|
 |
|
Esta página no está disponible en español. Daily Press Fight Over Girl Brought To Light Singer's Talent By ERIC R. DANTON Special to the Daily Press March 22, 2004 Xavier Aeon's singing career started when he hit on the wrong girl at school. Aeon, 23, was then a junior at Windsor High School, and the object of his affection was dating the captain of the football team, who wasn't pleased. "He approached me and was, like, 'I don't really appreciate you singing to my girlfriend, but you know, I sing a little, too,'" Aeon said. With a shared interest in singing, Aeon and his would-be nemesis, Duane Huff, started writing R&B songs together in Aeon's kitchen and found they had creative chemistry. He's already recorded more than two dozen original songs, some of which feature guest spots by big names like Elephant Man and Joe Budden. He was the only unsigned artist nominated for an underground, but influential, mix tape award in a category won by rapper 50 Cent last year. He's also slated to have a song appear soon on the MTV.com feature "Advance Warning," which showcases "artists on the verge." It's heady stuff for someone who used to break out in cold sweats when he sang in the choir at Central Baptist Church in Hartford, Connecticut. However, Aeon's stint in the church choir also showed him the effect music can have on people. "It started making me realize that I could have an impact on people's lives with music, and that to me was really, really powerful," he says. The music that has affected Aeon's life isn't the modern cookie-cutter R&B dominating the airwaves but the classic sounds of Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke and Stevie Wonder. He first heard such artists as a child in Puerto Rico, when his father returned from National Guard service with a stack of LPs. "Those records, the ones he brought from the States, were the ones that intrigued me," Aeon says. "I had never seen or heard of records like that, because they weren't the records that were on the radio." It's that vintage sensibility he heard on those albums that Aeon strives to bring to his own music. "I'm trying to bring back that same lyrical depth but talk about things that are going on today," Aeon says. "What I'm trying to do from a production standpoint is trying to be very cutting edge and as creative as I can and, lyrically, just bring a lot of depth to the songs, just bring a lot of meaning to the songs without necessarily making it too complicated for any particular listener to be able to grasp."
|