LIANNE LA HAVAS (b. August 23, 1989) Artist Biography by Andy Kellman
Lianne La Havas
arrived in the early 2010s with a mostly acoustic and hushed hybrid of
alternative folk and soul. The singer, songwriter, and guitarist was
born and raised in London, England, the daughter of a Jamaican mother
and Greek father. She was a member of the Paris Parade with Christian Pinchbeck (a future member of Elephant), but the act proved to be short-lived. La Havas eventually shifted to solo work and released Lost & Found, a four-track EP featuring a duet with Willy Mason, in October 2011. Two months later -- the same month she opened for Bon Iver during a North American tour -- it was announced that she had been nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll. Is Your Love Big Enough?, La Havas'
debut album for Warner Bros., was released in the U.K. in July 2012 and
reached number five; the U.S. release through Nonesuch followed a month
later. The set was produced almost entirely by songwriting partner Matt Hales (aka Aqualung). One major fan was Prince, who had La Havas contribute to his 2014 album Art Official Age. Around the same time, she also appeared on recordings by Alt-J and Tourist. Her second album, the bolder and more produced Blood,
followed in 2015. Informed by a trip to Jamaica but additionally
inspired by her Greek heritage, the set was preceded by the tracks
"Unstoppable" and "What You Won't Do" and was issued that July.
Among the delights of Lianne La Havas' 2012 debut Is Your Love Big Enough?
was its sense of scale. Here was a songwriter of considerable lyric
skill and pop ambition who didn't always follow the prevailing
verse/chorus/hook code — particularly the expectation that fireworks
need to arrive within the first 90 seconds, and repeat on cue 60-90
seconds later.
That shifting approach to
scale made La Havas' debut wonderfully refreshing — it became the U.K.
iTunes Album of the Year and brought her to the attention of Prince, with whom she collaborated on his Art Official Age.
But as a career direction for an artist with commercial aspirations, it
was probably doomed — too subtle, too drifty, not enough big-box-store
singalongs.
So here comes Blood, and right away, with
the breezy "Unstoppable," La Havas sounds like she's gone over to the
hits-at-any-price team. It's got all the easy middlebrow charm of an Al Jarreau
record from the '90s, except with drop-dead riveting vocal
elaborations. Happily, they're plentiful enough to essentially erase the
generic melody. Also happily, that opener turns out to be the only
moment on the record that feels contrived. From there La Havas manages
to graft the wide dynamic range (and abrupt shifts in texture) of her
first effort onto tunes that inch closer to mainstream pop.
Sometimes that means her music follows a tighter
structural script. A few of these songs, like the confessional
"Midnight" and "Never Get Enough," flip rapidly between hushed rubato
meditations and more fervent, hard-kicking refrains.
Others
hunker down in a single mood and tempo, but that doesn't mean they're
simplistic. "Wonderful" is a bracingly genuine lament about a failed
romance, made poignant by an uncluttered arrangement that gives La Havas
room to brood. "What You Don't Do," which repurposes the cheery shuffle
groove blazed first by Sly Stone on "Hot Fun In the Summertime," finds
La Havas savoring a relationship that's grown so strong it no longer
needs to be affirmed in sweet-nothing words. "I know you love me, I
don't need proof," she shouts — and her voice is so darned blissed that
when she later proclaims "I've forgotten how to be blue," you believe
her.
Here, the sweep and intensity of the song is controlled,
almost completely, by La Havas' phrasing. As that ageless groove rolls
along, she commands a variety of devices — from little tossed-off shrugs
to choppy Chaka Khan syncopations to imploring shouts with traces of Whitney Houston
in them — to change the weather. It's pure pop, and the kind of
stunning, kinetic performance we rarely hear on the radio these days.
That song is one example of the more rhythmically assertive material La Havas offers on Blood.
She began work on this record while visiting family in Jamaica, and has
said that in nearly every case, a single rhythmic phrase served as the
trigger or guiding idea. She engaged many top shelf collaborators for
the project, including dancehall producer Stephen McGregor, Adele
co-writer Paul Epworth and producer Mark Batson. All of them seize upon
and work to magnify the dramatic contrasts that La Havas leans on in her
writing. Perhaps the most vivid example arrives late in the record, on a
song called "Never Get Enough" co-written with Batson. It's another
affirmation of a lover, and though it starts out all sleek, in a
seafaring Sade
mood, it goes much stormier when La Havas begins shouting, as if
through a bullhorn. She's all the way in it, doesn't seem to care if she
sounds unhinged. Her sudden unhingedness might be the point.
These
sometimes jarring transitions lend unexpected dimension to La Havas'
writing — they make the songs, which survey romantic relationships in
various states of messiness, feel epic even though most just last around
four minutes. It's unusual to encounter such roller-coastering mood
swings — the becalmed poise of Minnie Ripperton giving way to the fulminating power of Nina Simone
— in this realm, where digital perfection is the norm and the peaks and
spikes get smoothed over. It's even more unusual to hear a singer so
confident in her ability to bring the extremes (particularly the quiet
ones) across so vividly.
From her lilting accent to what she calls an "all day long" tea habit, folk-soul singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas is London to the core. But her gorgeous second LP, Blood
(July 31, Warner Bros.), is a global affair, inspired in part by the
25-year-old's international travels and background. La Havas breaks down
the many places and spaces behind the album.
"My mom is Jamaican, and I
went with her to stay with an old cousin. I was so emotional. I saw my
great-grandmother's house, my granddad, an uncle I'd never met before.
It helped me understand who I really am in a different way than I ever
have. I got the chance to work with [producer] Stephen McGregor [Mavado, Elephant Man] in Kingston, which is like hallowed ground. Now, when my family calls Jamaica 'home,' I know what they're saying."
Getty Images
Busy Shibuya Crossing in evening
Tokyo
"The song
'Tokyo' is about the loneliness you feel when you're going from place
to place. Tokyo seemed like the best place to discuss that: It's such a
bustling city, but you can feel so alone there. The movie Lost in Translation is about that -- it was in our minds when we were writing."
