COLORSxSTUDIOS

You were born in Barbados, but lived in the US, Singapore, and Indonesia during your childhood. How did living in these different countries influence your musical development? 

From a very young age, I understood myself in the context of the world, and didn’t feel bound by a loyalty only to my region or people. It opened my mind in a way that nothing else could have. Some of my most formative years were spent collaborating with Indonesian musicians at highschool in Jakarta. In my last year, I planned a benefit concert with a charity that supports disabled musicians. There was a language barrier, but we were still able to connect through music. Music is a force for global connection. It can unite people despite all kinds of differences.

At what point did you decide that you wanted to pursue music professionally? 

It was always in my mind. I was fixated on the idea of mastery very early on, but the idea of artistry came later. During my teens I started to dive into the work of artists whose writing was as profound as their delivery—people like Adele, Bon Iver, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone. For me, that was the turning point where I was like, “I don’t want to be known as a singer, I want to go down as an artist and musician.”

Patrice is one of the pioneers of genrelessness. She blended jazz, R&B, and funk and inspired a class of musicians from Prince to Kirk Franklin in the process. I love her generation of musicians, and the intensity with which they work at their craft. They’re never satisfied. There’s no ending point or sense of, “I’ve arrived. I’m a master.” They always want to try new things and expand.

You channel your personal experiences into your writing, addressing themes including grief, loneliness, romance, coming of age, and experiences with misogyny, and racism. It feels like you’re writing in the tradition of artists like Nina Simone, who you mentioned earlier, who also made socio-political statements with their work.

There came a point when I realized that the scope of my artistry was wider than I’d given myself credit for. After being so focused on love and heartbreak, I wanted to also write songs about my experiences as a Black woman, and use my music to change people’s perspectives.

The first time I did that was with ‘Unmoved: a black woman truth’, a single I released in June 2020 at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. I’d written it the year before for a songwriting project at USC. I was the only Black woman in a class of eight or nine, so I thought it would be interesting to try and convey the experience of being a Black woman to people who would never be able to understand it. When I performed it to the class, you could hear a pin drop. Everyone looked so overwhelmed, but in a great way. I could see people taking the song in and really hearing what I was saying.

How does this track fit into the rest of your upcoming debut album ‘ISOLA’, which is due to come out Fall 2024.

‘ISOLA’ is an exploration of loneliness on the path to personal freedom. It starts off really euphoric—we’re up in the clouds, riding high. Then it comes down into a middle section where it becomes a little funky and soulful. Then, when we turn this corner in the last stretch, it’s become sober and reflective. It’s just me with nowhere to hide. ‘Bitter in Love’ is the first track in that last section. It’s a turning point on the record.

What are your ambitions for the future?

In five years I would love to be like a worldwide name. It’s not necessarily about fame or notoriety, it’s more about impact. I want my art to make other people want to go out and make art too. I also want to push music forward and challenge stereotypes of Black women. Can what we do be considered pop music? Or are we always going to be put under an R&B umbrella?

If you could send one message to the COLORS audience right now, what would it be? 

Go through it and find yourself on the other end. When I have been brave enough to embrace my discomfort, interesting things have begun to happen. Interesting perspectives have begun to form too. So don’t run from your emotions. Honor what you’re going through.