The Conflict and Treaty: Tanya Trotter and Michael Trotter Jr.
Sophia Matinazad/Common Music Group Nashville
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Sophia Matinazad/Common Music Group Nashville
When Beyoncé received the Grammy for finest nation album in 2025, it was an indication to some that the style is perhaps changing into extra inclusive.
Michael Trotter Jr. had that thought when he and his spouse, Tanya — who carry out collectively as The Conflict and Treaty — had been nominated in the perfect new artist class in 2024.
“In these award reveals, particularly the Grammys, they provide slots to genres to symbolize,” he instructed Morning Version host Michel Martin. “Conflict and Treaty and Jelly Roll represented nation music. Neither entity is the poster little one for what a rustic artist ought to look and sound like, but we made such an influence to the place nation music needed us to symbolize them.”
The Conflict and Treaty defies the Nashville normal in additional methods than one. On their new album, Plus One, they take inspiration from gospel, rock, bluegrass, R&B — the entire album is a love letter to American music. “I grew up listening to Celia Cruz, to Leontyne Worth,” stated Tanya Trotter. “My vocabulary of music led me to getting a classical music scholarship. I may go out and in of genres that I needed to at any second. I feel that, if you are going to go the skilled route, then sure, there are obstacles, as a result of industries work with genres. However as an artist and as a inventive, you must do what you need to do.”
Michael Trotter Jr. added, “One of many best creators who ever lived was Duke Ellington. And when somebody interviewed him about him being a jazz musician, he was shortly offended. And he stated, ‘I’m not a jazz musician. I’m a musician, I’m an artist. Do not field me in.’ So I really like that.”
On their music “Can I Get an Amen?”
Michael Trotter Jr.: “Can I Get an Amen” is simply a chance to brag on how stunning and gorgeous and completely fabulous my spouse is, inside and outside. Anybody who is aware of her would agree with me. It is about love — for my household, for my nation. I speak about “canine tags swinging from my neck” — I’m a wounded struggle veteran. I served our nation in the US Military. It is only a bragging music; we get to sort of pop our collars a bit bit.
Michel Martin: As you alluded to, a part of that music alludes to your ongoing struggle towards PTSD. You served in Iraq, and the therapeutic has been a part of your music. Why is it such an necessary theme?
Michael Trotter Jr.: Effectively, the very first thing is: PTSD is one thing we cope with as a household. So I am very pleased with my spouse and our household for that. I am very pleased with my service. However there are some issues that got here with that, and there are some scars that occurred and a few bumps and bruises you get alongside the best way. I might not commerce it for something.
Tanya Trotter: With our journey, it is about therapeutic. I feel that we heal one another in numerous methods, whether or not it is by our love, whether or not it is by listening, whether or not it is by comforting one another once we have to be comforted. And we needed to increase that hand to our fan base, simply being weak and letting them know that it is okay.
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On their music “Skyscraper”
Michel Martin: It begins with these provocative lyrics: “You stated I am going to by no means be nothin’/ You stated I ain’t acquired what it takes/ Only a fats man with a fats probability/ However I do not thoughts eatin’ my piece of cake.”
Michael Trotter Jr.: Once I joined the navy, I weighed 197 kilos. Once I got here residence, I used to be near 400. That is the burden of melancholy. That is the burden of trauma. That is the burden of failing. And once I met my spouse, I instructed her I used to be a failure. I instructed her I used to be nothing. I had nothing. She circled and instructed me what she noticed in me, which prompted me to go look within the mirror and understand that I am solely finding out the burden, and it is time to let it go.
I am actually coping with myself within the first half of this music, and the remainder of the music I am coping with all of the issues we’re instructed that we want to be able to be accepted. Earlier in our careers, we had been instructed, “Hey, you bought to have this many streams and this many views.” And I am simply interested by how ugly our course of was, however we’re stunning skyscrapers now. Nobody is aware of what it took to create that lovely skyscraper you see in New York. We solely marvel on the finish outcome. We do not take note of the method as a result of it hurts, it is ugly, it is soiled. There are some scrapes and scratches and bruises and bleeding, however [in the end] there is a skyscraper, and that is what the music is about.