Former child-star Tiffany Evans is all grown up and back on the music scene with her new incredible EP All Me. Evans got her start in fame on Star Search at the age of 9. The now mother of two has been recording music, making videos, and working on new projects for her fans to enjoy. Tiffany has been through many things in her personal life and career. From a rough childhood in the Bronx, different labels, to starting her own label and business ventures, she has proven that no matter what she will continue to strive in her career. The wife, mother, musician, and entrepreneur discussed different phases in her life and where she is at now as a woman. When it comes to making music, Evans writes what she is feeling inside or experiencing at the moment. Whatever she records, she wants her fans to understand where she is coming from. She spends a lot of time perfecting her sound making sure it’s exactly how she wants it. Now with the release of her new single “On Sight” featuring Fetty Wap which has over 1 million digital streams: the songstress is ready to tour for her EP All Me, work on her eyewear line “Eye Hunee”, new videos, and more. Check out her EP and the interview below.
Sierra: The video and song “On Sight” debuted on BET. Dope video and record. How did you get Fetty Wap to collaborate with you?
Tiffany: Well, I actually didn’t know that he was going to collaborate with me at first. I actually started on the song ahead of him, me and my writing partner, GoTo. I was in the studio, and we kind of like were in different places at that time. We were bouncing ideas back and forth and so we came up with the song “On Sight.” We had completed like a version to the hook and started listening to it. We said that it would be dope if we got a rapper on the record, but we didn’t know who at the moment. My friend, Britney, she happened to reach out to me, and she said, “You know what? I think you should do a record with Fetty Wap.” I told her, I said; I was jokingly telling her like, “If you have Fetty Wap money, then we could get Fetty Wap, but I’m not sure if he’s going to get on this record without those coins.
Sierra: The video has now over 300,000 views. How did you come up with the concept of the video? What was your inspiration?
Tiffany: Well, at first, that wasn’t the original concept. I wanted it to be like a street romance video where somewhere out at night, me and my girls and my love interest, he’s around his guys and whatnot and we kind of like link up. I know that he likes me, but he’s kind of shy and he won’t make the first move. That was where that concept for the video started, but we did shoot something like that, but we ended up scratching it because when Fetty was finally able to shoot his part of the song, it didn’t match up with what we had already shot, so then, we had to go back to the drawing board, and I said, “You know what? What would I want people to see right now? If they were to watch this, what would I want them to say about this video?”
To me, I just said, “You know what? It’s been a minute since I’ve been out for real.” Like I haven’t had a video on TV for a while. I really want to push this thing for real. What I want them to see is like the grown Tiffany, the grown up Tiffany, my personality, my swagger, how I move, how I dance. Just focus on me instead of like a whole big production. I just want them to see Tiffany, the artist. That gave me the idea to shoot a video that’s just like me dancing by myself and have Fetty come in on his part and kill it like that. I just wanted to sell the song instead of having like a big production. That’s where I kind of came up with the inspiration for that
Sierra: What was it like growing up in the Bronx with a rough childhood? How or did you remain positive in the tough situation you and your family were in ?
Tiffany: I was always a very optimistic child. I always just try to think the best of people and situations. I always knew that I was going to be somebody. I really didn’t know who at first, I was saying I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be a nurse, all kinds of things, but singing was and always will be my passion and performing, period, being an entertainer. That’s always what I wanted to do because when I was younger, I used to play the movie, The Temptations, What’s Love Got to do With It, the Frankie Lymon movie. I always used to play those films in the house, and I would make my brothers and sisters get up and learn the routine, learn the song. We would just go over them every day and just kind of just live in that.
They would get tired of me because they would go like, “Tiffany, you need to be doing this by yourself because we really don’t want to do that.” I just always kind of knew that I was going to be somebody, and I always brought the best of situations and what not. I try not to have doubt, and I try not to worry and think that the end of the world is here because something bad may have happened. That’s how I always kind of like was able to get through my childhood and growing up in The Bronx.
Sierra: Did your life change drastically after Star Search?
Tiffany: Yeah, absolutely. It was a new found thing. My whole family, they had never been around anything like that before, nothing in the art anyway. It was kind of just new for them to see their little sister or daughter or granddaughter become famous. Someone they were used to hanging out with every day , going to sleep together in the same room and camping out and whatnot. Now, I’m like traveling and having to go to shows especially when I got a deal, and I started working. I actually signed with Columbia records at that time. When I got a deal, and I started working and actually recording my album, I was never really home. I was gone a lot.