"New York is a great
place for me to write. It's like a movie set -- it feels so familiar
because of films and videos. It's like you've already been there, but
it's even bigger and better than what you heard about it."
Getty Images
The Acropolis of Athens
Greece
"My father is from Greece.
I was 8 when I last went, but it's still really fresh. We went to see
the Acropolis, for example, and the crumbling -- I remember it vividly.
In the song 'Green and Gold' I use the lyric 'ancient stone' to
represent Greece and my father, who was a stone mason. I'm so proud
they're my parents -- that's why I called the album Blood. I have this rich cultural past to feast on."
Listen to Blood, and more music from this week's issue, in the Spotify playlist below:
https://www.facebook.com/The-Panopticon-Review-342702882479366/ March 22, 2015 All, First, full Disclosure: I’m a "toreup from the floorup" Lianne FANATIC and have been since she first came floating out of nowhere 3 years ago (she’s only 26 now). I mean DAMN, where are all these endlessly badass black women singers and musicians pouring out of Great Britain/UK/England these daze (e.g. Lianne. Laura Mvula, Beverly Knight, Emeli Sande, Caron Wheeler, Mica Paris, Shara Nelson, Estelle, etc. etc. etc.) COMING FROM? What’s in the water on that tiny coldass island over there ‘cause clearly whatever it is these incredible sisters have been DROWNING in it. Enjoy this beautiful young genius and her amazing songs…and pass the word…
In 2012, my kids introduced me to Lianne La Havas' debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough?One play and I was hooked; I've been a fan ever since. Her music works for any activity, any emotion.
The
first time I saw La Havas live, I was unprepared for the experience:
Her music touched my heart in a way I'd never experienced before. I
cried through the entire performance. Her music was that powerful, with
lyrics woven together with beautiful harmonies; it pulled emotions out
of me I didn't even know existed.
La Havas is soulful yet playful, raw and vulnerable in a commanding kind of way, and her new second album, Blood, is
as amazing as the first. In this Tiny Desk performance, she plays two
new songs — "What You Don't Do" and "Unstoppable" — as well as "Forget,"
from her first album. She and her talented collaborators, James Wyatt
on piano and Frida Mariama Touray on backing vocals, rehearsed this
special arrangement during the sound check just moments before the
performance. It's wonderfully intimate, with just guitar accompanied by
vocals that embellish without getting in the way. If you're like me, you
will never get enough.
Producers: Suraya Mohomed, Morgan Walker; Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin; Videographers: Morgan Walker, Nick Michael, Julia Reihs; Production Assistant: Kate Drozynski; photo by Jun Tsuboike/NPR
For more Tiny Desk Concerts, subscribe to our podcast.
A real star: Lianne La Havas releases second album Blood this summer (Photo: Rebecca Reid) Rebecca Reid
The photographer and I are waiting for Lianne La
Havas in a Primrose Hill pub, tapping our toes, having a fruit juice.
“Oh. My. God,” she says as the singer
finally becomes visible, tottering down the far end of the street in
vivid red all over, in the kind of heels you need a Masters degree in
structural engineering to handle. Here comes a real star.
“I
probably would be wearing this anyway, to be honest,” she says of her
eye-popping ensemble. The 25-year-old from Streatham isn’t a household
name just yet but a second album
coming out this summer ought to send her the way of her old mate Paloma
Faith — towards near-permanent occupancy of the top end of the charts
and, all being well and the reappearance of Adele notwithstanding,
towards next year’s Best Female award at the BRITs.
“I hope so!” she exclaims as I outline why Blood, coming at the end
of July, should be very big indeed. Her debut, Is Your Love Big Enough?,
was a classy, edgy slice of modern soul that was Mercury- nominated in
2012. It was clever and impressive but with a slight air of despair to
its tales of a broken relationship with an older man. This time she
sounds happy and inspired on the comeback single, Unstoppable. Its
swirling strings and rich piano chords were produced by Paul Epworth,
who has also done great work with Adele and Florence + the Machine. Even
better, there’s What You Don’t Do, an instantly hummable relative of
Sly & the Family Stone’s Hot Fun in the Summertime that seems to
emanate warmth. It sounds like a hit to come.
“I’ve been really appreciating how life is for me at the moment,” she
says as she meanders around a quinoa salad. “I wanted to express being
on a nice journey.” It does sound nice. We’re meeting in Primrose Hill
because she’s just moved to a flat around the corner, having previously
been in rather less leafy Leyton. Early last year she experienced a
strange flash of proper fame when Prince announced his series of
intimate, short- notice gigs around London — from a press conference in her living room.
She’s plainly sick to death of talking about this, and me bringing it
up prompts a rare show of mild tetchiness in an otherwise pleasant
hour. I expect everybody she ever meets, not just journalists, says
“What’s Prince like?” within about 30 seconds of saying hello.
“I don’t wanna be, like, rude about it but I feel people know I think
he’s a nice guy,” she sighs. She sang on his recent album, Art Official
Age, and performed with him on Saturday Night Live last autumn but he
isn’t on her album so there’s nothing new to report. “It’s not like our
friendship is over. He’s really encouraging. I mean, he’s amazing, and
he’s one of the best musicians who ever lived, so I’m very proud, but
I’m also proud of all my other friends. He just happens to be Prince.” Subject closed. The real inspiration for her new music was a trip to
Jamaica to discover her roots, taken with her mum in late 2013 after
she’d finished touring for her first album. Her mum is Jamaican, her
father is Greek. She went to Athens with him as an eight-year-old but,
amazingly, had never been to Jamaica.
(Photo: Rebecca Reid)
“My
grandad always said, ‘I’ll take you when you’re nine,’ ‘I’ll take you
when you’re 11,’ ‘I’ll take you when you’re 14,’ and never got round to
it,” she says. She was mostly raised by her Jamaican grandparents, who
lived around the corner, while her mum worked as a postlady. Her parents
split when she was just two but her dad was around as well. When she
got to Christiana, in the centre of the island, she discovered relatives
she never knew she had.
