Marques Houston - Breaking the Mold

Marques Houston - With a new album to promote and trying to avoid the gossip about his possible involvement with Kim Kardashian, Marques Houston took some time out of his somewhat chaotic schedule to talk with femalefirst.co.uk about women, love and life. His new album shows a more mature side to the actor/singer who first came to our attention in 1994 in House Party III. Longevity is something Houston is looking for in the music industry and with an already impressive list of achievements for someone who is 25, he looks dead set on being able to establish longevity for himself and his company. Movies, TV, music and now acting as CEO to his own label through Universal, TUG Entertainment, life could never be better for the man who for the first time chose to get up close and personal on his third album, Veteran.

I like the cover of your new album, who actually did the styling for that cover

The stylist was Chris Stokes on that. I love fashion actually.

Who are you favorite designers

My favorite designers would have to be Christopher Bryan, a new designer coming out. I like high end fashion, stuff that feels nice against my skin. The real real expensive cashmere, I look for the material.

There is obviously a more mature approach with this album, looking at the cover.

Definitely. The album is titled Veteran so I think that the cover was appropriate. It shows my serious side, it shows my business side and it shows that I am a CEO/Business man as well as an artist. There are a lot of things that are happening nowadays, being a CEO and an artist can be time consuming, but we get it done.

Coming into the game quite young, do you get to a point where you just have to make the public appreciate that you have moved on from the market you appealed to when you came onto the scene

I think you cross that point in your career that you want people to understand and respect that. Especially with me you know with me being in the music industry for so long and starting at such a young age, it was difficult for me to make that transition and I think now people respect me as a business man and they respect me as an artist. I am 25 now, I have been living life but I always stay close as I can to God, I always read my bible and God is always close in everything that I do.

You don’t have a lot of features on the album, why when nowadays albums are on average 75% features.

Well I didn’t want the focus to be on the features with this album. I wanted the focus to be on the album and the music and you know what I was going through. I had a story to tell, being in love and being in a relationship and all that. I wanted that to be very clear and I pretty much wrote all of the songs from personal experience that actually happened to me, you know it is not made up. So every time you hear a song it is like I am on the phone with you telling you a story, that is how I wanted it to come across and that is how it did.

Sometimes writing such personal stories can have repercussions down the line, have you experienced that

I think everything I write about before I actually write about it I make sure it is something I am willing to share with the world. I know people are going to hear it and I know that once it gets out there it there s no turning back and you have to make sure that it is just one of your experiences you are willing to share.

The people who you shared these experiences with though, has there ever been any backlash from them

You know I don’t know when it comes to me writing and making my music and things like that, I am just going to put it out there. This is the first time that I decided to do a personal album. All my albums have kind of been tailored to what I want them to be but with this one, I was like why not make it personal and give the people another side of marques Houston they have never had.

You have singer Mya and rapper Shawnna on the album, what was it about those two females that attracted you to have them on the album

Mya has always been a good friend of mine since we were younger; and it was only a matter of time until we worked together. Shawnna I ran into at a show I was doing, we hooked up and I was like ‘we have to do a record together’ and I had the perfect song for both of them to feature on. It sounded really natural.

What are you looking to achieve with this album as this is obviously a new side to your personality

See that I don’t know, I just wanted it to be really personal. I didn’t want to dictate to anybody, I just wanted them to get kind of what they got from it. So whatever the fans get from it, whatever messages they get from it what they come back with I am happy. As long as they recognize something for it, you know what I mean.

Favorite Girl is a track on the album, talk to me about that track.

That was produced by B Howard and I wrote it with my boy Dre Marriott and it is a great song. It showcases a different side of me, more of a softer side of the image. It shows that I can get sensitive sometimes. Men shouldn’t be afraid to let the ladies know that we get sensitive sometimes, women like that. Women want to be romanced.

If you were to see someone come into the game and take the approach that you did, would you see that as flattering

Definitely, there are a lot of hints, in the artists, the new up and coming artists that I see that I feel I have had a major influence on. They have told me that they grew up listening to my stuff and that is flattering. Any time a person can say they grew up listening to your material, or you inspired me, it is a great thing. But I don’t take credit for that; I give it all to God.

Who has inspired you personally then

My major influences for the music industry was Michael Jackson, you know growing up and when I was little watching him moon walk and all that. Him, Prince, Marvin Gaye, all the guys who did it before me, I have always been a big fan of old school as my Dad and my Mom always rocked the old school so I grew up on that.

What is going on with your acting? You have You’ve Been Served II coming up with your brother isn’t it

Yeah we are trying to get it together, it is still in discussion, but you never know what is going to happen. We have some other movies in the works, a horror movie called Somebody Help Me. There are movies coming up, some more television, music, it just never stops.

How do you balance everything

I don’t know, just scheduling. You know just making sure I am able to do things, and then sometimes you can’t do certain things even though you want to do it all. But you can’t because your schedule doesn’t permit.

As a person does that bother you when you can’t do everything

Yeah I mean I like to do everything, I like to do it all and then there are times where you just can’t. That is just the business we are in.

In terms of business, was heading up a company what you wanted to do or was it just a natural progression for you

Well I am now the CEO of TUG Entertainment and that is a big responsibility being the CEO of a major label, making decisions. It is different from being an artist, there is a lot of responsibility but I get through it with the help of my team. You have to go through the grind, hit the bumps in the road but it is the bright light at the end of the tunnel we are chasing.

What is your favorite track off the album and why

I would have to say Wonderful. I love Neyo as a writer, he wrote that and I like what the song is talking about as it is telling a girl that she is wonderful, she is everything to you, she is the reason why you smile, why the sun shines. You know it is about all that stuff a woman likes to hear. I love to express myself when talking about women.

Is that how you are when you are in a relationship with someone

Yes I am very expressive in a relationship, I will tell people I love them and they are my world.

Does that come from your upbringing

I think so and a lot of it comes from being around a lot of relationships and just being self expressive. One thing Chris Stokes always taught me was ‘always express yourself.’ He would sit us down ‘when it comes to the ladies man, make sure you express yourself, keep it romantic.’ He taught us a lot about relationships, keeping it spontaneous with the flowers and the candy, women like that. So that was cool.

Marques Houston was intervewd by Melanie J Cornish FemaleFirst