Yola joins The Estelle Show today on Apple Music Hits to play some of the tracks that have inspired her journey. Yola talks about her upcoming role as Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, writing ’Stand For Myself,’ and exploring country and soul music. Listen to the full interview with Yola on Apple Music Hits here.
Yola on Acting and Playing Sister Rosetta Tharpe
“We wrapped. Went out there day before New Year’s Eve. Quarantined for 14 days. But I elected to learn the solos. I have to play the solo. A lot of the time, people like Hendrix, they would trade with themselves. Honestly, she doesn’t just trade. It’s a bleed. So much of the time she’s actually singing and soloing at the same time. And the rhythms aren’t the same. It’s really tough. It took me a year to start working on that actual physical separation in my brain. Then once I start feeling that I’m starting to be able to have different rhythms exist at the same time..then I’m starting to be able to land the solos at tempo while singing.”
Yola on Writing ‘Stand For Myself’
“I had a song in my head that was going around and driving me crazy, stopping me from sleeping. And I was like, “I need to get it out.” So I call my friend Hannah Vasan, she’s got a studio in Hackney. I wanted to meet up with her after a long time. We’re both in Boston together. And yeah, so we ended up getting this song out and it’s completely progressive. There’s no verse chorus structure. It’s just completely progressive. And I’m like, “This has got fire.” And so cut to two years later, it’s 2020, it’s a pandemic. And it feels truer than the day I wrote it. And I’m like, “This needs to be in the world now, this is the time, this is the record. This is the way that I wrap up what I’m feeling right now.”
Yola on Exploring Country & Soul Music
“So I think what happened is that I didn’t actually specifically decide country. I felt like the narrative of country got gripped onto because I’m British, and they were like, “What? You’re Black and you’re British?” And they all surprise, there are Black people in England, people. And so, yeah, I’m kind of going through this narrative of like exploring country soul music, and the connection between those genres and classic pop music, and that kind of wall of sound aesthetic. Because I think ‘River Deep Mountain High’ was more wall of sound than it was Tina’s rock sound. And so, I had … They’re the kind of areas I was exploring on the first record and the connection between what we are ostensibly called pop, and country and soul music. And the gray areas between all of that, which are myriad and super overlap.”