It was good because it was a new thing that they were seeing, but then at the same time, they never really got to spend time with me. It was something that they had to sort of get used to and myself as well.
Sierra: When and how did you become an ambassador for The Hair Agency? What made you want to become a part of this company?
Tiffany: Well, Nela, she is just a really, really good friend of mine. Our friendship grew over time and I just realized that she was a hard worker. I saw a lot of things in her that I see in myself. She’s a very determined, very smart young lady. She had also been through a lot. I saw how she just prayed, and she relied on God to be her source of strength to rebuild her happiness and everything like that because she’s gone through quite a lot. I just kind of related to that. I knew what it felt like to go through some of the things that she has went through and how hard it is to just be a woman in this business and try to build your company from the ground up. That’s why I wanted to support.
Secondly, she has a great product. Anyone who is working hard and with a humble spirit and really kind of just like grateful for everything that’s happening around them, those are the type of people that I like to work with, especially if you have something that’s right. Of course, that’s like a plus. Her product is amazing. I love her hair. It’s the best hair that I’ve ever had. Most definitely, I just wanted for her, for the reasons that I stated before and then that as well.
Sierra: Will you be touring for the release of your new EP All Me?
Tiffany: Yes. We are working on an intimate tour right now. I’m really excited about it because we’re going to get out with some promoters and some sponsors and what not and hopefully get something really, really successful. Everything that I do, I just want it to be excellent. I always take my time with everything. I like to plan stuff out. I like to have something … I’ll always call myself like a mini Beyoncé. I tell myself that now. I don’t say it out loud, but I tell myself that now because that’s like a level of excellence that I want to reach. She’s very inspiring when it comes to that.
Whenever I’m recording music or planning business ventures and whatnot, I always say, “How would I want everything to be structured?” Of course, I want it to be of excellence. Sometimes, you just have to take your time with that. I think we’re ready now. We’re putting a lot of stuff together starting on the 14th at the Revival Center stage. I’m really excited about that, and I know we have a lot to come and look forward to.
Sierra: What do you want fans to take or learn from you through your new music ?
Tiffany: That I’m just a woman now. I do my thing. I have my own little space and lane. I don’t want anyone to feel like I’m trying to be like anybody else. I want them to know that this is all Tiffany. I am hands-on with my music. I write about what I’m actually going through or what I feel on the inside and what I see other people going through that might be an inspiration to me. I stay true to myself. I’m never really looking at anybody else, but I just always make sure that what I’m doing reads off well, and people get that. Just like take you back from what I said about the video, wanting people to see Tiffany, the artist for who she really is. That’s exactly what I want people to get through my music
Sierra: What is your favorite record off your EP and why ?
Tiffany: Well, I love all of them, but my favorite would have to be “T.M.I.” The reason is, is because it’s such a groovy record and I’m just like a groovy type of person because I just love groove. Even when I’m dancing, I just love groove. I love to show it real good and like I’m riding my hair blown in the wind. That’s how I would like to do it all the time. Whenever I play that record, that’s exactly what I feel like. It’s about making love, but it’s just that beat that’s under it, that 808, how I come in, my vocal performance and everything like that, I think is one of my best. It just feels really good. It just feels really, really good and I’m sure it’s a lot of people’s favorite. I get that all the time. People ask me to perform that all the time.
Sierra: How do you choose what song is going on an EP or album?
Tiffany: It’s a process. We go in the studio, and we record whatever inspires us. Whatever feels good … I normally don’t record anything that I’m not sure about. If I have to listen to it over and over, and it’s hard for me to write something to it, or it’s hard for me to fill it, to me, that’s like a red flag. Now for some people, they could go in the studio and have something that they don’t like and end up writing something to it the next day and end up liking it. That’s happened to me like one time, and that was with “Hands In The Air.” That’s a record on my EP. I hated it. I don’t even know why I wrote to it, but it ended up coming out really, really dope and I was like, “Okay. I kind of like this.”
It happened to me one time, but normally, I’m not really the type of person who writes to something that I’m not feeling, because first, I have to really feel it in order to express my emotions toward it. We go in a studio, and we go through that process and then we record like a whole bunch of records, write and record a whole bunch of records. Then after that, after we’re done with that process and the songs are mixed down, we all kind of like gather up everybody on the team and we listen to the records and we choose from there like, “Okay. This is what I like. This is dope. This feels really, really good.” It’s like a focus group. We group a focus group, and they listen to the records and everybody just kind of vote on what sounds really, really dope.
