Name: Lenna Bahule
Occupation: Singer, songwriter
Nationality: Mozambican
Current release: Lenna Bahule's Nadawi EP is out via Da Lata.

If you enjoyed this Lenna Bahule interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and bandcamp.



It is sometimes said that “music begins where words end.” What do you make of that? The relationship between words and music has always intrigued me. How do you see it?

So, I have a strong research into language and music that kind of comes from such perception. I come from a slightly privileged social context and education, and because of that, my relationship with local languages is tamed by the Portuguese influences. The result of that is me not speaking any local language fluently.

But living abroad, in Brazil, people used to ask me about my local language and my frustration of not knowing how to fluently speak one, took me to one of the biggest turnarounds of my career. I started a deep study into phonetic sounds of African languages and started using that as a tool to express my musical ideas. Before that, I used to get stuck with musical ideas because I didn’t have the meaningful words to evolve the songs.

But when I started actually making music using the phonetic sounds, it really opened up a whole universe of vocal textures to my music which led to what I sing today. This happened with my Debut album NÔMADE which is 80% invented words that ended up having a meaning afterwards.



Entering new worlds and escapism through music and literature have always exerted a very strong pull on me. What do you think you are drawn to most when it comes to writing?

When I write write lyrics, I try to bring flesh into the words. I try to bring a feeling of reality into the words I am using and inspire a feeling of sensitivity.

So, I bring those feelings into my body and “word-frame” it even if the words end up meaningless.

What were some of the artists and albums which inspired you early on purely on the strength of their lyrics? What moves you in the lyrics of other artists?

Brazilian music has amazing lyrics. I am definitely inspired by their music and composition and the way they bring words into the music. So, lyricists like Tiganá Santana, Flavio Tris, LG Lopes, Gilberto Gil Caetano, Milton Nascimento are iconic references for me. They have a special way of bringing landscape and context into the words that are unique.



I also appreciate a lot of the folklore music from Spain, the whole Iberian peninsula.

What kind of musical settings and situations do you think are ideal for your lyrics?

Lately I have been feeling the need to put meaningful words into my music. Mainly because, more and more, people are getting in touch with it. So there is this need from the public to know what’s being said. Also because of young people coming closer to my art.

I feel like I want to give literal information about life and existence and I am now feeling like it’s now the time.

When working on music, when do the lyrics enter the picture? Where do they come from? Do lyrics need to grow together with the music or can they emerge from a place of their own?

I think it really depends. There is no rule for that. In my understanding, music is sovereign and it tells what it needs, how and when. I have music that I’ve composed from lyrics to melody, I’ve music that I’ve composed from “wordings” to lyrics and from melody to wordings ...

So for me, the music is the one defining all. I've had situations where I have invented a word for a song to then find out it actually had a meaning in a different language and that the meaning was related to what I was trying to say. And from that I wrote a whole lyric about it in the language of the word.

“Sande Kani” is an example of that.



More generally, in how far can music take you to places with your writing you would possibly not have visited without it?

Definitely landscapes from other realms. I feel that happened with “conference of the birds,” a song that was presented to me as a jazz tune that took me to a whole other mood that I would not have reached out of my own creativity.

So when I listened to it, the lyrics just came to me like a download. Easy and flowing.

When you're writing song lyrics, do you sense or see a connection between your voice and the text? Does it need to feel and sound “good” or “right” to sing certain words? What's your perspective in this regard of singing someone else's songs versus your own?

For me, performing a song, whether it’s mine or a cover, it needs to always sound natural and organic.

So, if I have to sing a cover I study the word in my mouth and body, I dig into the meaning of the lyrics and if I have to change the beat of the arrangement to make it fit into my natural way of singing I'll do it.

Then it comes to my personal arrangement, that normally comes ready attached to my way of singing.

What is the value of song lyrics or hip hop bars outside of the music?

Lyrics are projections of reality into people’s minds. So outside of the music they can either be informative, destructive or disruptive. And when the music joins the game, it can be potentialized.

Lyrics are information. Information is liberation or imprisonment.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of poetry is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

In my life I don’t have that separation because I see creation as an intrinsic part of the human experience. Of life itself. We all are native creators. Whether it's music and art or just regular useful daily stuff.

So creativity is a flame that needs to keep being nurtured. Then it doesn't need to be conditioned to a certain lifestyle, or moment, but yes, touched and painted by it allowing ourselves to fill up those mundane moments with the same creative energy as any artistic process.



For example, my songs “Dança dos pigmeus” that came from my debut album was created while cleaning my room.