“Alright. Let’s do it. We’ll start in five… four… three… two…” She adjusted in her seat. “Hey there, lovebugs. It’s your two favorites, Olivia and Alydia.” She gestured to her cohost. “We’re here with the beautiful and talented Radiant Reverie.” A clapping track played and Olivia smiled. “Do y’all want to introduce yourselves?”
“Sure.” Retta sat up taller. “I’m Retta.”
“I’m Charm.”
“And I’m Myome.”
“It’s so nice to have you ladies here.” Alydia grinned. “We figured we could do a few quick and fun icebreaker questions then go into talking about this upcoming album and just feel it out from there.”
“Sure.” Charm nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“Okay.” Olivia looked at her cue cards. “Why don’t we start with ‘who’s more likely to’?”
We all agreed and Olivia peeked at her card.
“Okay. Who is most likely to mess up choreo?” she asked.
All three of us pointed to me and we giggled.
We got several easy questions like that. It was cute and low stress and I felt the tension leave my body the longer we went. When we wrapped, Alydia took over. She shifted in her seat and tapped her cue cards on the arm.
“So, your new album is about to come out, right? Is it your debut?”
“It is,” Retta confirmed and nodded.
“Well, congratulations. It’s already getting quite a buzz, I think.”
“Yeah. The singles that have come out have been great,” Olivia said. “Can we ask what the inspiration was going into this album?”
“Sure.” Retta jumped in immediately. “We’re all strong women here but being strong and driven doesn’t mean that you don’t want someone to be on your team or don’t want someone to love and hold and this album is sort of speaking to that for us.”
“Yeah and it takes you through all the phases,” Charm said. “We have songs on there that are about being strong, driven women and making our own money but we also have songs about wanting then finding love and ultimately losing it. The album tells a story and I personally think it’s a good one.”
“It sounds like it. I’m excited to hear it in its entirety,” Alydia said. “Hopefully it blows up and we can get really good visuals to go with the storyline.”
“Listen, Alydia loves her visuals, y’all. If you have a music video, she wants it.”
We laughed at that.
“But speaking of being driven and successful and finding and losing love, can I ask if there’s any experiences pulled from real life in the lyrics?”
“Some of them,” Charm offered. “I think the want to navigate this space with someone we care about and who cares about us is inside all of us. I mean, we’re not out here looking for love specifically, but I think it’s natural for women to sometimes think about it, even if they aren’t pursuing it. So it mostly comes from that. We walked into the studio knowing we wanted a full concept album; so that’s what we tried to do.”
“Yeah. It’s a little mix of real life experiences and just things we’ve heard about or our thoughts, desires, and fears. It’s just all of our creativity and different perspectives blended and thrown out there for you guys to enjoy,” I said.
“Okay, so let’s jump from there to the mess.” Olivia wagged her eyebrows. “With this album being about love and loss and want, we and the viewers, I'm sure, want to know if there is anyone special in all of your lives?”
“No. No. No.” Charm shook her head. “I am happily single. I’m committed to my music and the group.” She looked at me and I looked at Retta.
She chuckled.
“Well I’m… dating,” Retta offered. “It’s nothing super serious and nothing I want to go public about but there is a man in my life I’m enjoying spending time with.”
Their eyes all trailed over to me.
“Yeah. I’m married,” I said.
“That’s it?” Alydia laughed and everyone else followed suit.