Sierra: How do you balance being a mother of two girls (Addy & Chaden), a musician, and an entrepreneur ?
Tiffany: When you say that, I almost feel like some days, I crash and burn. This is not easy at all. It’s really something that you have to train yourself to face every day. Being a mother is really a job, outside of your normal job which is a musician and entertainer and then an entrepreneur. Being a mother first is, to say the least, very, very, very challenging. I just try to take one day at a time and plan my days out. I used to be very, very bad at that where I would wake up, and I would be all over the place, and I would have this to do, have that to do. I’m just like, “Oh my God. It seems like everything that I have to do, I always end up being there late,” or whatever. The thing is, the key is really just planning your days out and making sure that you give yourself time to prepare.
If I have something to do at 10:00 am and I know that my babies wake up early, then I need to get a head start on my day. They need some cereal. They need to eat. They need to watch cartoons. I would have to wake up maybe at 7 and get them ready and make sure that I have enough time to get myself ready so that I can head out. Now, I’m going to tell you; I just started getting good at this because I’m like, I would wake up, I would get their food prepared, and I would still be late. It’s really about managing your time well and prioritizing. You have to prioritize everything. Make sure that you delete what’s not important and put in place what is important and stick to that.
It should get a little easier as time goes on. Some things, you got to be strong, and you got to push. You got to push, because still, just because you have your days planned out, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. You just have to be willing to do the work.
Sierra: What made you want to start an eyewear line? What new styles do you have in mind for the next release? Why name the line “Eye Hunee?”
Tiffany: Well, “Eye Hunee” came about in 2012. That’s when I was pregnant with my daughter, my first daughter, Adalia. At first, I wanted it to be like … I wanted to come out with t-shirts and have like different sayings on the t-shirts and whatnot, something really, really simple, but what happened was I didn’t get a change to focus on it because I was pregnant and there was a lot going on. I gave it a little bit of time. My business partner, he came to me, and he was like, “I think it’ll be dope if you do sunglasses. Your husband wears sunglasses a lot, and you look really, really dope when you wear them.” I said, “You know; that’d be really, really dope.”
We did come up with really cool designs so we teamed up with this designer. Her name is June. She’s worked with Diane von Furstenberg, BV, Michael Kors, a whole list of great fashion icons. She came up with some really dope designs, and I actually was able to give her the colors and what I wanted to see, like the shapes. I was able to do the shape of the glasses, like significant details that I wanted to see that made “Eye Hunee”, “Eye Hunee.” She kind of put it together really fast. It was pretty simple. It was not hard at all. We launched in 2014. Since then, we’ve gotten into apparel, accessories, hats and whatnot. We’re looking to do more collections, like clothing collections.
Right now, we’re also doing custom shoes as well, but I definitely want to like further the apparel line. I want to come up with more ideas for that. We are coming up with more ideas, but we want to release more items for the apparel line, and then cosmetics. I’m just really excited. We can even possibly get into food like cupcakes and whatnot, but those are just my ideas as of right now. Right now, we’re actually just working on apparel and some other stuff of sorts for sunglasses and whatnot.
It’s funny because honey is like … This is my weird little explanation of this. Honey is very, very sweet. When you see something pleasing to the eye, it could be very sweet to your eyes; it’s very attractive. When you look at it or our products, you see our products that are very, very attractive. It’s like eye honey like it’s pleasing to the eye. That’s kind of the metaphor that I’ve had for “Eye Hunee.” It’s really, really attractive. It makes you want to go and buy our products and wear some of our items and whatnot.
Sierra: It’s been eight years since “Promise Ring” was released. P.S. I love that video. Use to sing it all the time. How do you feel you have grown as an artist?
Tiffany: I’ve been in the woods, like the loving is just preparing myself for the time now, this time. I’ve gone so many different stages and trying to figure out what kind of music I want to do, how I want to dress, how I want to wear my hair, all kinds of things. Over time, I realize, it’s not really what to do, it’s just you being true to who you are and sticking through that and believing that. Eventually, I just started believing in Tiffany. It’s like, “Tiffany likes to wear all kinds of clothes.” There’s not one thing that I just like to wear, and I like to talk about all kind of things. I like to do all kind of music.
