Late last month, Ego Ella May’s debut album Honey For Wounds made a refreshing splash with its effortless blend of neo-soul textures, jazz inflections and her unwavering vocal and lyrical dexterity. So, when the opportunity to speak with May about her debut and what makes her tick emerged, it was impossible to pass up.
What was revealed during our conversation was a young artist with wisdom beyond her years that reflects the benefits of a nurturing environment, both familially and musically. Combined with the inarguable quality of her material, it equates to a woman not just with a bright present but also a future of unlimited possibility, as befits a woman named after the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald by her jazz-loving father.
So, how has your lockdown been?
My lockdown has been really nice, I don’t think anything unusual has really happened for me in terms of how I spend my days. I’m quite introverted anyway, so I don’t really mind being inside and cracking on with stuff, so I guess that didn’t really change. I mostly missed going out to eat, but apart from that, everything else was fine! I probably wasn’t that creative, but I’m not the kind of person that creates every day anyway, so again I don’t think that was any different.
There’s been a certain pressure to use the time to create the things you’ve always imagined. “I’ve written my book while I’ve been on lockdown, why haven’t you?”—that type of thing. What has your creative process been like?
I used to feel that way when I was younger but as times gone on, it hasn’t really worked out that way for me—trying to do things that way just because others are. And now I’m aware that I can’t really force creativity and I just accept it as and when it comes.
And did lockdown influence the release schedule at all? Was Honey For Wounds always due to come out now? Was it moved forward or backwards?
We were originally going to release it in May, so we only pushed it back a month due to the huge amount of uncertainty. But by the end of that month, I felt we should just put it out there because I had been really influenced by people continuing to release music. It had really helped me during the uncertainty and brought me a lot of joy to be able to hear new music. People still need music in their lives at these times, right?
Of course. The industry as a whole has taken such a hit during these times and yet the arts, whether it be music, books, TV or film have been the things that have sustained us through these unusual times. It’s obviously had an effect in terms of things you can do to promote the album, although you've just done the COLORS session. What kinds of things have had to be jettisoned due to the ongoing situation?
Definitely gigs—that's the main thing. Especially now because it would have been festival season, so there have been a lot of gigs that have been cancelled. I’m not able then to play these songs live, which is obviously very bad. But, I mean, what can I do about it? I can try to be creative in other ways—videos and so on.
You seem quite “Zen” about it all, which is an admirable thing to be.
[Laughs] Yeah, I am a bit “Zen.” I’m not sure that’s anything to do with the music industry, but within myself I try to work on ignoring things that are outside of my control. I try to identify the things that are worth stressing about and those that I can’t do anything about it.
I suppose it can be a quite turbulent industry if you let yourself get tossed on the waves of it too.
Yeah, absolutely and I’ve been there before. I have done things that have caused me undue stress and it has done me no good whatsoever. So I decided to stop!
I’m always really interested in how people came to be in the industry. I want to ask you about your upbringing and where your love of music came from. How did music come into your life?
There was always music around my house growing up. My dad was a record collector when he was younger, so I’ve always just been a fan of music first and foremost. I was an active listener before any thoughts of playing, singing or writing came to mind.
Music touches me. It makes me cry, makes me think, cheers my spirits. I grew up listening to a lot of jazz music, gospel, ‘70s Afrobeat, but one that always sticks with me is listening to Phil Collins. He is such a good songwriter. I also listen to a lot of folk music and I think that is why I’m kind of obsessed with telling stories in my music.
I don’t remember when I actively wanted to be a musician—perhaps when I was 16 or 17? And that is when I started to write songs and it all grew from there. It was quite organic, really.
I read the interview you did with the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP) and you talked about a big change during your A-Levels when things weren’t going that well and you changed course towards music as a vocation. How did your parents take that? What was that experience like?
Well I was just doing terribly with my A-levels, like shockingly bad! [Laughs] I spoke to my dad—he is very academically minded and came to the UK when he was 24 with nothing, so he had some things to say about that! He’d always valued education so highly and the stability that comes with it because that was all he’d known. He was obviously just looking out for his child and trying to equip them for life the best he could, so I understood why he was mad when I told him! You know, choosing the instability of a musical career was the exact opposite of what he’d imagined for his children—it was a shock to him, for sure.
At the same time though, I was really doing very badly at school, so I just asked him if he’d rather see me fail at something he’d imagined for me or succeed in something that I was good at? In the end, there wasn’t really any argument to be had there, as I was doing so terribly! I also had to remember that I couldn’t live out other people’s expectations for me. I could have ended up resenting them and no-one wanted that.
It must be very satisfying to be able to show him the success that you’re having. It must be great to be able to share that with him.
Exactly. Especially now, he says “I always knew you were going to be a singer. Why do you think I named you after Ella Fitzgerald?!” Now, he is so in love with it all! It is great to be able to look at it now and say “Yeah, I did the right thing.”
I want to talk about the people you’ve collaborated with—it’s such a pedigree-filled set of artists. How did these collaborations come about?
Luckily, they are all just friends. I can just text someone and meet them at the studio to work on something. The hardest part is actually getting the songs and album done—they’re all so busy and artists in their own right. Moving from a demo to a finished product meant getting them all in the same room which was extremely difficult!
Take Joe Armon Jones, for example. Whilst we were working on “Table For One,” he went on a very long tour, then it was festival season and then he was promoting his new work. He was so busy that it took me around a year to get it finished! But being so passionate about the songs made me willing to wait.