“I grew up feeling like a Londoner but then I had this other thing.
When I went to Jamaica, I immediately felt connected. It was familiar
but also like nothing I’d ever seen. Incredible countryside, everyone
has animals and grows their own food. I absolutely loved it, relished
it. It was more emotional than I expected.”
She went back again, to Kingston, in a work capacity. She did some
recording with Stephen McGregor, the producer son of reggae veteran
Freddie. She didn’t make a reggae song — that would be too obvious — but
the gentle nostalgia of Green & Gold is a beautiful exploration of
her family history.
“It felt like family,” she says of working with McGregor. “The
Jamaican people have a way about them, I guess. We had this
understanding, and a musical connection, which I think led to the easy
feeling of the music. There’s a summery feel to it I associate with
being in Jamaica.” It’s another layer to an expansive sound that defies easy
categorisation. She dislikes being called a soul singer. “I’m a singer.
It annoys me, being described as ‘soul’ based on what you look like.”
She plays guitar on stage and is more of an indie kid than you might
think. In the past she has sung a duet with US folk singer Willy Mason and
covered Radiohead at Glastonbury. One of her all-time favourite albums
is Kings of Leon’s Aha Shake Heartbreak. She wanted to work with Epworth
not because of Adele but because of his early production work with
Maximo Park and The Futureheads. She’s come a long way since she had a job as Paloma Faith’s backing
singer. “We don’t see each other very often but when we do it’s a big
hoot. I haven’t had a chance to talk to her about what it’s like to do a
second album.” She should while she can, because Lianne La Havas,
superstar in waiting, is about to be in real demand.
British singer-songwriter Lianne La Havas talks with
the same effervescence and graceful ease found in the songs on “Blood,”
her delightfully assured second record released last summer. There’s not
a hint of the typical pop-star false humility and self promotion when
she speaks, so when she claims to be shocked about her first Grammy
nomination for “Blood,” it feels wholly genuine.
“I was and still
am completely, honestly over the moon just to be acknowledged,” the
26-year-old, who plays a sold-out show at Berklee’s Cafe 939 on Tuesday,
says with an impossibly charming British accent, via phone from her
London home. “It’s so wonderful to know that people are paying attention
and the record is recognized in a world saturated by so many types of
music.” In the ever bemusing world of the Grammy Awards (to be presented Feb.
15), the diverse, pure-pop “Blood” is nominated in the nebulous best
urban contemporary album category. If La Havas’s music is urban, then
Adele’s is dubstep. Let’s give the Grammy voters plenty of latitude and
assume they consider the breezy, melodic songs of her second record
“urban” because she lives in a big city.
“I actually didn’t even
know what ‘urban’ meant,” La Havas adds, laughing slightly. “Whatever
category it is, it’s a step forward for an artist like me. One of the
most important things when I make music is I don’t want to be confined
to boundaries and genres. I recognize calling it urban does insinuate my
racial origin, but the recognition validates what I’m doing and it
inspires me to continue to try and find the purest version of my sound,
so it defies any type of racial stereotyping. My goal is to make the
best music I can and however everyone else categorizes it that’s fine.”
“Blood” is an artistic step forward for the musician born Lianne
Barnes to a Jamaican mother and Greek father. “Is Your Love Big
Enough?,” her critically acclaimed 2012 debut, was an acoustic-based
singer-songwriter album consumed with relationships gone awry and
betrayal. It was an often startlingly honest record filled with doubt
and pain. By contrast, her second effort has a bigger sound with a sunnier
feel, assertive rhythms, and a more nuanced understanding of love. The
singer is pragmatic about her growth. “I knew I needed to make a
different record and honestly, I grew up a little bit, so there were new
subjects and perspectives for me to write about. I’m still the same
person with the same integrity, but you learn more about yourself as
your life changes.” She cites a different reason for the obvious
musical development, though. “Between records I reconnected with my
Jamaican family on my mother’s side. On the trip I experienced a lot of
things that made a profound impact on me. I absorbed elements of the
culture and life while learning a lot about melody and beats.” Already, La Havas has emerged as a poised and powerful young singer
who refuses to resort to cheap gymnastics or formulaic conventions.
She’s not professionally trained, though, and didn’t take music
seriously until her late teens. “I sang in the choir at school,
and friends and family were always encouraging me to sing, but I was
always very shy,” she recalls. “I was 18 when I started playing guitar
and wrote a song. That led to another song and then another — I knew
then that was what I wanted to do. I found a manager and music lawyer on
Myspace and it’s been a gradual process since then.”
She pauses,
contemplating the alternative. “I could never do a different job. I was
always interested in art, but I took some art classes in school and just
didn’t want to be taught how to draw. Luckily, I found happiness
elsewhere.” She’s found unanticipated guidance, too. It’s no
secret that one of La Havas’s biggest fans is Prince, who sought her out
after hearing her music, ultimately leading to her dynamic appearance
on his album “Art Official Age.” She says his influence has been
profound. “I’ve learned so much from him, most especially to not
be afraid to not like something and to always follow your vision.
Basically, he’s the boss and if he doesn’t like it, it doesn’t happen.
He has a way of doing things that I admire and respect,” she says her
voice perking up. “Working with him — and at first it all seemed
slightly surreal to me — has changed my perspective on how to approach
my music and career.”
Interview: Lianne La Havas on Her Next Album, GRAMMY Nod and Solo Tour
"I
feel really a great sense of freedom being able to play my songs alone,
because I only have myself to rely on," says the English
singer-songwriter, who's stripping down her work for intimate
guitar-and-mic gigs
Lianne La Havas drastically expanded her musical world for her second album, 2015's Blood:She recorded in Jamaica, worked with Paul Epworth (Adele, Paul McCartney, U2),
dropped the
mesmerically ornate "Unstoppable" as her first single and toured with a
robust band of multi-instrumentalists. Now the 26-year-old Londoner is
doing a
limited run of American solo performances—just her and her guitar, sporting the sound that
characterized much of her luminous 2012 debut Is Your Love Big Enough?
