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Taniq Interview

Taniq: The Sounds of Married Life
Interview by Norman Mayers

Taniq represent a rare breed in music: the married couple that also sings and performs together. Developing their sound in Chicago before making the leap to Los Angeles, Miko and Carolyn are living in hip-hop/soul matrimony. With a style that makes full use of live music, the playful rhymes of golden age hip-hop, and the timeless depth of jazz, Taniq is quietly making a name for themselves. With the release of their debut album The Life and Times of Love, the married Taniq have condensed their high-energy live performance into a neat package. Now they are ready to take the soul community by storm.

Nu-Soul: Who came up with the name Taniq and what does it signify?
Miko: Taniq is a combination of Talent and Unique. What it means is expressing the talents that we have in our unique individual expression.

Nu-Soul: How did you first meet?
Carolyn: Well I was in college about 45 minutes away from Chicago and I did an internet search for “seeking vocalists” and the first thing that came up was “Looking for a female vocalist for Taniq” and that’s how I became a part of the band.

Nu-Soul: So what prompted the move to LA?
M: Just looking for more opportunities in film and television. Initially we were maybe thinking about a record label deal. I act as well so LA was the best place for combining music and acting. We’ve been out her almost three years. We’re adjusted now. We hit the pavement right away. It’s not like it was the first time for either of us moving outside of our hometown.

Nu-Soul: Where are both of you from originally?
M: I’m from Chicago.
C: I’m originally from Houston, Texas. Just a little bit of the back-story, with Taniq moving to LA came the breakup of the full band and then it became us as a pair. We didn’t tell the band mates that we were together until right before we moved.
M: We were friends for 3 years. When we began to date we kept that from the band for like a year. Taniq started out as a band with six members. Carolyn came into the group because I needed replacement female singers. When we record we still wanted to keep the same feel of a band so we completed our album with musicians.

Nu-Soul: So the same musicians on the album are those the ones that you use when you do shows?
M: In Chicago. When we’re in LA we have musicians that we use out here.

Nu-Soul: So how has the move changed your career?
C: I think it raised the bar. Once we knew that we could move and really start to finish the album I think that our vision became a lot bigger than when we were in Chicago just doing shows. Once we were here it was like ”Let’s do it!” If we move to LA we can do whatever. We were able to get together 17 musicians and horn arrangements and so many things because we stuck to our vision.
M: I think the reason we came out here was for more opportunities and we found that out here. Just a willingness of people to just sit down and talk to you whether it be just an informational meeting or more. But there is a lot more opportunity. We did get a couple film placements and a television placement and we attribute that to being out here. And then also people take you a little more seriously when you move to where the industry is.

Nu-Soul: Tell me about the album. How long were you working on it and what was your vision for it?
M: The album, it’s been four years since we started it. The vision of the album as it initially began was the capture our live performance. It was to bring that energy and that excitement to a recording.
C: Then it became more important to make what most people don’t see today: a concept album. Not just a whole bunch of songs that we wrote put together but a set of messages that were about love and different aspects of love. We had a lot in our catalog to go through but it eventually came together to become The Life and Times of Love.
M: It definitely morphed and is slightly different now that we are a couple. Now the aspect of marriage is a prominent factor in what we do and the messages that we portray. As far as genre we do a little everything but it is primarily soul and hip-hop.
C: And jazz with the melodies.

Nu-Soul: What are some of your musical influences?
C: I came up in a gospel household. So you’ll hear the harmonies and the different melodies and the church feel. I love jazz vocalists so a lot of the jazz melodies and scat vocals come from my love of jazz vocalists like Ella and of course currently Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, India Arie. Artists that can infuse messages but also have really nice melodies that can carry the message.
M: My biggest influences would be Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Donny Hathaway. But I grew up during hip-hop’s golden age: Tribe Called Quest, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, Rakim. So that was what I really started to do when I performed.

Nu-Soul: How do you find balance as both partners in life and as business partners?
M: We look for it.
C: It’s like anything. We’re on different pages sometimes. Sometimes he may just want to chill and I may be talking about business constantly. Or vice versa. But I think a lot of that trial and error came when we were friends. We went through a rough patch when I was constantly calling him to work on music. So we know we’re not always on the same page. There is no balance. We always look for it.
M: Some how it works out.

Nu-Soul: So what’s up next?
M: Just picking different spots in the country to tour!

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