interesting that now, here we are again, not seeing what’s happening in our country, not wanting to put into perspective all of these ugly things that are staring us in the face.”
Check out the full cover story in Interview magazine.
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