Before La Havas' Brooklyn performance tonight (Feb. 5), she
spoke to Fuse about Blood getting a GRAMMYnomination for Best Urban
Contemporary Album, the very different direction she'll take for the new record
she's now writing, plus eating at Cracker Barrel as a vegan.
Fuse: Can we start
with the GRAMMY nod? You're in the same category as The Weeknd, Miguel,
The Internet and Kehlani.
Lianne La Havas:
It's amazing. It's completely amazing. I can't believe I'm nominated for a
GRAMMY. That just makes all of my worries about anything I've ever worried
about completely go away.
That's a strong
reaction.
I'm very, very proud. I'm so honored to be able to go there
and represent the U.K. as well, and just be able to say that my whole album was
acknowledged for a GRAMMY potentially. I feel like I've already achieved a
great amount just by being nominated.
How has the solo tour been so far? Tonight's your fourth show.
It's
been absolutely amazing. I'm so glad I did it. I'm not
even halfway through yet, but it's so—it's just been so brilliant. All
the
crowds have been so gorgeous and lovely and supportive. I feel really a
great
sense of freedom being able to play my songs alone, because I only have
myself
to rely on. And initially I was a little bit daunted by that fact, but
having
done it now, I really feel a great sense of newfound confidence in the
whole
thing. And I would do it again and again. It's where I came from, just
playing on my own, writing songs on my own—I love it. There's a lot to
be said for
playing guitar and singing.
Honestly, terrified. It's not like I've never played solo
before, but after a whole year of feeling like I needed a band in order to interpret my new album, I was
understandably a bit like, "Oh no, what if nobody likes it?" I had
the fear. But then as soon as I got onstage, I felt completely at home and I
realized this is what I do, and I love what I do, and it's just making me love
it even more. So: before stage, terrified, after stage, very excited and very
proud.
Not that fear is always logical, but it doesn't seem likely that people are going to hate
seeing one of their favorite artists playing solo in a small venue.
[Laughs] Well, you know, I didn't think of it that way.
'Cause a lot of my audience seems to be also musicians and they're all very
creative people. There's maybe a certain element of...I want to please them, and
I know they've got probably very high standards, as I do myself.
How do you rate
yourself as a guitarist? Your arrangements and playing are really complex.
Well that's very kind of you, thank you very much. Yeah,
it's something I'm always trying to get better at. I love the guitar and I love
the amount of possibilities that it offers you for having your own style and
your own voice. It's such a phenomenon, the guitar, 'cause you can do so much
on it. But I don't know, I still feel like I've got lots of ground to cover. I've
only just scratched the surface, really, even though I've been playing for
about eight years, it's still like it's just the beginning. And I also started
pretty late and I've never had a proper guitar lesson, so I would love to
actually see what that's like. I don't feel by any means a professional but I
would call myself a guitarist for sure.
So you still push yourself to learn, to stretch?
Yeah, I have to. Can I be honest with you? There are some songs on the
album that, because I had a band, I never had to learn. For example,
"Green & Gold"—I could've done [that song], but my diary was
ridiculous last year, so I had literally no time to even sit down and
play the songs alone, until before this tour. I said, Look, if I'm gonna
do this, I'm gonna have to do all these songs I've never played. So I
just pushed myself and I'm so glad I did. I know it sounds silly, 'cause
I wrote them, but I've never actually sat down and played and sung
certain songs in one go. I was panicking, obviously, but then I did it
and I was like, "Oh yeah, it's fine, I can play guitar, it's fine."
What's your favorite place Blood has taken you?
Probably
to the GRAMMYs. It's been a highlight of my life, to be honest, this
whole situation. But also, I was able to play one of my dream, dream,
all-time favorite venues, which was Brixton Academy in London, just
before Christmas. I have always wanted to play there ever since I went
to see gigs there, ever since I was growing up and and hearing about it.
I'm from South London, from near Brixton, so it was kinda like a
homecoming when I went back there. I couldn't believe that was all my
audience. That was a big, big moment in my life after releasing Blood.
Watch Fuse and Lianne La Havas' 2015 conversation about the making of Blood:
What's a song from Blood that's stuck with you more than you might have expected?
One that I really love to perform is
"Unstoppable." And having been on this solo tour, that one seems to
feel different to the others. Because it has the most instrumentation of all
the songs on the album, doing this one alone just gives it a whole new life. It's
the one that I go back to, yeah.
Is there an older song
you never get sick of, one you could play every night?
"No Room for Doubt." I'll always love that song
because of where I was when I wrote it. It was my first single and it was the
first time I felt like I deserved to
have a single out. I felt really proud of it. So whenever I play it, I get that
feeling again.
Where were you when
you wrote it?
I was in New York City. I was actually in Brooklyn, in an
apartment, in an Airbnb, and I recorded it there with Willy Mason and wrote it
there with him. It just reminds me of a lovely time. It was a very hot summer,
I remember, in 2011. And that song happened, and I remember thinking, Right, I guess I'm gonna be a singer then. I
always get that feeling.
Just
before getting on the phone, you tweeted that you have great stuff coming this year
and that you can't say what it is.
Yes. Not yet. But I will tell you, obviously, but I just
can't tell you yet. I don't wanna get in trouble. But, yeah...that's all. I
can't say.
Can you say how you feel
about it without saying what it is?
I'm very excited about it. Very excited about a couple of
things. That's what I'll say.
You
only have two albums so far, so it's always exciting to find you've
guested on someone else's song. Are you planning more collaborations?
I'm
very open-minded in the studio and I love to try and get the most out
of any creative collaboration. And it's definitely something I'll be
doing a lot more of this year, because I'm starting work on my new album
immediately. You can expect some collaborations of some kind, whether
it's for me or for them or just something for everyone, there's gonna be
a lot more of that. I like having my brain expanded by other people's
ideas, and I like potentially expanding someone else's brain with my
ideas.
