Tinashe Covers Complex

tinashe-08-desktop-2-vn3At 22, Tinashe has already released four mixtapes of dreamy R&B, some of it self-produced and nearly all of it recorded in her bedroom; one critically acclaimed album, 2014’s ‘Aquarius’ and another, Joyride,’ on the way. But the lithe young woman with the perfect pout and keen eyes still lives at home, something interviewers like to joke about. What about boys? Where do you smoke?—that sort of thing.

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Visiting with her family, however, it seems there’s little to poke fun at. The sordid showbiz stereotypes, with taskmaster parents and their transplanted dreams inflicted on children treated more like workhorses than people—this is the opposite. Michael and Aimie are mellow and warm, the type of people who hug you after your first meeting, but not in a weird or fake way. Their children are expressive, sure of their right to speak up, like you’d expect from the progeny of college professors (Michael teaches acting at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Aimie, physical therapy at California State University, Northridge). Of the three, Thulani is the most eager to contribute. Kudzai is mostly quiet, except when he’s suddenly insightful. Tinashe checks her phone often but is never unaware of the conversation, interjecting when a memory needs correcting or a question explicitly calls for her voice. She’s jet-lagged from a trip to Dubai and is moving slow. The house is pleasantly cluttered with the accumulation of three lives moving rapidly into adulthood: baby photos, visual art, records of achievement, recordings of Christmas dance performances and piano recitals.

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In an improbable stroke of luck, Tinashe has not one but two happy families guiding her and grounding her. Her managers, Mike and Ali Nazzaro, are married and have a 2-year-old daughter whom Tinashe is godmother to. “The fact that they’re a close-knit family works so well with me and what’s important to me,” Tinashe says. “That we have similar values makes it easy. We have similar goals.”

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The chief goal is massive pop success on the scale of the artists she’s toured with: Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry. (Nazzaro imagines a grand headlining tour of her own in the near future, with “a full band, 10 dancers, and pyro.”)Joyride, featuring production from, among others, Swedish chart-topping alchemist Max Martin—who, in addition to producing multiplatinum singles for Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, and Taylor Swift, most recently helped The Weeknd move from moody, anonymous R&B to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100—is a bid for just that. But paradoxically, the stability and support that have helped her ascend so far are leading her into a lifestyle that will make it difficult to maintain the same level of comfortable closeness she has with her immediate family. Uninterrupted dinners out, privacy in their neighborhood—those days are dwindling. These are the costs of fame. She’s becoming a star, and stars often shine distant and alone.

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The notes left at the front door are just one omen. “We go out now, and a group of people will gather around her,” Aimie says. “Now I get [the appeal of] gated communities. People leave you alone.” Michael counters: “That seems like more loneliness.”

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“Everyone lives in Hidden Hills,” Tinashe says, referring to the gated community near Calabasas, Calif., the heart of Kardashian country. “It’s so cliché.” This isn’t a conversation about moving the entire family, though. Kudzai is still in high school; Thulani is in his first year at San Diego State. It would be Tinashe, living on her own. After 22 years of total support, she’d suddenly be coming home from a performance overseas to an empty house.

 

Read the whole story HERE.