Should I really box myself in? No, but what I will do is stick to what I’m feeling in that moment. With the EP, All Me is what I’m feeling. This is where I’m at in my life, and I’m always true to that. You’ll know … I kind of like telling myself, because you kind of know what I’m going through or what I may have experience by the way that I talk or what I sing about because I always love to talk about my experience. I just let that take over, my vision for my career. I just want to make sure that I stay true to myself and be free to do and say what I want to say and talk about what I want to talk about in my music and not put a restraint on that.
When it comes to fashion and how image is, I want to … In that time, that space that I’m in, I want to be true to that and express that.
Sierra: Now you starred in Law & Order: SVU, CBS The District, and Diary of A Mad Black Woman, why have you taken a break from the movie and television scene? Do you want to do any more movies or do you prefer to focus on music ?
Tiffany: Most definitely. I love acting. I first fell in love with acting when I was a child, like down to the movies that I was talking about, The Temptations, The Frankie Lymon movie. All of those movies, it just kind of like inspired me, and I’ve always loved … I love J. Lo and Janet Jackson. I think them being able to be entertainers and then act at the same time and they were great. It wasn’t like they were corny or they shouldn’t be doing it. You really believe them to be the best, same for Whitney Houston. I just always wanted to be that kind of artist. I always wanted to be multidimensional. I wanted to have different things about me that I was able to do, and acting is one of them.
I’m definitely working with my agent right now. She’s been sending me a whole bunch of flicks and TV shows and whatnot to kind of go over. You guys will be seeing me very, very soon. I’ve been working on it, and I’m really excited because I’ve grown in that area, so I can’t wait for people to see what I’m like now on the screen.
Sierra: What was it like working with Tyler Perry and starring in a huge film at a young age ?
Tiffany: He really kind of takes what he does very seriously especially him having so many hands in what he does. He writes, and he directs, and he produces. He has to be on point, and a lot of people don’t know that he’s not only funny, He’s also very serious, and he’s a very great businessman, which is why he’s been very successful over time. He gave me my first opportunity to do a really big film and I’ve learned a lot from it. I’ve learned a lot about working off set all those hours and how you shoot. It developed my love for film and video production, which is why I started directing my own videos and trying to get into production, behind the scene stuff, because I really love what goes on. Things that people don’t see, I fell in love with. I had learned a lot on that set.
Sierra: When you are traveling and working on set, how often do your girls get to come with you ?
Tiffany: My babies. Sometimes, they are with me all the time. The thing is, is that when I’m in rehearsal, some days, they’ll come. I have a babysitter. They’re watching mommy, and they’re just kind of like in the groove of everything. Everybody is moving around and dancing and doing something productive. I love to have them around at anything. Then it helps me to just be extra, extra, extra happy because I miss them a lot when I’m not around. I’m very motherly, even when I’m working, but I just try to have them with me as much as possible.
Then there are times that I realize that they cannot go on the road with me. They cannot go out to certain places only because it’s a lot. It’s a lot for a child to be moving around a lot and go in different places and doing certain things, but I kind of have a set up where if I have to travel out of town, and it’s not too long, then I’ll be good, but if it’s something that I have to be there, most definitely coming with me and we’ll have someone watching them and taking care of them while I work. I’m a mother first. I want to make sure that I’m in my children’s life before anything. I don’t want them to say, “You know, I really didn’t go out with my mommy because she was always working and she never was really home.” I don’t want them to say that. I definitely take motherhood very, very seriously, which is why I always try to have them around.
Sierra: Why and how did you end up signing a deal with Matthew Knowles ?
Tiffany: I was already with Columbia and at that time, he was still over at Columbia as well working on Beyoncé’s project before she had parted ways. I was with him already like for ten years, and I was about eighteen years old and was just kind of ready to explore my options. I wanted to see if I should go out and get signed to other labels, just explore what might be out there for me, because I felt like at that moment, Sony had done all that they could. I just think that after a while, you kind of just be like, “You know what? Maybe we should move on and try something new,” because they had been with me since I was a child.
I just wanted something new. They ended up referring Matthew to me and saying, “I just think that this would be really, really good for you and where you’re at in your career.” Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, but I took a lot from the experience with him. He’s a very respectable businessman. He’s just very smart. I learned a lot when it came to this, which is one of the reasons why it kind of gave me the confidence to step out once my deal was over with Sony. I just said, “You know what? I’m just going to learn the business for myself and take this into my own hands and see where I want to go from there.”
I would say that that relationship that I had with Matthew triggered me to step out and see what the business was like for myself because it was about time.