You're starting on the next record now?
Yes. Exactly. I'm hoping to have it all written, at least
written, by the end of the year, and then hopefully have something to
release next year. I've got a little bit more breathing space this year
and I'm just planning it so I've got adequate time to be creative but
also adequate time to play shows and festivals and do all that fun
stuff, as well as all the fun stuff in the studio. That's what this year
is about for me.
Photo: John-Paul Pietrus
That's fast. Last
time you had a three-year gap.
Yeah. No, I know, I know. But I just didn't want to hang
around, you know? I don't see any point in wasting any time. I want to use all my
time for the better.
What are you going
for with this one? I want it to be a pure, the purest representation of who I am so far. Just something that is
completely untainted by any outside interference. I feel like it really needs
to come from me this time. Not that it doesn't, but...the process of making the
last album was fun, but I don't think I wanna do it that way again. I wanna
keep it a little bit more contained and just show who I am, who I'm becoming as
a musician, as a producer and as a songwriter.
Going back to Twitter
again here, sorry— That's okay, I tweet a lot.
I ordered the sweet potato with steamed broccoli on the side
and salad. You just basically have to order all the sides at Cracker Barrel,
and that's how you do it.
Did you get anything
from the shop?
Uh, yes I did, I got one of those crazy peg games. I don't
know what it's called—but you know, with the triangle and the pegs.
The one that's on the
table when you eat. Yes, exactly [laughs]. I thought that would be a cool
souvenir to remember my time at Cracker Barrel, in the depths of America.
You're sure you didn't just swipe it
from the table? No, I bought it. I got a brand new one. Still in the
plastic. It's for the long drives. And I will
crack it.
We waited three years for Lianne La Havas to follow up her iridescent debut, Is Your Love Big Enough?, and our patience has been rewarded something like a million times over. Blood is
powerful in its songwriting and production, perfect in its conveyance
of everything that makes Lianne La Havas a total original. The
25-year-old Brit spoke to Fuse about getting her parents to dance to Blood, why the title isn't a horror thing, her Alabama Shakes adoration and the aftermath of becoming buddies with Prince. Here's our complete conversation; you can watch video clips here and below.
Does it seem like ages between Is Your Love Big Enough? and this one?
To me, it doesn't really feel like a long time, because I've been so busy touring. But I'm aware it has been three years [laughs] since the first album came out.
A lot of times there's a pressure to get the second one out right away, and it ends up sounding like Album 1.5. But Blood feels like you were looking at the bigger picture and spending time making a completely different piece of work.
Yeah,
the process was completely different with making it. Whereas with the
first album, I spent a lot of time on my own and just kind of playing
guitar to myself until I was ready to share it with my producer, and
then we'd make songs together but it was never really more than, you
know, me and him. The second album, we did a lot of...well, I did a lot
of exploration, I met lots of producers, and it was very lovely to work
with the ones that I did work with, because they're amazing, and I've
been a fan of a lot of their work growing up. For example, Mark Batson, I
worked with, and he notably did India.Arie's first album, which I
loved. And I worked with Paul Epworth, you probably know loads of stuff
that he's done.
And you went to Jamaica.
That
was kind of a big portion of the album becoming what it was, my trip to
Jamaica with my mother, who is of Jamaican descent. My father is Greek,
so I went to Greece as a child. So I went with my mom to Jamaica and
met a producer while we we there. I thought it would be a great
opportunity to make music in Jamaica; his name's Stephen McGregor, and
his dad's called Freddie McGregor, who's a reggae artist. But I was just
immersed in music, and basically every experience after that, it felt
like I knew what I wanted from it and how to get what I wanted and how
to recognize the feeling that I wanted the music to give me when I was
making it. So it turned it up to just a completely different entity.
How long after that trip did you turn in the record?
Um, it was about a year from the beginning of the process. I finally delivered it a couple months ago.
Do
you have a sense of what your family in Jamaica and what your mom felt
about you being so inspired by the trip and making music there? "Green & Gold" is pretty nakedly about Jamaica.
Funnily
enough with "Green & Gold," though, it was written here in New
York, off the back of a second trip to Jamaica. But it was a huge...that
kind of connection with my heritage and discovery of long-lost
relatives was a huge portion of why I called the album Blood. So
it's not violent. My mother and I didn't really know how moving it
would all be when we went on the trip, and when we came back we were
closer than we've ever been. It got me thinking not only about my
Jamaican family but then equally about my Greek family, and also just
growing up in London and being neither of those things but only those
things. So, I dunno, I just thought loads and loads about it. My cousin
had a baby, so I was thinking about that. I'm also at an age where my
grandparents are getting older; you can see that they're like old people
now. Everything suddenly had new importance when I got home from
Jamaica. But regarding the song "Green & Gold," my mom and dad have
heard it, and basically I just wanted them to like it, because it is
about them, and they're very proud and they totally get it, which is
great.
Were you nervous to show them?
No, I was excited. I was, um...my mom is quite a tough critic [laughs],
whereas my dad's quite like, "Yeah, I love this, it's so good, it's so
good." He still has very specific taste, but with my mom it's even more
specific in a way, so I thought if she liked it, everything would be
fine, and if my dad can dance to it, everything is fine. Both things
happened.
"Unstoppable"
is this layered, big album-opener sort of song; I'd never expect it as
the single, but it actually does that job so well.
"Unstoppable"
was actually one of the later songs I wrote for the album, and so it
still kind of feels new to me. I'm absolutely thrilled that it's the
first single, and I love the song—there's not one that I don't love, and
if there was, it wouldn't be on the album. "Unstoppable" shows a
different side of what I do, and it shows a side that I didn't know I
had until I recorded it. That was with Paul Epworth, and it was a real
experience to work with him, he's such an amazing guy that...I dunno, it
didn't real feel like we were working. But then this song suddenly
existed.
