UB Interview: Q Parker Speaks on Debut Solo Album “The MANual”

Grammy award-winning singer & songwriter Q Parker of 112 fame has released his highly anticipated solo debut album, “The MANual“. Q describes “The MANual” as an audio guide and an honest look at how he believes a woman should be treated by a man. This body of work can also be used for both males and females as an opportunity to have a transparent conversation on relationships.

Q recently spoke to Aries of UrbanBridgez.com about “The MANual,” his collaboration with Faith Evans, the latest on 112, advice from Diddy, why people need to get out and vote and much more!

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UrbanBridgez.com: “The MANual” is an interesting title, tell us where it comes from?
Q Parker: It’s a manual, I uniquely spelled it capital M.A.N. lowercase u.a.l. The reason for that is because it’s important for me to allow everybody to get to know Q Parker the man. Not Q from 112 that you watched grow up, but the man and what my views are. How I feel a woman should be dealt with now days in 2012 and beyond. There is a certain way I feel they should be nurtured and catered to, just dealt with in general. I choose to express my feelings and how I feel about this in my music. My music is a direct conversation that I’m having with women all across the world. Letting them know there is someone out here musically, that is a listener, can listen and I’ve heard what they’ve been saying in terms of what they need from men all this time and I’m here for them.

UrbanBridgez.com: Great! What can people expect as far as the vibe once they press play?
Q Parker: It’s totally an R&B album and again it’s really my feelings. It’s very balanced, I have up-tempos, I have ballads and mids. Just full out Q Parker, I have a few collaborations one with Faith Evans and I have Styles P and amazing songwriter Crystal Nicole on a record with me. If you’re into R&B music and you want something that’s going to put you in the mood and with some great melodies with substance and great vocal performances…then The MANual is where you want to be!

UrbanBridgez.com: How did you and my girl Faith come together for that track, of course y’all are friends but let us know how it all came about and tell us about the song?
Q Parker: Just The Two of us, you know in a relationship we’re gonna struggle and we’re gonna fight and at the end of the day we need each other and at the end of the day, it’s just the two of us! I called her up and I’ve always wanted to do a duet with her on my album, we go back she’s like a big sister to me. She said of course Q no problem and we knocked it out! It came out beautiful!

UrbanBridgez.com: Nice, you did one of my favorite 112 songs Cupid, acoustic style. What made you want to re-record that in that way?
Q Parker: Cupid is probably one of our most popular songs and I just had to do it man. Of course I didn’t have a lead performance on 112’s Cupid, but that’s just a song even in my solo performances that I do sing. So I had some of my musicians come in and record a live instrumentation of it. I just wanted to put it out there and it ended up coming out so well that we decided to put it on the album.

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s the latest with 112, I know you guys have been doing some shows, but are there any plans for another album?
Q Parker: An album, not so much. You can definitely see us all around the country touring but as it relates to an album we haven’t discussed that yet. Right now we’re just giving the fans what they’ve been asking for with the shows, they’ve been really beating us down. They wanted to see all of the original members, so it finally hit us all at the same time and in June we just decided to go back out on the road. The response has been great, the turn out has been great and we’ve been having a good time!

UrbanBridgez.com: What’s like the best advice that you can remember getting from Diddy?
Q Parker: The best advice I think I got was not necessarily something he pacifically said but just watching his work ethic as we were signed as teenagers. How he didn’t sleep, he was at it everyday! Touching every door, kissing every baby, shaking every hand. When we were out promoting he made sure we were at every beauty salon, barbershop, club, theater, arena, hole in the wall, every cookout. That’s some of the things that I’m implementing in my promotions for this album. Just touching everybody, out motto is “one by one, we’re going to get them” (both laugh)!

UrbanBridgez.com: Tell us about this Rock To Vote show you’re doing?
Q Parker: Yeah, you know we need to get everybody out to vote. Make your voice be heard, we do that in terms of getting people out for something they love, which is music. At the same time while they’re out, we’re educating them and letting them know the importance of us getting out here to vote and making sure President Obama gets 4 more years (laughs)!

UrbanBridgez.com: No doubt! Who’s like some of your favorite current artists that Q Parker pops in when he wants to listen to some hot joints?
Q Parker: I love Chris Brown, Melanie Fiona, Carrie Underwood, Usher of course. Luke James is a good friend of mine, Tank, Tyrese I love what he did last year and this year with as many records as he sold. I’m just a music lover man, I don’t have a particular genre I love because a lot of genres are in me, I was raised in the church. So of course gospel is something that I love and I was trained in classical. I love country music, again I’m just a music lover man! You would be surprised what’s on my iPod.

UrbanBridgez.com: What are some of your future goals?
Q Parker: I just want to get in as many homes and hearts as I can. I want to be known as an artist that is authentic and not dumbing down his sound for the times. When you come and see me you’re going to get all Q Parker and when you leave I want you to be full of the Q Parker experience and movement and go out and help me promote and go out and spread the love and word.

UrbanBridgez.com: Anything else you want to leave with the fans before we wrap up?
Q Parker: Just support me, support me, support me! Check out my YouTube, My 2013 Fitness Calendar, Facebook, Twitter. I’m not too high and mighty to not say when I need somebody, I need my fans to go out and support this album and help me spread the word! We’re going to do this!

[Download] “The MANual” Now on iTunes!