Part 2

As a singer, it is possible to whisper at the audience, scream at the audience, reveal deep secrets or confront them with uncomfortable truths. Tell me about the sense of freedom that singing allows you to express yourself and how you perceive and build the relation with the audience.

You know, some of the hardest songs for me to learn are ones I don’t connect to. I need some sense of relativity with a song. My next record The Call is probably the most vulnerable I can be about my experience stepping into music or deciding to grow.

I want to make music that causes people to think and sometimes I am afraid to speak up because I don’t want to offend or take up too much space with my opinions and honestly, that’s just something I have to get over. I am allowed to take up space and have opinions and also, I am allowed to change my mind.

When I’m on stage, the best way I connect with the audience is having them also do something that gets them out of their comfort zone. Especially if you’re a friend. I will find a way to bring you on stage. I will give you my shaker or tambourine. I will have you lead a song of mine you might know.

I'd love to know more about the vocal performances for The Call , please, and the qualities of your voice that you wanted to bring to the fore.  

Wow, this record. So much to say. First, I needed to find my voice. My speaking voice. My heart voice. My spiritual voice. I have always wanted to live abroad and so, in the spring of 2022 I put my things in storage and decided to start traveling the world to figure out where I wanted to live.

Along the way, I began challenging some beliefs that kept me insulated to fear and anxiety and depression. I realized that when I said yes to things I didn’t want to do for the sake of making others happy, I was miserable. I would often wonder how I continue to live let alone live in a way that would cause me to set myself on fire to keep others warm, safe, not afraid of a black girl.

My song “Other Side” is a combination of a friends of mine’s poetry / song he asked if I wanted to turn into a song for myself. I sat in a pub in Edinburgh, Scotland near a fire place with my laptop and janky headphones whispering new words and melodies.

“Sometimes I spin and spin in circles, with past deceptions in my head. This season feels a little lonely, but, I may never have this time again.”

And even as I answer these questions, I am sitting in a studio, my first time ever living alone for more than 2 months, alone listening to music. Alone working on assets for my new record. I get lonely at times and I am also befriending myself in ways I would distract from with going out or just avoiding.

I don’t believe living in isolation for too long is good for me but, this time that I have made for myself has given me the space to learn to listen to my inner voice. To find out who I really am and becoming. It’s a wild wild experience. I understand why many will never make the time.

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?

Ok, this question may lead straight to the trash. I feel like I need a day to think on this but, there’s no time so … at the end of the day, my music is all storytelling and music makes the story sound more pretty or dramatic.

That’s the other thing about this record. I wanted to create a record that feels more like a soundtrack. I was also treating this like it was my last record. In a sense, maybe it is. Maybe it’s the last time I will make music like I have in the past. My production team was amazing.

Anywho, I am a slow writer and every once in a while, when I am not over thinking, I can write a song in two hours or 15 minutes but, sometimes songs, like “The Call,” take 7 years. The lyrics didn’t really change but, I wasn’t mature enough to make the song what it is now although the demo from 7 years ago and last year, may song very close.

When I write lyrics, I will create 5, 6, 7 demos of the same song and listen over and over again. I need to hear on headphones while I walk and in a car while I drive. I can then figure out if a sentence can be just one word or if I need to elaborate. I still want the story to flow.

Ok, stepping away from this sentence because, everything I want to say is scrambled in my head.

Strain is a particularly serious issue for many vocalists. How do you take care of your voice? Are the recipes or techniques to get a damaged voice back in shape?

I am the worst. I will say, when I am in my apartment I enjoy saying absolutely nothing. I will also admit, that I am very lazy when it comes to vocal exercises.

Again, never thought I’d still be making music 10 years later.

How has technology, such as autotune or effect processing, impacted singing? Has it been a concrete influence on your own approach?

Look, sometimes a note needs to be tweaked so that the listener doesn’t get a nose bleed. Lol. I will add, I love a raw voice. I love if an artist sings a little flat here or there because the voice is also an entity and it can’t always be perfect.

I think some autotune is fine. I stand on no soapbox. I once had a friend tell me, music nowadays sounds too perfect and I would agree. I like raw voices because it’s real and with all the distractions around us, real has a way or stopping us in our tracks. I think we like it.

Again, I grew up with my mom singing throughout the house and in a church where we didn’t always have piano. The sound of joy that comes from a human is magic.

For recording engineers, the human voice remains a tricky element to capture. What are some of the favourite recordings of your own voice so far and what makes voices sound great on record and in a live setting?

Ok, how do I want to answer this. I would like to know why recording human voices are trick y… now, there are definitely people who aren’t very skilled in singing but have the money to create a whole music career. I am not going to go down that path in this answer lol

My first album, There’s A Light, was a crazy experience. It was like I was watching music happen to me. I hear myself singing and I know I was so scared and insecure.



My second record, Save Me, was me working out the kinks and just wanted to prove to myself that maybe I do have the skills to write a record.



I’ve written MANY songs between Save Me and this record, and I dunno, they’re all versions of myself in that particular time.

With this new record, The Call, I made sure I chose songs in keys that would allow me to sing in the most comfortable range, vocally, and that would leave me with space to sing really low and really high.

The element that stands out most to me when I hear my voice on certain songs is that I sound like my mom. I can literally hear my mom’s voice in my music.

Motherese may have been the origin of music, and singing is possibly the earliest form of musical expression, and culture in general. How connected is the human voice to your own sense of wellbeing, your creativity, and society as a whole?

I listen to music every day. If I am stressed, I listen to healing frequencies. If I want to shut my brain off, I will go outside and listen to the city.

Babies sing as they learn to speak. Perhaps music is the first language. We have chants for freedom, to win sports games, after a few glasses of wine. My friend and I will make up the craziest songs after a couple of drinks. It is so deeply ingrained in us that if I ever meet someone who says they don’t listen to music, my brain can’t even comprehend.

Music is powerful. It’s why there is so much corruption in the industry. It’s a language that can bring hope and love to the masses and hate and division all the same.