Did it happen often, making this, that you made something you had no idea would be on a Lianne La Havas record beforehand?
The
whole album, basically, I didn't expect to be like it was—but I
actually can't imagine it being any other way now. It's just...it was
there, it was there somewhere, it just needed to come out, so it now
has. It makes me excited now for the third album, like what in the hell
I'm gonna do.
Are you thinking about what your music's
going to sound like five albums in, eight albums in, and how many
different things you'll try? Or is that way too far ahead?
No,
I think about the future a lot. I've gotten into planning lately, and I
like to have everything organized. I was thinking very seriously about
this as a career, obviously, but having done this second album, it's
cemented the idea that I'm going to do this for the rest of my life. So I
am thinking about all the things I want to say and all the sounds I
want to make, and it's great having the opportunity. It's like having
something to look forward to.
You were still just kind of weighing this out as a career not that long ago?
[Laughs] When
I say it's what I want to do, it's just because there's loads of other
stuff I feel like I wanna do, but I actually really...this is the thing
that brings me the most happiness. I thought that before with the first
album, but then I made the second one and it was a whole new level of
happiness that it brought me, which meant I'm serious now.
What else do you do aside from music? I think I read you wanted to be an art teacher at one point?
I
did used to want to be an art teacher, because I wanted to be involved
in the creative industries. But I also wanted a sort of practical way of
making a living as well, so I thought if I was a teacher, that would be
a good job to have, and if I was an art teacher I could be really
creative. I did start art college, but my life took a different turn,
being a singer. I still love to paint, and I love design—clothing
design, furniture design, architecture. I love cooking. I love films,
and I'm interested in directing things perhaps in the future. So yeah,
lots of avenues I reckon have opened up now because of this.
When the Blood stuff started to trickle out, with the "Unstoppable" video and that cover art, it was suddenly a lot clearer you're very into all the little visual details.
Yeah [laughs], I
think that was basically the point, so that I could represent myself
and my song for the second album in a different way. With that song, it
was recorded...even though I played guitar on it, when I listened, I
never imagined me playing the guitar, you know? I only wanted to dance.
So I thought, "How could I do this on screen and show that I love doing
acting?" And I also think you should just do everything that you want to
do. The point behind it was basically my performance, just really
expressive movement to represent the kind of ecstasy in the song and
what it's about.
Did you work with a choreographer? It seemed like you might've just been freestyling.
I
did work with a choreographer for the first time. Turned out I really
liked doing that. It was kind of half choreographed, and then half
improvised. It was great to just have a space to twirl around in.
I don't think I've seen you step away from the guitar onstage before. Do you? Will you when you're touring Blood?
Yeah,
there are songs—for example there's a piano, and there are songs where I
do leave the guitar on the first album. But this time I have employed a
second guitarist so I can have the choice, basically. Because I
realized a lot of my guitar parts, they don't dip in and out, they are
just constant, so I just have to have a guitar in there all the time.
However, having a second guitarist, we can interplay together, I can
lose the guitar altogether, so there's just lots more options.
You can do the move where your guitar just hangs there and you sing.
Exactly.
I won't ask you to answer your millionth question about Prince and that working relationship and what he's like—but what I'm curious about is: What has it been like to be so consistently asked about Prince for so long? It makes me think of this time earlier this year whenBjörksaidshe's
tired of always being asked about the male influences on her music and
how the focus can shift so easily from a female artist's work to the guy
she collaborated with. Different things, but what's your experience
been like?
Of course people want to know what he's really
like, and because he's maintained his mystique so well it does seem a
little out of character for him to just approach some of the normal
South London singers like myself [laughs]. And to be honest, it
is really surreal. I understand why people might wanna ask, and that's
fine, and I'm, you know, happy to say he's a great guy because he is,
and I'm just honest about it as much as I can be. But yeah, I think that
they can...I mean, he's got tons of albums that you can listen to [laughs]. It is interesting, though.
Can you talk about "Never Get Enough," the second-to-last song on the album? It's like half a metal song.
Yeah,
kinda. It was a funny one, that one. "Never Get Enough," sonically, is
one of my favorites because of the kind of...the drop that happens. I
got a new nylon-string guitar, I'd never owned one before. And I got it
in L.A. and I was with Mark Batson, and I brought it to the studio and I
was like, "I have to record, this guitar sounds amazing." So I just
started playing something and there were some chords of a song I will
not name that I always loved the combination of, so I adapted them. And
then we were quite happy with our verse and how it was going, and then
we were quite relaxed, maybe had some wine [laughs], just
having a lovely time, and then I started hearing a riff in my head, and I
was like, "Mark, can you do this? Can you play this?" [Mimics riff.]
He had to just go with me on it. And then I would start describing the
textures that I was hearing, saying, "Have you got a bass sound that's
like this, but maybe something else on top of that that's a bit more
flute-y, something like this, then we'll put guitar on it?" And he just
sort of went with me until we had built this tremendous chainsaw-esque
bit of music. Basically, I've always wanted to just fuse everything,
like nice Bossa Nova, kind of rhythmic, silky something with a really
harsh, buzzy kind of erratic music and beats with a distorted vocal.
That's what we ended up with [laughs].
Chainsaw, that's exactly it. How'd
you decide which songs to keep adding pieces to and layering, like
that, versus the ones where it's still just pretty much you and the
guitar?
I think it depends on the song. It felt like
"Never Get Enough" wanted to be louder and angrier. I also like to make
the songs sound like what the words are about, and then you can have
that nice kind of...there's something else that you can grab from it.
But generally—because I'd also like to be a producer in the future, so I
think about this a lot—I think with songs you kind of just have to let
them lead the way of what they need rather than you chucking stuff at it
just because. It needs to feel like it would be necessary, you know?
Is there anybody in the pop or hip hop realms who pushes you, influences you, makes you think?