You’ve sung very eloquently on the album about the pressures of being a woman in the music industry. Those pressures about how you should dress, how you should act and how you present yourself. How do you resist these sorts of pressures?
I’m still working on it! I guess expressing myself through music always helps because that's my way of getting through to people. Also being honest about the kinds of things I don’t want to do —even though it’s not easy. But it is so important to me. There can be a lot of pressure to present in a certain way because a lot of people may be comfortable and happy to do it, but that makes it harder for those of us that don’t want to do those things.
How about your role models? Do they play a part in how you approach the issues that plague the industry? Who are they?
Definitely Ella Fitzgerald, seeing as I’m named after her! Nina Simone is most definitely an influence and I really love Jill Scott in terms of her poetry, but I also love Lauryn Hill, especially after I saw Sister Act 2! I really wanted to be her. In fact when I was in school, we decided to act out the Sister Act 2 play and I so wanted to be Lauryn Hill’s character, but I ended up being the boy who sings “Oh Happy Day!” To this day, I’m still upset about it!
All the people you have chosen are fiercely independent and vocal about the things that affect them in life and the industry. Having people like that to look up to must play a part in how you react to certain situations and circumstances.
With those artists, what I like is that they are so honest but also that they are not always putting music out all the time. They present what is important for them to say, give the world their music and then they go away for a while and focus on other things. They were also purely about the music, they didn't care for the rest of the circus that surrounds it.
You are signed to UpperRoom that is owned and led by John Boyega. Did that play any role in signing with them because he seems, from a distance, to be a man of fierce integrity and passion. Or were there other factors at play?
For me, it just worked out. John is obviously very passionate about what he does and loves to amplify Black voices and he’s just a nice guy. The deal itself is not one that ties me down in any way, so that is a big factor also. John has been an amazing person to work with and be around.
I noticed that he amplified your album release on his personal twitter feed. How involved has he been?
We talk and we’ve seen each other a few times when I was in and around his office. He just lets me do my own thing, which is good. There was no pressure to present things regularly—he just let me take my time. There was no sense that he was trying to take over or wrestle any kind of control from me. Just do your own thing. It was very freeing!
There is other music available from you—compiled in the So Far collection—but Honey For Wounds is your debut album, so to speak. When I was listening to them both, my streaming service labeled the former as “jazz” and the latter as “neo-soul.” Do you care for either of those labels?
Not really, no! People will label it and that’s fine, but I find them very limiting. I understand the need for it, but it means nothing to me. Everybody has a different ear as well—someone might label something as alternative R&B, while others might hear it as jazz/pop. So, no, I don’t really care for any labels!
The decision as to how music gets labeled, does that come from you, management, record label or streaming platform?
It’s the record label, they choose whatever is closest to the sound that they hear. I used to be slightly bothered by it because I’d think I was this, but I was labeled as that. But actually now I find I really don’t care that much.
I am always interested in what people’s hopes and dreams are for a release but I think, from what you’ve already said, I have a pretty good idea how you approach this. Do you dare to have dreams or aims for it or do you maintain that “Zen” state of mind and “whatever will be, will be?”
Ultimately it is the “Zen” thing, but that also allows me to be surprised if things go really well! I do have goals, like any artist, and I do want my music to be heard by as many people as possible, as I’ve put in a lot of hard work to produce it. At the same time though, I’m not someone who needs to reach a certain number of streams or views or whatever. I don’t need someone to constantly praise me either. I just think my focus has been getting it out and being proud of releasing an album—I actually did it!
I guess what happens next has changed given the circumstances and the lack of festivals, but what does your cycle look like in terms of the future? How soon before you start thinking about the next thing?
Well, I’m still making music and we still have things in the pipeline for this release, which in turn gives me more time to get any demos I make into a clearer shape. I’m not really sure what the lifecycle will be, but in the meantime I’m just continuing to make music and then when new stuff is done, I’ll release it! It could be a single, an EP—the possibilities are endless, really. There is no set way to do it, which I find really freeing because you get to choose the when and where of what you do.
And what’s your process of writing? Are you somebody who sits and tinkers with a melody or do lyrics come to you first? What’s your way?
It varies, but I usually do melody first. Sometimes I’ll be free-styling and some lyrics will just come out or sometimes I really have to think about them, as I’m someone that takes a lot of care over the lyrics. I might be trying things out on a guitar or maybe seeing what a producer has come up with in the studio. It really varies from song to song, which I like because it keeps things fresh. You know, I don’t know how it’s going to go today!
Whenever we interview an artist here at Albumism, we always ask one of those questions that is either a lovely way to end the interview or just a horrible, impossible one, depending on how you look at it! What are your top five albums of all time?
Aaaaaaggggghhhhhh!
I see which camp you’re in today!
Yes! This question makes me sad! Top five? Oh my god!
I promise you I will try to capture your frustration and slight anger at being asked to answer this when I write this up!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Ok, here we go: Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions, Chet Baker’s Chet Baker Sings, Amy Winehouse’s Frank.
There’s a certain element of masochism in this question—it’s quite entertaining listening to you tear yourself apart answering this!
This is the hardest question! Ok, there’s this album by a singer called Jessica Pratt called On Your Own Love Again. And I have one more, right? I’m going to be kicking myself later this afternoon because there’ll be a million albums that come to mind that I should have included here!
Ok, I have a last one. D’Angelo’s Voodoo! That was the hardest thing I’ve had to do this year!
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