After being separated from multi-platinum singer Avant for two years, fans are now reconnecting with the Cleveland, Ohio native. The mellow voiced crooner, known for his rhythm and blues about the good, bad and ugly of relationships is currently on a promotional tour to announce his comeback.
After a round of radio interviews and chopping it up with the American today, Avant will get up close and personal with fans at a yet to be named location. “Your man is back and thank you for being patient,” Avant said to his legion of female fans. “Distance makes the heart grow fonder. People are glad I’m back and I’m glad to be back.”
Avant is known for such songs as Separated, which went number one on the US R&B/Hip-hop and his respectable remake of St. Louis’ own Angela Winbush’s My First Love, which made it to the number four spot.
With his upcoming self-titled CD – hitting the streets legally Dec. 9 – Avant said he wanted the new album to bring something new to the forefront of the R&B scene. “I love being consistent with the ‘I hate you, I love you’ thing, but I added a twist as well.”
That new flavor on Avant’s album is what he calls reality music. “Everyone is into the reality TV, so I did it with the music, but regarding love,” Avant said. “The reality that people will come to understand on this album is when love hurts, it really hurts; grandma and grandpa had to learn how to deal with the pain over years and keep on going,” he said adding, “If you can love through the pain you can make it work.”
Avant recently showed love to troops in Iraq, saying he wanted to do more than just send money. “They have us safe and able to eat,” he said. “We have high gas prices, but we have to sit back and count our blessings.”
Here in the states, Avant said black people need to declare war on drugs, which he said, in the 80s, devastated many black people looking for a come-up/ “We need to stick together and bring ourselves out of the dark,” he said. According to the singer, part of that reconstruction lies within electing Barack Obama as commander in chief of the United States.
“Everybody is fighting for change – it in affect because people want to go from dark to light and from old to new,” he said.
Speaking of old and new, during his absence, Avant has been acting, something he studied at the Cleveland School of the Arts – instead of studying music. Among his roles are 1st Sunday and Love in the Nick of Time, a stageplay, with a first-run production in which he starred alongside Actor Morris Chestnut. He credited Morris Chestnut – who he has known since art school, with teaching him a lot about theatre.
After studying the current music scene, which includes the bootleg animal – a beast he believes that is destroying music careers n Avant feels that he can offset that beast by talking directly with his fans. He has launched his Say Now program, in which fans can leave him message and get updates. He said, he would even personally return calls. That number is (216) 503-6875.