Can
I say Alabama Shakes? I love Alabama Shakes. The new album is amazing; I
was intrigued on the first album, but this one just really struck me,
caught me off guard, actually. I think her voice is so powerful, and I
haven't really heard anything like it, so I'm just in awe of Alabama
Shakes. And Kanye West continues to surprise me. I saw him perform, actually, at the BRIT Awards—
Yeah!
I heard there was this huge disconnect with the people watching at
home. But I was there and just thought it was amazing and it was so
bold; it was like I was watching an art piece, like he knew what he was
doing. It was so intense and different.
What influences you outside of music? Films, books, weird Internet stuff...
Mostly like actual photography. I went to a Guy Bourdin exhibition
in London at Somerset House and it was so amazing and that was kind
of... I went to see it around the time where it was getting to the point
where I had to decide on my album artwork and what to do, and I
thought, "What a good idea, to have carefully constructed compositions
for a photo." Like, why wouldn't you compose a photo like you would a
painting? And then genuinely I love films. I love Woody Allen; Annie
Hall is probably one of my favorite women in film. Yeah, I dunno, lots
of things—just the way things are shot, the way the scene makes you feel
because of the colors and movement, stuff like that. I think a lot of
people making music videos want to make films, so it's like a little
halfway.
So what about playing live for this tour? Do you have a concept of what you want to do?
So
the live show is now a little bigger, which is nice, and now I feel
like I have just some of the most amazing musicians in the U.K. I'm
biased, because they're all incredible. I want people to dance,
obviously, because of the nature now of this album, there's just a few
more opportunities. But, equally, I want people to feel really
emotional. So yeah, it's a little bit bigger, got some better lights [laughs], which is nice, and I have incorporated the album artwork into the set, so I think it looks really beautiful.
What's the vibe of being in the U.S. as a performer, for you? Do you feel really comfortable? Do you feel like a stranger?
Whenever
I leave my home country, I feel in a strange way more free because no
one necessarily knows you, so you can almost just do what you want. I do
feel very welcome here and I'm lucky enough to have a very nice
audience here, from what I've experienced in the past. They're very,
very cool people and very forthcoming with their appreciation. And I
love traveling, so it is a great perk of the job, just getting to come
here and hang out. New York is an extremely cool city to me, so it's
great.
Lianne La Havas' second album, Blood, expands on the cool, nuanced tone of her debut, while adding a shot of intensity. Photo: Jean Paul Pietrus/Courtesy of the artist
At 25, singer Lianne La Havas has established herself as a guitarist, a songwriter and a singer, with fans that include Stevie Wonder and Prince. Her new album is titled Blood,and
it's almost like a reintroduction. La Havas tapped her own heritage for
inspiration: Her father is Greek and her mother Jamaican, and it was a
holiday visit to the latter island that got her thinking about her
sound.
"I loved how acceptable it is everywhere to just listen to music
really loud, you know?" she says of Jamaica, where she recalls seeing a
car rigged up with a makeshift sound system, its speakers pointing out
the window. And yet there are moments on Blood that recall the cool, nuanced effects of La Havas' debut, Is Your Love Big Enough? The song "Wonderful," one of the barest on the new album, looks into the past with both its music and lyrics.
"Basically,
I was going through a breakup, and at the same time I was starting to
write about maybe trying to get back together," she says. "'Wonderful'
kind of was the culmination of all those feelings, so I thought, 'I'm
just going to fondly remember and write a nostalgic ode to him, so he
knew it meant something to me.'"
La Havas' impact keeps growing, and she's spending more and more
time in the U.S. — where she says she's found a different set of
expectations than in the U.K. "The first time I ever was called
black was when I went to America," she says. "In London, it was just
always the norm that all kids from everywhere all hung out, being mixed.
It wasn't a thing, basically — you are Lianne. I feel very lucky that
the album came out the way it did, you know, how it sounds, because
that's all I really want to be judged on."
Hear more of La Havas' conversation with NPR's Audie Cornish at the audio link.
THE MUSIC OF LIANNE LA HAVAS: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH MS. LA HAVAS:
Lianne La Havas - "Green & Gold" | LIVE Lorraine
2016 March 11:
Lianne LaHavas: NPR Music --Tiny Desk Concert
October 02, 2015:
Set List:
"What You Don't Do" 00:00 "Unstoppable" 04:00 "Forget" 08:41
Lianne La Havas (Live at Glastonbury 2015)-- [FULL SET]:
0:01 - Unstoppable 4:39 - Green & Gold 9:43 - Au Cinema 14:08 - Is Your Love Big Enough? 18:06 - Midnight 22:09 - Tokyo 27:19 - Grow 31:08 - Age 34:42 - What You Don't Do 39:41 - Never Get Enough 44:21 - Forget
Lianne La Havas Live In concert at Glastonbury 2015. As the incredible first single from her forthcoming second album, Blood, suggests, this London singer-songwriter is unstoppable. She was nominated for the BBC Sound of 2012 poll, was awarded iTunes Album of the Year for her debut, Is Your Love Big Enough? later in the same year, then in 2014 none other than the king of music, Prince, played a gig in her living room.
The daughter of musicians (her mother played with Mary J. Blige and Jill Scott), La Havas brings a broad range of influences to her songs – anything from folk, pop, rock, R&B, soul and jazz. She sang Dream A Little Dream of Me – made famous by The Mamas and The Papas – with Jools on Later… in May, then covered the Etta James classic At Last on Fearne’s last ever Radio 1 show. This Glastonbury is her second, following an acclaimed 2013 performance; the difference now is that she’s even better than she was two years ago.
Mix - Lianne La Havas - "Tokyo" [Live Performance]:
Lianne La Havas – "Unstoppable"-- (Official Video):
Lianne La Havas (full concert) - Live @ Casino de Paris:
Lianne La Havas-- (Live at Afropunk 2014)-- [FULL SET]:
First dose of AFROPUNK Festival 2014 - full set from birthday girl Lianne La Havas on August 23, 2014.
