Following the release of her new album Essential, the singer and multi-instrumentalist decrypts the project for Sidney Franklyn.
Sidney Franklyn: Essential is the third instalment of your ‘Pieces’ trilogy, following your two releases from last year, Possible and Drift. The album is, in your words, “about newness and discovery … about moving forward with authenticity, love, risk, grief, and gratitude into a new world”. Could you speak a little to the significance of the title?
Eki Shola: Essential represents a shift from being cocooned to emergence. Emergence with a sense of vitality and confidence in the world. While writing this album, I was experiencing a transition of no longer wanting to be in a safe cozy space but wanting to explore the unknown. I was ready to branch out physically and emotionally, and lyrics started to flow which was new to me because up until now, most of my works have been instrumental. Essential really means that the reflections I felt compelled to share were essential to my own healing and essential that they be put out into the world for others to hear, with the hope that it will stimulate new thoughts and inspire.
SF: I love Essential’s cover art; the way the sun glints through the treeline leaves me wondering whether I should feel relief for the returning to daylight or uneasy for the coming darkness. I can see how the artworks for Drift [gentle waves breaking onto shore] and Possible [the final puzzle piece hovering beside its empty slot] are more literal, but I was wondering how you decided on Essential’s artwork? Does it have anything to do with the instrumental song “Blue Light”, or is that track title a reference to Black Lives Matter advocacy you mentioned in your album’s press release (with ‘blue lights’ being the blue flashing lights of police cars)?
ES: Since losing everything in the October 2017 wildfires, I’ve really come to appreciate making do with what I have. A few months ago, iPhone in hand, I went back to our property where our house stood, and took the photo of the moon through the trees. I stood to the right of where our house once stood and realised that with the structure and most of the trees gone, gorgeous new views had materialised. So from loss you actually have gained a new perspective.
I wish it were that deep, but truthfully, I wrote that song late one night inspired and mesmerised by the blue light on my printer machine. I wrote the beginning and final songs [“Quiet” and “Pause”] in reference to Black Lives Matter as a way to provide, if you will, permission and encouragement to take time to sit and be present. The cadence of the song “Pause”, actually forces you to do that, and I found that for me, it helped to centre me and break the overwhelming sense of despair and anxiety I was experiencing.
SF: What does an “Ignorance Veil” mean to you, and how important was it to informing your overall writing process?
ES: ‘Ignorance’ just means not knowing. Once you lift the curtain, you can see. “Ignorance Veil” represented some of the inner conflict I’ve had in wanting to do good for Mother Earth but battling with my own inadequacies and hypocrisies. For every action done – even if we think it’s positive – there’ll be a reaction, and so to at least be aware of this, we can open our eyes and better evaluate the situation. My writing process became more aligned and attuned to what was going on around me in the world, and this was a change from some of the other songs that I wrote which were more internally driven.
SF: Did the tracklist unfurl organically? Or was there always a clear plan of how the album’s structure was going to turn out? Was “Quiet” always going to be the opener, and “Pause” the closer?
ES: It was organic. I haven’t pre-planned my four albums, I just create from what I’m feeling in that moment. “Quiet” and “Pause” (as I mentioned above) were added in last, as I felt compelled to bring in the emotions of BLM and the pandemic shutdown. It just felt right to open and close with meditative pieces to somewhat close the circle and hopefully leave the listener with a sense of peace.
SF: I noticed that unlike your previous two records, as well as performing all the instruments you chose to master the record yourself as well. Was this to have greater creative control over the project? Did you have any artists in mind that you were emulating in doing this?
ES: Yes. It didn’t make sense to hand over my baby to someone else to finish. The whole time I was mixing the album, I knew what it should sound and feel like sonically and there wouldn’t be a way for me to convey that in words to an engineer, so I did it myself as super scary as it felt in the beginning! I know there’s so much more to learn, but you just have to start somewhere and dive in.
I wasn’t really channeling a particular artist, however, Bonobo is one of my favorite artists. I’ve played many of his songs repeatedly, and each time I hear something new. I like that subtle element of surprise. It’s an impressive level of detail, in regard to arrangement and mixing and inspires and validates for me that with creativity, there is no right or wrong. His musical essence has been influential for me because I find his music to be so emotive, and I appreciate that.
SF: And now the trilogy is complete, what do you think waits for you next?
ES: Actually, the trilogy isn’t really complete. I just couldn’t fit all of the songs onto a CD! There’s sort of an Essential Part 2 that I’m mixing right now, but my head is spinning with other ideas and so I may have to just create album five and six simultaneously.
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After barely escaping the 2017 Sonoma County California wildfires, writing music became a healing necessity for Eki Shola, a musician and physician originally from London. In 2018 she wrote and produced a trilogy of albums (Possible, Drift, and Essential) following her 2016 debut album, Final Beginning, inspired by the passing of her mother. Possible symbolises a moment characterised by hope and a determination to not give up after losing so much; Drift represents the subsequent period of wanting to be cocooned within a movement that was comforting and healing.
Opening and closing with a rhythmic meditation, Essential evolved beyond its original intent to embrace newness and self-discovery through the power of voice. The album envelops you in instrumentals, spoken word, and lyrics that share hope and inspiration inspired by periods of contemplation among movements of climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, and Black Lives Matter advocacy. Partial proceeds to be donated to the Freedom Community Clinic serving underserved people of colour who live in the Bay Area.
Self-released on the 8th of August, Essential is available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp here.
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