Eternal’s Pop-Soul Flame Burns Down a Barrier

How’s this for rare?

First of all, interracial groups are scarce in pop music, but within this category, there are hardly any mixed female vocal groups. Narrowing it down a bit more, there have only been a handful of major female vocal groups ever to come out of the U.K. So imagine how rare an interracial British female vocal group is. . . .

Which brings us to Eternal, a pop-soul quartet featuring one white, Louise Nurding, and three blacks--Kelle Bryan and sisters Easther and Vernette Bennett. The group, ages 19 to 22, has hits both in Britain and the United States, where “Stay” made the pop Top 20. It’s the first single from the group’s new debut album, “Always & Forever,” on EMI/ERG Records.

In town recently for a TV guest spot, Nurding and Bryan, relaxing in a Hollywood restaurant before heading to rehearsal, tried to explain why you hardly see any groups like theirs.

“Singers might avoid getting in a group like this because they don’t think it would get anywhere,” Nurding explains. “They know some people don’t like to see blacks and whites in the same group and they don’t want the hassles.”

But, she adds, a group like Eternal can thrive because, when it comes to music, the majority of the fans are color blind.

“They listen to music and buy it based on what it sounds like,” she says. “With new groups like ours, people usually hear the music before they ever see the group. Do you think they’d change their opinion if they find out a group is interracial? Of course not.”

The racial aspect of the group gets much more focus in the United States, partly because of the way radio is segmented. “In England, all stations play a variety of music,” Bryan explains. “The style of the music or the color of the artist doesn’t matter. But in the U.S., radio is much more in categories. When you’re starting out like we are, if you’re black you’re played on black stations for the most part. Your color is part of the way you’re categorized.”

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The interracial factor could have been a drawback in American radio. Eternal’s soul music normally would be funneled to black stations but the presence of a white member might make some program directors shy away from the group, figuring their listeners wouldn’t like it. On the other hand, the racial makeup might broaden the group’s appeal and make pop radio acceptance--the goal of all artists--easier. This is what Eternal’s manager, Dennis Ingoldsby, had in mind.

“The record has crossed into both soul and pop markets in the U.S.,” he points out in a separate interview. “Having a white singer really helped people see the pop aspects of this group.”

A white member also erased a potential comparison he felt might limit the group. “I didn’t want people to say ‘There’s another En Vogue’ and dismiss them as a copy before they even heard them,” he says. “I wanted a group something like En Vogue but distinctive. . . .

“People will naturally ask, ‘Why is there someone white in the group?’ We get attention because of that. But Louise has a good soul voice. She’s not in the group just because she’s white.”

Isn’t there something cold and calculating about all this?

“Sure there is somewhat, but that’s the nature of the business,” the manager, who is white, replies. “It helps to have something distinctive to market. What would make this bad is if they couldn’t sing and they hated each other and they were together just to make money. But they can all sing very well and they get along very well together.”

That’s not just managerial hype. They really can sing--as well as or better than some American hit-making groups. Eternal lead vocalist Easther Bennett is exceptional, with considerable range and, due at least in part to a gospel background, remarkable emotion.

As for Ingoldsby’s claim that the four are close friends, Nurding enthusiastically confirms it. “This wouldn’t work any other way,” she says.

Nurding was the first member recruited by Ingoldsby when he formed the group three years ago in London. Next, he discovered the Bennett sisters singing in a club. Later on, Nurding brought in Bryan, who had been her classmate at a performing arts school.

Both Nurding and Bryan stressed the importance of Eternal’s chemistry. It wasn’t there at first. “Before Kelle, there was another singer, but we didn’t click with her and she didn’t click with us,” Nurding explains. “But we got Kelle and she fit in.”

They had a year before the album was recorded to get well-acquainted. “We got to know each other and got to know our roles in the group,” Bryan says. “When you don’t get along you can often hear it in the singing, or the record doesn’t even get made because of the hostilities. But with us, we were sure the chemistry was finally right.”