Concert Setlist Times: 2:33 No Room For Doubt 7:38 Midnight 11:44 Forget 17:23 Au Cinema / Master Blaster 24:18 Ghost 29:05 Age 32:14 Tokyo 36:47 Lost & Found 41:41 Is Your Love Big Enough 46:38 Grow
Lianne La Havas – "What You Don't Do" (Official Video):
Lianne Charlotte Barnes (born 23 August 1989),[1][2] known professionally as Lianne La Havas, is a London-born
British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Her career began
after being introduced to various musicians and singer Paloma Faith, for whom she sang backing vocals. In 2010, La Havas signed to Warner Bros. Records, spending two years developing her songwriting skills before releasing any music publicly. La Havas' debut studio album, Is Your Love Big Enough? (2012), was released to positive reviews from critics and earned her a nomination for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll and awards for the iTunes Album of The Year 2012.[3]
La Havas was born in London, England, to a Greek father and Jamaican mother.[4][5] She was raised in Tooting and Streatham, spending the majority of her time with her grandparents after her parents separated.[6] La Havas began singing at seven, and cites her parents' diverse musical tastes as having the biggest influence on her music.[7]
Her father, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, taught her the
basics of guitar and piano. Lianne wrote her first song at the age of
11, but did not learn to play the guitar until she was 18 years old.
Lianne sang in her school choir.[8] She attended Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls in Thornton Heath where she studied art A-level, and had planned to take an art foundation course before she decided to leave college to pursue a career in music full-time.[6]
Although born Lianne Barnes, her stage name is an adaptation derived
from her Greek father Henry Vlahavas's surname. She lives in London.[1]
Career
Beginnings and debut
Lianne La Havas in 2012.
Whilst attending sixth-form in Croydon, a friend of La Havas', the singer and songwriter Allan Rose (who had attended the Brit School), introduced her to other musicians who would assist La Havas in the recording of her first demos.[6] Through that same friend La Havas was also introduced to British singer Paloma Faith;
she later sang backing vocals on tour for Faith. La Havas was
discovered on Myspace in 2008. Duncan Ellis, owner of Scruffy Bird
Artist Management, first heard of La Havas through colleague Alex Hardee
of the Coda Music Agency, and it was love at first scroll as Ellis
skimmed the material on her Myspace page.[8]
When Ellis first saw La Havas perform, she was in the duo the Paris
Parade, collaborating with future Elephant member Christian Pinchebeck
(who designed the artwork for Lost & Found and is also now
part of the duo Memphis Industries duo Elephant); their short-lived
career would kick off La Havas' career in commercial music.[9] In 2010, Lianne signed to Warner Bros. Records, spending two years developing her songwriting skills before releasing any music publicly.[10][11]
Her first EPLost & Found was released on 21 October 2011 on the Labour of Love label,[12] featuring Willy Mason on the opening track "No Room For Doubt".[13] That same month, La Havas released the live EP Live From LA, which was made available for free download on her website.[14][15] La Havas made her television debut on 21 October 2011 broadcast of BBC Two's Later… with Jools Holland, a programme that also featured Wisconsin folk band Bon Iver;[16] soon after this on 25 October 2011 it was announced that La Havas would be the supporting act for Bon Iver's December 2011 North American tour.[17] Her official debut single "Lost & Found" was released in the UK on 30 April 2012,[18] and her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough? was released on 9 July 2012 on Warner Brothers.[10] At the end of 2012, Is Your Love Big Enough? was named iTunes Album of the Year. On 24 September 2012, September La Havas supported Alicia Keys
at MTV 'Crashes' Manchester, a live performance in front of 1,000
people in Manchester Cathedral, which was broadcast in 164 countries. On
31 December 2012, she appeared on BBC Two's New Year's Eve show Jools' Annual Hootenanny singing Cow Cow Boogie. On 9 June 2013, La Havas played at the RockNess music festival in Inverness, Scotland,[19] and on 30 June 2013 La Havas performed at the Glastonbury Festival 2013.[20] La Havas also performed at the Isle of Wight Festival in June 2013.
In early 2014, Prince played a gig in her living room in London.[21] She also appeared on Alt-J's 2014 album This Is All Yours on the track "Warm Foothills". On 30 September Prince released Art Official Age,
featuring La Havas heavily through the album, singing in "Clouds" and
providing vocals on "Affirmation I&II", "Way Back Home" and
"Affirmation III".[22] La Havas performed with Prince on an episode of Saturday Night Live as a featured vocalist on 3 November 2014.[23] She collaborated with Aqualung on the song "Eggshells" from his upcoming album 10 Features, released on 19 January 2015.[24]
2015: Blood
After
touring was completed for her first album, La Havas and her mother
travelled to Jamaica. During the trip, La Havas was inspired to write
new material, which would eventually become part of her second album.
She gave a live performance for her family with producer, Stephen McGregor,
who would later co-produce her forthcoming album. Many of the songs
were inspired by La Havas' reconnection to her Greek and Jamaican
heritage.[25] The first single, "Unstoppable", from this album, Blood, premiered for streaming on 1 April 2015. The single, which was co-written with Paul Epworth,
was officially released in the UK on 1 June 2015. Its music video
premiered on 12 May 2015 on La Havas' official YouTube channel. Blood
will be released on 31 July 2015 for physical and digital formats. La
Havas will embark on a tour in the UK and Europe in support of album
from mid-May to September 2015.[26][27] La Havas features twice on Rudimental's upcoming album, We the Generation
(2015), on the songs "Needn't Speak" and "Breath". She appeared on the
popular "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on CBS in the United States
on October 27, 2015, singing with Colbert's regular band, New Orleans
jazz bandleader Jon Batiste and Stay Human.[28] La Havas plays a hollow-bodied 1964 HarmonyAlden Stratotone guitar, which is put through a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe amp on stage with her band. For solo gigs she uses a SansAmp DI'd, and a Roland CUBE amp is used for practice.[29]