Sierra: Why did you depart from Music World Entertainment and Columbia Records?
Tiffany: Yeah. I just thought it was time. I really didn’t … From the time I was ten years old to nineteen, twenty, I didn’t have … Like I knew the business and how it ran, but I didn’t know the inside business, and I wanted to know the inside of the business. I didn’t want anyone telling me who I should be or what I should say. I didn’t want anyone … Because I had been through a lot, so many different relationships, so many people coming in doing the wrong thing, not really looking out like they’re supposed to. I feel like part of that was because I was naive and I really didn’t know. I really didn’t know a lot of the business. I knew how it ran, the work that you have to put in, but nobody really took the timeout to explain to me what the true business is.
During my time with Music World and Columbia, I just felt like it was that time. I was getting older. I just turned nineteen. It was time for me to grow up and figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to approach my career, how I wanted to run my career. That’s exactly why that whole thing ended.
Sierra: What made you want to start your own independent label previously Little Lady Entertainment now Live Love Entertainment? Why the name change ?
Tiffany: Well, we still have Little Lady Enterprises, but the thing is, is that I decided to use that for like the production side of things. We’re a full service production company so if you need video, if you need editing if you need, let’s see, pictures, then we got you covered. We’d like to take projects and start in seasons from start to finish and kind of help independent artists get a start, a head start . So if you want a bio, pictures, a music video, whatever the case may be, then we can assist you with that.
The Live Love Entertainment, that’s the label. It was just something that I kind of wanted to do. Little Lady Enterprise is Live Love Entertainment, so it had the same letter and it was just easy to kind of switch over and do that. I didn’t think about it. I just said, “Live Love Entertainment was really dope if we want it to turn it into a label.” Keep Little Lady Enterprises for the production side and use Live Love Entertainment for the labels.
Sierra: Most marriages go through issues, and the world witnessed that with you and your husband Lorenzo on social media, how is your family and marriage life now ?
Tiffany: It’s beautiful, and the thing is, is that me and my husband … Everybody goes through so many different things. They just don’t talk about it. Some people are just so afraid to have their flaws exposed. We’re all human. There are things that many, many artists or just people, in general, have been through that we may not know about, the general public may not know about because some people just won’t announce them, but it doesn’t mean that they’re not going through those things. For me, I’m the type of person that will say what I need to say and … say whatever I want you to know and just let it take wings and slide because there’s nothing that anybody can say to me that’s going to hurt me.
I really have built such a tough skin and just from my childhood and all of the things that I’ve been through in my career and just in my life, nothing can really, really hurt me as far as people’s words, because sometimes like I said, people are just … They’re cowards, and they won’t admit to what they might be going through. Me and my husband, we have been growing, and I think that is the most important thing. Love, when you love anyone, it’s about choosing them every day. It’s about choosing to love them every day no matter what. You have, to be honest about what you’re in the relationship for. Is it for sex? Is it for … because you’re lusting after someone or is it really love? Because when you love someone, you’ve got to see many, many different stages of their lives.
My husband has seen many, many, many stages of my life that people don’t even know about, but he chooses to love me every day, and I choose to do the same for him. We don’t have to answer to anybody for that, no matter what we go through, but I can definitely say, we are doing damn all right.
Anybody that may want to know, we are doing great, and I think you could feel that energy over here, just with what’s been going on. It’s been awesome, and it’s a great thing when you mature. It’s a great thing when you mature, and you become better people, and you’re allowed that to take over your life.
Sierra: Now that All Me is released what’s next for Tiffany Evans?
Tiffany: Well, definitely, we’re planning a tour. It’s going to be very intimate and just something that my fans can connect with me. I can connect with my fans in different cities. We’re actually working on a new project right now. It’s premature. We wouldn’t say anything right now, but we’re working on music because I never stop working on music. I’m just always inspired by a lot of different stuff, but the tour is definitely next. I recorded this EP, and I released it, and I couldn’t promote it because I was pregnant, but now my fans, they want to see me perform these songs live. They want to connect with those songs.
I’m just excited about the performance part of it where we’ve been getting a lot of performances together, and we’re going to announce some more dates after the show which is really, really exciting. Like I said, it’s just time to start performing these songs. We actually have two more visual projects that’s going to come out on the record. One of them is “T.M.I” and another record, so I’m really, really excited about that.
Pictures By: Nathan Pearcy https://www.instagram.com/npearcypics/
