By Lenny Stoute

Keshia Chanté has done it. The R&B diva from Toronto has finally returned to the music landscape with an edgier pop sound, which leaves no doubt that she’s all grown up. “It’s pretty much my diary; it’s all very personal stuff,” says Chanté of her new album, Night & Day, slated for release in Spring 2011. Known for dance pop and romantic ballads, Chanté’s upcoming release is a dual disk that includes her well known signature sound, along with new organic elements that display her evolution as an artist.

“I was travelling all over New York, Miami and L.A., working with different writers and producers,” she says. “At one point, I had 100 songs, but it still didn’t feel like it was happening for me. This is the third album and I had more substantial things to say. So I came back to Toronto, assembled some musicians and a couple of writers and just let it flow.”

Fans will surely be surprised by the new material, which is clearly the product of growth and the confidence to get personal and exploratory. This time around she’s shaped an album of real life situations, underpinned by concepts that give even its most dancified moments deep emotional gravity.

For example, the song “Test Drive” speculates what it would be like if you could test-drive a relationship before getting emotionally attached. “That’d get us through the part when you first meet someone you like and all you can see is the glitter before you find out who they really are,” Chanté says. Another conceptual track is “Table Dancer,” which came to the singer during a night out in Las Vegas when she noticed how many women were dancing on tables.

It wasn’t about being sexual, she says, the women were just feeling good enough to jump on a table and let it all out. The moment resulted in an empowering track. The album covers serious topics as well. In “Dead to Me” she sings of how indifference can make you so removed from someone you once loved that they no longer have the power to hurt you.

The ever-present Drake connection can be speculated with “Dead to Me,” but Chanté denies that it’s about him. “Oh no,” she says. “Drake is very dear to me and remains a good friend. We’re steadily in touch but given our schedules, don’t actually meet up that much.” Chanté indicates the scheduling problem was part of the issue in forming a relationship with Drake when the pair started dating as 15-year-olds. “It was more like puppy love. We tried to have a relationship but the timing wasn’t the best. Plus, we were so young. It’s probably for the best we didn’t have a serious relationship back then.”

With her new album being top of mind, conversation quickly returns to her career. Aside from writing songs, she also had a hand in mapping out how the instruments on the record should sound. “It was the most hands-on album experience I’ve ever had and I loved it,” she says. “It was liberating.” She also commends her new label, Universal Music Canada, for having the faith in the self-penned material and stylistic shift to realize that there’s enough on the album to satisfy the company and her core fans.

Chanté is confident that the songs are strong enough to entice her long-time fans to come along for a more conceptual, edgier ride (something like Rihanna’s shift  in sound from “A Girl Like Me” to  “Rated R”). In Chanté’s case, it was a combination of affairs of the heart, hassles with a previous record company and just plain growing up that pushed her to a place where Night & Day was not only possible but also necessary: “I definitely had to do this album, had to get certain things off my chest,” she says. “I wrote some tunes in winter.It was all gloomy and I was in a darker place. But even when the seasons changed, I listen back to the songs and there isn’t one I would change.”

The first official single and video is “Table Dancer,” but a video for “Test Drive” will also be released virally at the same time. “It’s a singles world and I’d like to release three singles in a row, work them hard and see what comes back before I get into working the full album. We’ll see how it goes.” What’s not in doubt is the genuine excitement in the 22-year-old’s voice when she talks about busting out the new stuff live: “I’m coming out with a hot band, the lights, the dancers, the full nine. It’s gonna be awesome.”

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