Tyla Discusses Her Debut Album And Speaks Candidly About Her Injury On Apple Music
With the release of her long-awaited, self-titled debut album, it’s all eyes on Grammy-winning South African singer-songwriter Tyla.
The past year and a couple of months have been a doozy for the star, from her winning music’s highest accolade to suffering a global tour-cancelling injury. The singer sat down with Nandi Madida to discuss her journey leading up to her maiden album on Apple Music.
Tyla Talks about the Pressures of Winning a Grammy Early in Her Career
I feel really good. Either way it’s a blessing I’ve received [a Grammy], regardless of when I did. It’s a huge achievement, a huge moment for Africa so I’m just happy I was able to be that vessel for home, and more to come for sure!
Tyla Shares Details about the Injury that Led Her to Cancel Her Tour
It was definitely a difficult decision. It was a hard one, missing Coachella, missing all these festivals that I’ve dreamed about, and opening my own tour… all of these things have been moments that I’ve been waiting for, but I’m always living by ‘everything happens for a reason’ so either way I know that I’m gonna do it, whether it be next year or the end of this year or whenever it may be. It’s gonna be bigger and even better, so I’m just trusting that God got me regardless.
Tyla Talks About How She Found Her Sound
Since ‘Getting Late’ – since I discovered that I really enjoyed mixing pop with African music – I was kind of on a mission to find the perfect blend, the sound where I feel 100% about it, so over two or three years now I’ve been working towards perfecting the sound and just trying new things. I feel like when I got to ‘Water’, it was kind of the moment where we’re getting somewhere. Wrapping up the album I just started going in more and working with these people that I call the Fantastic Four – it’s Corey [Marlon Lindsay-Keay], Sammy Sosa, Mocha and Ari [PenSmith] – and working with them, and I feel like I just hit the jackpot. I finally got to the point where I was happy.
Tyla Talks about Working with Kelvin Momo
I really wanted to start with something proudly South African, something that is raw. The song is a voice recording that I took in a Kelvin Momo session so I love that you’re hearing the song, you’re hearing people talk – you’re hearing our accents, our language – and I just wanted people to also hear the roots of my sound, because obviously I’ve experimented a lot and it’s very much different from how original piano or afrobeats is, so I just wanted people to hear a raw South African session, and then take them through what I did with it [with the album].