Brian McKnight
Brian McKnight
Brian McKnightis an American R&B singer-songwriter, arranger, producer, and musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays eight instruments including piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, trombone, tuba, flugelhorn and trumpet. He is one of the very few leggiero tenors in the pop genre. McKnight is perhaps most recognized for his strong falsetto and belting range. McKnight's work has earned him 16 Grammy Awards nominations, though he has never won. He is second only to Snoop Dogg for the record of most...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionR&B Singer
Date of Birth5 June 1969
CityBuffalo, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I'm constantly being courted by labels and their backing. Obviously the market is there when you talk about the economics and the numbers, but it's hard to give up the freedom of being able to do whatever you want.
I'm never satisfied with what I do.
I just want to be as creative as I possibly can.
For me able to do the records I want to do and not have to worry about this producer or that producer or that trend, I'm not really interested in that.
I hope at some point in my career when my name is mentioned, someone will say "Oh yeah he has a good song!" I'd be happy with that.
I do not wear my emotions on my sleeve; I write about them.
I am at my core a singer/songwriter a la James Taylor or a la Billy Joel. It's not that I don't want to work with people, but I do just love doing my own thing.
I've worked with jazz artists, country artists, classical artists, pop artists. I never wanted there to be categories, because when I was a kid there weren't.
I'll always write music. Whether I release a record, whether I let the public hear it or not, I'm always writing music.
There's only one thing that everyone in this world has in common: whether you want to love somebody and you want to be loved in return.
I listen to all kinds of songs. There's something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it's pop or jazz or hip-hop.
I've been a jazz artist playing pop and R&B my entire career.
I wanted to put jazz on the record, all the loves of music that I had on the record, so I could show people I was ahead of my 19 years. It may have been over the heads of some people.
I was probably six years old when I first sang before an audience.