According to Solange Knowles's Instagram, her life in New Orleans is full of powdery beignets and leisurely rambles through the French Quarter on her custom-made neon-rimmed bicycle. She made the decision to move there from Brooklyn last summer, and enrolled her nine-year-old son, Julez, in a local school that fall. For the past week, Knowles has been holed up in Cajun country, a remote stretch of western Louisiana known for its black swamps and superior gumbo recipes, working on her new album. "I figure there's no better way to buckle down and finish it than to be as far away from everyone as possible, cell phone and computer behind," says the 27-year-old Houston native on the phone from the airport, en route to New York for meetings. "I'm not very good at writing songs when I have a lot of clutter in my mind."
When your older sister is Beyoncé, making your own way in the music business can be daunting. Knowles, however, has done just that, carving out a successful career in the industry—and more important, forging a strong, independent identity. By the time she was a preteen, Beyoncé's group Destiny's Child was a platinum-selling phenomenon. But "contrary to popular belief," Knowles says, her parents, the now divorced power couple Mathew and Tina Knowles, weren't eager to thrust their youngest daughter into the spotlight. "My parents constantly tried to talk me out of being an artist," she says. "They had gone through the whole journey with my sister and just wanted me to have a normal teenage life."
Nevertheless, by 13, Knowles was already singing, dancing, and frequently performing with Destiny's Child. At 16, she released her debut album, Solo Star, a collection of catchy, if run-of-the-mill, pop–R&B songs. The record failed to find an audience—or to transform her into the singular sensation that its title promised. "I still stand behind the stuff I did early on, but I was on a record label and I didn't have a lot of creative control," she says. "Another side of that is just being young and having bad taste. There was plenty of that too."
Her life took a dramatic turn at 17 when she became pregnant with Julez. She married her son's father, high school sweetheart Daniel Smith, and the couple soon moved to Moscow, Idaho, where Smith was attending college. "I was lucky with Julez," she reflects. "I was completely lost when we moved to Idaho, out in the country, and I devoted everything to him." The marriage didn't last, though, and Knowles filed for divorce in 2006. "In a lot of ways, emotionally and mentally, I feel far older than 27," she says. "Just going through a marriage and a divorce—which I essentially did by 21—will give you an insane amount of perspective on life."
After the breakup she relocated to L.A. with Julez, and recorded a more adventurous second album, Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams. Filled with eclectic R&B, Motown, and blues influences and an equally diverse crew of collaborators including Cee-Lo Green, Pharrell Williams, and Mark Ronson, the record earned nearly unanimous critical praise, and even broke the Top 10 on the Billboard 200. Its success signaled the arrival of a new, liberated Knowles. She also revamped her wardrobe. Gone were the gaudy pink ruffles and awkward fedoras of her Solo Star days, and in came a playful mix of bold prints and saturated colors, always accessorized with killer shoes and her now signature red lip. "You can pull images of me from seven to 14 years ago and I was absolutely nuts," she says. "I have always been drawn to interesting pieces and colors, but I didn't quite know how to limit myself and make those statement pieces work." That epiphany took one simple thing: having a closet of her own, which she got when Julez started school in L.A. "I had to stabilize our lives and stay in one place," she says. "It sounds silly, I know, but having space for my clothes made a huge difference. I was able to get organized, free myself of clutter, and develop a style that felt like me."
She and Julez eventually moved again, this time renting a brownstone apartment in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens neighborhood—reportedly at the recommendation of Beyoncé, who lives in Manhattan's TriBeCa. Knowles immersed herself even further in the fashion world and Brooklyn's experimental music and art scenes, befriending designers like Opening Ceremony's Carol Lim and Humberto Leon, hanging out with members of indie bands like Chairlift and Grizzly Bear, and emerging as a woman to watch in her own right. "I've always had an annoying relationship with the term 'tastemaker,' " she explains, "but it's been a defining part of my career for the past couple of years."
The recent move down South mostly had to do with Julez. "I've thought about moving to New Orleans for years but just never had the courage to do it. Now my son is at that age where he's really establishing friends and a community, so I feel like this is a good time to try it out." Knowles hasn't forsaken Brooklyn entirely, though, and still keeps an apartment there. "I consider myself a dual citizen at this point," she says, noting that between her music, her work as art director and creative consultant for Puma, and her own label (Saint Records, which she launched last November), she's been on the road a lot.
For his part, Julez has already demonstrated an affinity for music. Would Knowles let him follow in her footsteps? "It's certainly not what I have in mind for him," she says with a laugh. "I'm constantly trying to push him to work at the U.N., or be a diplomat. I try to convince him by explaining that he wouldn't have to wait in lines at the airport, and that he can park anywhere."
Knowles's relationship with her ex-husband remains more than amicable. In fact, Smith is taking care of Julez as we speak. "We co-parent really well," she says. "I'm able to say, 'I need to finish this album, can you step up and take care of the boy?' " For the past few years she's been in a steady relationship with video director Alan Ferguson. "Luckily, I dated all of the losers ages ago. My love life has been stable for a while," she says, adding wryly, "It's a fucked-up thing—without conflict it's a lot harder to write interesting songs."
Still, Knowles is enjoying the feeling of being settled. "Everyone talks about how, in your 30s, all of these growing pains transition into wisdom and you feel more self-assured and confident, but I think I had a bit of a jump-start on that at 27," she says. "For the first time in my life, I'm basing every decision around the idea of whether I want to do it or if I think it will be inspiring. And that's paid off for me."
Sister Sister! See Beyoncé: Behind the Scenes
