Sister Cookie

Even though she lived nearly 70 years before, and across time and space I felt like I looked at her and understood her, she looked like me.
 
I’ve never really felt like I quite fit in, with growing up being born in Nigeria and moving to the UK, I felt like a bit of an outsider in that respect, so it was interesting that I would feel complete solidarity with this woman.
 
Do you think that living in Nigeria and being surrounded by the culture and atmosphere is what influenced you to start teaching yourself to start playing different musical instruments?
 
I mean I guess so, maybe. It’s funny I hadn’t really thought about this for a while and then when we were recording the last song on the album The sins of the Father, the drummer was meant to be at that session to play percussion, but at the very last minute he couldn’t make it. We had a little bit of time left and Alex said, ‘Why don’t you have a go’ and I’d never played percussion seriously before, but worst comes to worst we can get rid of it on the track. I grabbed all these different percussion instruments, layering the rhythms on top of each other, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, that it’d come together. I approached that in the same way I did when I taught myself to play the piano all those years ago when I was a little kid in Lagos.
 
Because it was so long ago, I can’t remember the first time I tried it or the first song I played but I’d just listen to things and pick out the melody from songs from adverts and things like that.
 
I’ve just always approached everything like that, despite all the will in the world I don’t have much technical knowledge, I just chip away and try and find ways around it and sometimes it works and a lot of times it doesn’t.
 
Is that you playing the drums in the finished track, did you make it to the final cut?
 
So, the drummer came back in and he’s playing the drums, which are quite low in the mix, and I think you can hear me playing quite a lot of percussion instruments over the top of it, like bongos and congas.
 
With your new single ‘Ain’t no good (but it’s good enough for me)’, do you feel it’s important that the message you deliver through your music is from honest and raw personal experiences?
 
Yeah, I think so and I hope so. All my stuff on this album that I’ve written are all about my life or related to my life in some way. I always know a song is ready when I feel that heartbeat, that little feeling in my heart and sometimes it’s quicker than other and sometimes it takes several tries but once you know you kind of know.
 
I like that it’s an upbeat song, despite it having such an emotional back story to it, was it difficult to write as it came from a hard place?
 
The relationship it relates to was over a long time, when I was younger and really and truly, he was an awful person, and this song is almost a way of wrapping it up. It’s sort of how comedians make jokes about serious stuff, but it was a way to get that out. It’s not the kind of relationship I like about singing as quite frankly he didn’t mean that much to me, and he was a waste of space.
 
That song was written coming out of a period where I had been in a bad place for a few months, I also wrote Long Time No See, around the same time and I think the music and the whole pace of that song matches the emotion. It wasn’t about being in that moment, it was about stepping out.
 
I’ve got other things that ‘ve been working on, for hopefully the next record and one is called ‘The blacker toll’, which is about being in that place, which was interesting to reach into, so maybe that’s where the next album is gonna go. Maybe this album has been all about the showbiz and the sparkle and glitter on top of the positives, but maybe the next one will really delve into all the darkness. I don’t know, I’m just speculating!
 
On that track you collaborated with Spencer Evoy, how did you guys get along when recording it?
 
We’d kind of known each other for a few years, with being in London we’d often be at the same places and hang out a lot. They were really fun guys to work with and Spencer’s voice is so powerful, I think because I have a lot of power in my voice as well, it was interesting as it could’ve gone either way, but it was a lot of fun.
 
Not that I wrote the song for him, but he has written one or two songs, that we did with my voice back in 2014 I think, so this was my thing to return the favour, so when I was writing that song, I had his voice in mind.
 
It was inspired by the song ‘Think Twice’ by Jackie Wilson and LaVern Baker, who did some duets together in 1950. They recorded the song with an official version that they put out which is great, but it’s the version X you need to listen to, they’re calling each other all sorts of things, they’re arguing with each other and it’s hilarious.

That’s always been one of my favourite songs and I wanted in translate that fun feeling into my own track.
 
 
So, I’ve just got one final question to wrap the interview up, which of all your songs have you either enjoyed writing the most or would you say is your favourite?
 
Maybe if you asked me in a week the answer will be different but, ‘You Know I Do’. Whenever I listen to it or the rehearsal recordings of it that I use to almost psych myself up for shows and things but whenever we get to this song in a set it feels like the whole mood just changes. I’ve always liked the feel of that song, I’ve always liked the rhythm, the groove, it’s full of like little hidden jokes between me and my husband. So, I think probably that one is my favourite actually.