The War and Treaty is born out of love. Married in 2010, the husband and wife duo of Michael Trotter Jr. and Tanya Trotter were both pursuing solo careers before they decided to make their lawfully wedded union a musical one.
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Tanya, whose maiden name is Blount, garnered attention for her appearance in the 1993 film Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit. She played the character of Tanya, who sings the gospel hymn “His Eye is on the Sparrow” with Lauryn Hill. She released her debut album, Natural Thing, in 1994, which featured a pair of singles, “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” and “Through the Rain,” each landing on the BillboardAdult R&B Songs chart. In 1996, she signed to P. Diddy’s label, Bad Boy Entertainment, and recorded an album that was ultimately shelved while also writing songs for other artists on the label.
Meanwhile, after serving in the military for four years, Michael turned to music and songwriting as a form of healing when he left the Army in 2007.
All roads led them to The War and Treaty. Three years after they married, Tanya was working with her brother on a solo project that her husband had written all the songs for. When her brother couldn’t make rehearsal one day, Michael filled in for him on vocals, the two striking magic without realizing it.
“My girlfriend heard us singing together and she said, ‘Do you guys hear this?’” Tanya recalls to American Songwriter. “She said, ‘You’ve got to really consider doing this together. I love what you do apart, but when you guys sing together, it’s magic.’”
“Someone said, ‘Those ain’t sibling harmonies,’” Michael quips. “‘Those are baby-making harmonies.’”
The couple then sang at a church service where “the crowd exploded,” Tanya describes. Soon after, she discovered the now-defunct duo The Civil Wars and introduced her husband to their music, solidifying their desire to become a duo. “And the rest is history,” Tanya says.
“I think as a solo artist, we have limitations,” Michael observes. “It’s so hard as a solo artist to cover all the grounds that you want to cover. But when you partner with someone, especially someone like Tanya, I don’t feel that we have any weaknesses because where I’m weak, she’s strong, where she’s weak, I’m strong, and that is how we knew we would be a great partnership whether it be in song or in love.”
They released their debut album, Love Affair, under the name Trotter & Blount in 2016 and officially introduced themselves as The War and Treaty with the single “Hi Ho” that same year. After releasing Healing Tidein 2018 and Hearts Townin 2020, they signed with Mercury Nashville in 2022 and released their major label debut album, Lover’s Game, produced by Grammy-winning producer Dave Cobb, in March 2023.
Like Michael, songwriting has also been a source of solace for Tanya. She started writing songs at the age of 8 at the top of the oak tree in her backyard as a way to cope with her parent’s divorce.
Writing as a duo has taught them both about the art of compromising. Used to writing on his own, Michael learned how to open up his process to collaboration with his wife and other Nashville songwriters. Together, they’ve learned how to take their personal experiences and translate them into universal messages.
“It’s very goal-oriented,” Michael explains of their songwriting process. “If the goal was to write something more personal, it helps to sometimes give your thoughts to someone else to help you better craft it to become universal … the goal is not to protect your feelings—the goal is to get the best out of you.”
“I always say art imitates life,” Tanya shares. “So what we put on paper is actually what we live. So when [people] listen to the record and the songs, they’re getting a peek into what we do every day, all day.”
The husband and wife team co-wrote all but one of the tracks on Lover’s Game, which finds them sonically at the cross-section of America with their eclectic blend of soul, rock ‘n’ roll, country, gospel, and R&B. The Trotters’ razor-sharp harmonies and passionate voices shine boldly on Lover’s Game, an album that, at its core, carries a message of love not only for each other but the journey it took to reach the heights they’re soaring at now.
“It’s a story of love and the games we often find ourselves in when it comes to love. It’s just a fun time from the start,” Michael proclaims of the album, noting that the title track is “about our love for Nashville and chasing after the dream here.
“By the time you get done with the record,” he concludes, “we want to know if you have a heart for what you heard, and if so, continue the journey with us. That’s really our intention with our record.”
The War & Treaty is such a soulful country experience. I love their work.