English singer-songwriter Yola appeared on the Osiris Media podcast Salute The Songbird With Maggie Rose. Yola and Rose discussed the inclusiveness of the Americana music scene, Yola’s creative process, her role in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film on Elvis Presley and more.
The podcast began with Yola talking a bit about how tackling tough issues is something she embraces as an artist. “I love isolation,” she said. “I like being alone with my own thoughts. I happily and enthusiastically navigate any one of the myriad horrors that try and enter my brain. I cuddle them close. Me and confronting issues are like besties. I love it, it’s really cathartic for me to just rake over the most agonizing coals and hopefully that then makes something nice for people to engage with.”
Yola also discussed defining herself on her own terms and how the Americana music scene afforded her the best opportunity to do that. “Part of my attraction to the Americana scene, both in the UK and America, was it seemed to be this environment that was very open to you defining yourself, more than other spaces I’d been in. And so that felt like a really ripe opportunity to define myself as a lover of a lot of genres of music, which, mercifully, Americana is an umbrella term of a lot of genres of music. So it became a happy home in a way.”
The singer-songwriters then converse about various influences before diving into Yola’s own music. Yola reveals that many of the songs on her new album, Stand For Myself, were written before her 2019 breakout album, Walk Through Fire. The conversation goes deeper into Yola’s creative process before moving on to some of the challenges of the last couple years in terms of the pandemic and struggles for equality.
Additionally, Yola and Maggie talk about the former’s role as rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film exploring the life of Elvis. This leads to a conversation about the history of rock ‘n’ roll and more.
Listen to Maggie Rose’s entire Salute The Songbird podcast with Yola below:
https://podcasts.apple.com/dk/podcast/yola/id1541169586?i=1000541247607
JamBase is a partner of Osiris Media.
