From frontstreetmagazine.com

KRYSTAL VOICE OF A ANGEL

The Backstreet Boys claim she has the voice of an angel, her fans say her vocal talents can blow even the toughest critics minds... But in all reality she's just a girl living out her dream. Krystal's album "Me and My Piano" is a mix of ups and downs that run in beautiful sequence defying all expectations. This album leaves you wondering what the future is for the Britney Spears and the Christina Aguileras of the world. If Krystal is a sign of whats to come, lets pray that time speeds up.

Cara: So you play a set like you just played tonight, and the audience is so receptive and they are singing your words back at you what is that like?
Krystal: : I guess the best way for me to describe it is it just really is a blessing, I mean for someone like me who really believes in the spirit of music and the power it has to change peoples lives. It’s so cool to see someone really truly connect with what I’m saying and what I’m trying to give of myself to them, they’re getting it, there’s nothing I can have more in life then that.

Cara: Where do you find the inspiration for your lyrics?
Krystal: There are a lot of different types of inspiration, I mean a lot of the things I write just come from things I’m going through at that time, the way I feel about certain things. I journal a lot and a lot of the songs came from a long journal that I write in all the time. One of my biggest inspirations for a lot of my songs is Christ because for me personally I don’t know if I would be here or be as bold as I am if it weren’t for him, I’d probably be a little scared chick curled up in a corner somewhere saying “no, I’m afraid”. With him I’m not afraid and he has inspired me to really be who he has made me to be.

Cara: Do you feel religion plays an important within your music?
Krystal: I think it has a big part of it, the biggest part of my music though is the spirit of love and the spirit of truth and the power it has and I think Christ being with me all the time just really helps me to put that out to people and I think that’s so important, that’s why I’m here. I think I’m very into faith and spirit. I think my biggest thing in life the one thing that I go by that is “be yourself” I always tell myself that all the time and part of me being me is that I want to carry that spirit to people and so rather than me saying I want people to look at me this way or that way I just want people to see me as Krystal and I really want to just be me.

Cara: Where did all this begin?
Krystal: It really began when I was four. I started traveling on the road with my family, singing when I was two years old. I probably was singing before that because my mom had me singing with her from when I was a “wee” infant very small. But once I could really sing, which was when I was two years old, she took me on the road with her and my father and we traveled in a hatchback car all over doing church services and outdoor meetings you name it we did it. When I turned three I started playing the piano and when I turned seven I really started getting deeper into everything. I’d been traveling for five years and I started to play the drums. I started to do studio work like commercials and voice-overs and things. My mother got me into that because she was doing it at the time. I also started doing a lot of theatre you know musical theater and regular theatre, man I just continued and continued to do that. I started to play the flute in junior high school, I started playing guitar about three years ago, bass guitar. I started playing organ like when I was a young person, a lot of the musical things just came from my family, my parents my grandparents are all musicians.
Three years ago my life started to make a crazy jump. I met my manager Mooky, he and I got together and had our first conversation after chilling at this concert then going back to a mutual friends house. We sat down; first time ever having met each other and our first conversation was three hours long. It was like “what I want to do is what you want to do” and we both love people and we both believe in the real power that music has, the spirit of it. So we decided it was obvious that we were supposed to be a team, so, that was a blessing… two are better than one! It was very cool to get together with him and I compare our relationship to Dave and Annie from the Eurythmics. We aren’t together, together but we sure do everything when it comes to this together. Mook had been producing for everybody from Timbaland, Ginuwine, and Nsync to the Backstreet Boys. He had worked for the boys and produced several songs for their album like “Let’s have a party” and “that’s what she said”. He felt a great relationship with the boys and he really kept up on that. So after we had approached some record labels together and everybody was so interested and everything was so great, he wanted to call Kevin. So he called Kevin on the phone and had a quick conversation with him and you know the boys have been through a lot with their own selves as artists and s we thought he would tell us what he thought, he would give us a good unbiased opinion on the situation. So he said “Kev, what do you think?” So Kev basically said, in my version…Mook please don’t make any snap decisions, it’s all good but the boys and I have been wanting to start a label and we want it to be a major label, a new major label that’s different and I think we want to start it now, and we want to do it with Krystal.
That was like really awesome, to have an artist that is one of the biggest if not the biggest artist act in the world just take me under their wing and they have always just told me to be myself. They have never tried to change me…

Cara: So you get total artistic freedom, which is something extremely scarce in the pop industry…
Krystal: Yah it is and I think its probably because the boys are artists themselves and they have always just told me “be yourself, we want you to play all your instruments, we want you to look crazy, we want you to be you, because we believe in you and we believe your going to be around”. There’s no money that could match that situation.

Cara: What do you see in the future for yourself
Krystal: Wow, there are so many things I want to do… Some things have already begun. Just being able to tour and perform every night in front of people. I’m so satisfied with just that because its something I’ve always wanted to do. I definitely look forward to what is to come in the future, someday I do want to have my own tour, and I’d love to put on my own show.
I’m supposed to do some acting in the future, I‘m supposed to be doing some stuff with “Touched By an Angel” and I’m also up for a few movies right now so maybe in the near future I’ll be popping up on the big screen. I definitely want my future to be me doing what I love…

Cara: Has there been one show that stuck out in your mind?
Krystal: The one show that has stuck out in my mind was Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. There were 70 000 people there outside and I felt like Michael Jackson! The wind was hitting me it was so great, people were screaming the moon was up, that was like something I had dreamed about coming true. The people were like Kry-stal, Kry-stal; I was like man whats going on… I’ll never forget that.

Cara: Any final comments for Montreal and our readers?
Krystal: I wish I didn’t have to leave, I’m sad I really am because I really love French culture and this place is the center of that. I have so much fun speaking in French here; it was so cool for me. I will definitely be back, I love it here it’s awesome, it’s beautiful

Cara: So you'll be back?
Krystal: : I will definitely be back, thanks you for an awesome visit here, its so beautiful and I’m sad to leave but its ok (fake sobs) BUT I’LL BE BACK… (giggles).