Music > Interviews

Eska

27/10/15

Nominated for a Mercury Prize for her debut album this year, Zimbabwean-born Eska has been collaborating with other musicians for most of her life. Why then, has it taken so long for her to create and release her own songs? What was it like working with Grace Jones and Matthew Herbert? How is she coping with being on tour and having a one year old daughter? I asked her these and other questions ahead of her gig at Norwich Arts Centre this month.

Was there a particular moment when you realised you had a special voice?

Ha! That hasn’t come yet! I don’t think I have a particularly exceptional voice. I’m always quite critical of it and am only just getting used to hearing my voice on records. It’s not out of modesty, I’m aware of technical prowess but I still feel I have to work on my tone and other things. I realised other people were picking up on my voice when I was still in school, about 14, and it was when the school gave me a scholarship to take classical voice lessons; I was the youngest person to be awarded it. I thought the music teacher was just being nice as I was the only person who bothered doing their music homework! So when they gave me solos I though they were just being nice but then I began to realise they saw something there. It really is down to keeping on doing it really.

I read that church played a big part in your early musical life. In what way?

I really enjoyed writing for the choir from my early teens and for various ensembles and vocal groups in the church. I was in a vocal group with my sister and two other girls, and I fancied myself as a bit of a Bruno out of Fame! I thought I was ever so cool! People would ask me to write a song for them. I loved writing parts and sections and getting to experiment with counterpoint. I sang in a classical choir at school, which gave me an awareness of quite a large repertoire and styles.

You’re from Zimbabwe originally and moved to London when you were two; to what extent has that heritage played a part in the music you create?

I’m not aware that it’s had a big impact on me; I didn’t grow up listening to music from that region, although I listen to it more now; having my daughter Wonder a year ago has made me really want to check out my heritage more, especially musically. I’m trying to find my connection with Zimbabwe and feel the way in is probably through music.

How has it been combining becoming a mother for the first time and releasing your debut album in the same year?

I’ve never had a work/life balance! I’ve never had a manager, but if ever I’ve needed one it would be now; I guess the right people come along at the right time. Until then, Wonder and myself continue to muddle it out together. She’s incredibly good to me, and generous, and she likes getting on with things on her own; currently she’s disassembling a little kitchen unit! I take her whenever I can; we went off on tour together round the UK earlier this year, and I’m looking forward to taking her more and further afield. I’m very fortunate that she’s a very easy-going kid.

Your first EP came out in 2013, after you’d been singing with other people for years and years. Were you nervous of what reaction there might be?

I wasn’t remotely nervous, I was more excited to finally make a statement that I was proud enough to put my name on. I was excited to see who would connect with me afterwards. People had heard me before in different contexts like hip hop or jazz, and I was interested to see what people made of what I had created. I was excited to make an artistic statement that was as honest and true that it could be. No matter what the response, it was a huge achievement and there’s a sense of pride there. So I was just super excited to say you might think I’m this or that, from past collaboration, but actually here I am.

So how come it took you so long to release your own music rather than starting out doing that?

Well I didn’t really set out to take this amount of time. I got a lot out of collaborating with other people, and did it because I wanted to learn about different music genres and find out about what I wanted. These invitations just kept coming and I never said no. I went down a particular path for too long, and it got to the point where there were more ideas in my head than I could put on someone else’s project, as ultimately it was someone else’s project! There were lots of reasons why it took me some time to release my own music, but part of it was not feeling worthy enough as an artist; I didn’t know if anyone would listen to me or pay any attention to what I was doing. I couldn’t find anyone else who looked like me or sound like me to use as an example.

Yeah I would agree with that; listening to your album I can hear certain influences in there but I would find it hard to compare your sound to anything else I’ve heard.

Well, I wanted to sound like me. It took me 18 months to write that material and I had to stop the other voices from past collaborators and producers; it took a long time ‘til I was the only person asking if it was good enough and being satisfied with what I was doing. It was a real change to have no one dictating to me what to do or telling me about my voice. I’ve learnt how to enjoy myself as a musician again, and going back to childhood to when I delighted in music making again without limitations. I’ve got a shelf of music books on Chopin, Schumann and Mozart, and you can open a piano piece and start tinkering away and you feel like you’re having a dialogue with that person who’s long gone. You can learn about that person through deciphering that music, and in many ways I feel like in making this album I was making a statement; people could have an honest conversation with me through music.

Which is the most special song on the album for you?

That would be really difficult to say…I think Boundaries is special, because it was the first time I got the chance to experiment in orchestration and record with an orchestra. I though it would be OK just to use Logik, but Matthew Herbert who I was working with said no, you’ve got to use real instruments! Partly I was worried it would be expensive and difficult, but Matthew was so encouraging and said the larger group of musicians you work with, the easier it is. It was such a thrill to hear these parts come to life with the human breath. I know it’s a cheaper process to use samples but there’s nothing like breathing. When people talk about the warmth on the record I think it they’re hearing the humanity it in. There are no samples on the record, everything was made by a human being, and it brings a different dimension to the sound. I wanted it to feel like a real performance, something that’s rare these days when we auto tune and edit the humanity out of our music. For me, when I was thinking about this record, and I was listening to music by people like Captain Beefheart, Joni Mitchell or Miles Davis and you can hear the happy accidents that have been left in there, but you don’t hear them as mistakes. It resonates with me in a strong way.

Finally, I have to ask what is was like working with Grace Jones?

Well I first met her in a London apartment and she was feeling me out and seeing if it would work. It’s funny, I guess because I didn’t SEE her as GRACE JONES THE STAR, it just felt very normal. But then six months into writing with her, the producer suggested I go and watch her perform live, which I had never done before. She happened to be playing at Hyde Park. I remember standing in the middle of the crowd and she came on and it suddenly dawned on me who I was working with! I kid you not! I stood there and I started crying! GRACE JONES! I cannot believe it! As an artist and a performer, consummate. She becomes a different, otherworldly animal on stage and I’ve tried to learn as much as I can on and off stage from her.

Eska plays at the Norwich Arts Centre on 28th November. Tickets available from ueaticketbookings.co.uk