Music | As Colouful as Her Music |
| Written by Jenny Sundelin | ||||
| Saturday, 24 January 2009 15:25 | ||||
Page 1 of 2  Urbanlife.se nominated “Make it Funky for Me” featuring Shea Soul as the “song of the year” in 2008. We hope you have had a listen to the taster on our site (listen to the full song below) and we are delighted to present an exclusive interview with the London-born singer herself. I meet Shea Soul on the cusp of 2009 in South London, namely Croydon. It is a grey and dull day and when we meet I am struck by how colourful she is without making a fuss about her statement of clothes or accessories. With her English-Jamaican roots and her stylish retro afro, yellow ear rings, pink scarf and yellow shoes she is more colourful than the average. It is difficult not to notice her amongst the buzz of early January sales bargain hunters. We head to a local coffee shop and she orders a hot chocolate. We start chatting a bit about her background and how she has ended up in the music industry at such an early age. Well, I assume “young age” but she’s not keen to share information when I ask how old she actually is. She smiles shyly and says she’d rather not tell me. She is younger than I am though, that is for sure. And that means she is below 35-years of age! But she seems very mature and possibly “wise beyond her years” in a charming but very subtle way. Amy WinehouseShea has a level headed approach to the music industry already and does not seem bothered by how difficult it can be at times to get the attention you need to make your music reach the masses. Shea comes across as a confident young woman and when you listen to her tracks, such as “Decisions” and “Boring” it is clear that she has an explosive voice with extraordinary calibre and depth. The resemblance in her voice to Amy Winehouses has not gone unnoticed by urbanlife.se. She tells me she started singing at a young age but that she is not from a family with a musical background. “I have just always loved music”, she exclaims and fires off a white smile. She was in a school choir when she was a child and was one of those children who always sang in the playground. “I have an older brother who is really in to music, so I guess it is through him that I got a foot in to the industry”, she explains. Her older brother, who is a DJ, also works for a record label and has therefore very good connections for her own networking. She tells me he has co-worked with producers from various indie labels. Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!  And she has had a chance to work with some good names herself, the biggest name to date being MJ Cole.
Between the age of 14 and 16 Shea trained at the Brit School in South London. It is an independent state funded City College which is dedicated to education and vocational training for the performing arts, media, art and design. It claims to be the only one of its kind and former students at this school includes Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and Kate Nash (amongst others), which says a little bit about its status. Shea is modest about the fact that she has undergone the same training in the same place as some of the biggest names in pop. “I regret I didn’t stay in training there for another few years because the facilities there are excellent and there are no fees”, she says. She also admits that she does not play an instrument but relies solely on her voice to guide those who collaborate with her to finding the right sound for her tracks. She writes all her own lyrics and stresses how important it is for her to keep on writing. Shea sees herself as an artist with “work in progress” but believes all artists are like that. She says this is what creativity is all about, regardless of their celebrity status, name, creed or colour. “I just think it takes time to reach a point when you can classify yourself as a confident artist. But I believe you are always an artist if you have the passion for it, even if you have not had any of your music signed by a big label or played on a well-known radio station”, she says. |
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