TRACK REVIEW: Greentea Peng - Revolution

TRACK REVIEW:

Greentea Peng

Revolution

9.7/10

The track, Revolution, is available from:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxqiiSqm3jE

RELEASE DATE:

30th October, 2020

GENRES:

Neo-Soul/Psychedelic R&B

ORIGIN:

London, U.K.

LABELS:

Universal Music Operations Limited/AMF Records

__________

COMING up today…

PHOTO CREDIT: Stefy Pocket

is an artist who is definitely like no other around! I have been tracking Greentea Peng for a little while, and I have been struck by her voice and talent. I think a lot of solo artists at the moment either sound unremarkable or the same, but Greentea Peng (Aria Wells) is bursting with colour, soul and so much potential! I am going to bring in a fair few interviews because, whilst I am keen to review her new song, Revolution, I wanted to portray a bigger picture of a fantastic artist. I suppose, when it comes to where to start regarding Greentea Peng, that name comes to mind. It is definitely intriguing and, when she spoke with ACCLAIM she explained the moniker:

“It’s a bit of an obvious question but I wondered if I could get a quick backstory on the name Greentea Peng?

Green tea is like my favourite tea, and there was a packet I found while I was away, this amazing packet, it was dreamy. It was called Green Tea Seng and the woman on it was really peng so I was like oh, Greentea Peng. That’s literally where it came from. It started as a bit of a joke so it’s not that deep.

I think it’s such a cool name, it suits you well.

Thank you. It’s funny that it does because it’s such a random thing but I hear that it actually does. I feel like it does too, so it’s worked out well”.

I want to do a bit of a chronological move, because it is interesting thinking about the development and maturation of Aria Wells and when she became Greentea Peng. I am not sure when I first heard of Greentea Peng, but it must have been early last year. One is struck by the tattoos and fashion – which I shall cover later -, but I think the depth of her voice and music really gets into the heart. There is a definite power and prowess to an artist who, whilst exploring Neo-Soul (or ‘Psychedelic R&B’ as she labelled her sound), can elicit as much force and beauty as any other artist out there.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stefy Pocket

When she spoke with VICE back in 2018, Greentea Peng talked about how quickly things have happened and how she would never have pictured herself in music in such a way - considering how chaotic her life was:

“It’s mad, cos a year and a half ago, I would’ve never said that I’d be doing this,” she tells me. “I thought I was just gonna, I don’t know, work in bars – which is what I’ve been doing since I was 15.” After leaving home as a teen, which we’ll come back to in a minute, she spent a few years ricocheting around London and the inside of her own head. She set aside the journals in which she’d been scribbling lyrics and stories, from about 13, and threw herself into being out and about instead. It was, as she starts to say, “normal teenage stuff plus a lot of reckl–” her voice drops. “Well, I don’t eve–… A lot of drugs, drug-taking. And I’ve always been a sensitive person, who tends to get overwhelmed quite quickly when it comes to emotional stuff. I think that, plus teen hormones plus the drugs… it was just a maaaaaad time,” she says, the syllable dragging out”.

By the sounds of it, she’s been able to flip objectively negative experiences into just… life experience, for years. After her parents split, her family – minus her father – relocated to England’s south coast. “I mean, it was a madness. My mum didn’t want me to go to secondary school in south London; the school’s were really bad at the time, all transitioning into academies and stuff, which she wasn't down with. So we moved to Hastings. It was a biiiiiig” – and she almost sings this, stretching the word out over a raspy note that dives downwards – “culture shock. Even at a young age, it affected me quick dramatically, I’d say. Because it was a very white area when I moved there – there are a lot more brown people there now.” She chuckles. And so she looked different, “my attitude was different – it was just… different, you know what I mean? I’d grown up on an estate quite independent from a young age.” And Hastings felt nothing like that”.

It is fascinating hearing her so candid and realising how quickly things have changed. As a person, Wells would have considered a full-time music career far-fetched when she was a teenager. I think every artist has to start on modest foundations, but they eventually get there. I am curious to know when music came into Wells’ life and when she adopted the ‘Greentea Peng’ name. Returning to that ACCLAIM interview, and we get some explanation and backstory from the woman herself:

“When did you start singing and what kind of music was inspiring you early on?

I started singing about age 4. My dad inspired me a lot, he was into a lot of classical music and theatre. He’d teach me a lot of the theatre songs, so I started off singing stuff like that, and in the church choir and stuff. Then I started to get inspired by Ms. Dynamite and Lauryn Hill and The Fugees, stuff like that. I was very much into R&B and hip-hop quite young, watching MTV Base and that sort of thing. When I got a little older my tastes broadened a bit, I got into rock music, reggae, ska, and heavy metal, but before that it was mostly R&B and hip-hop.

So when did you sort of become Greentea Peng?

Well, I stopped singing for a while really, I didn’t think I was ever going to sing again until I was about 21. I was living in Mexico and randomly joined a band. That was the first time I’d sung in about six years, and that was when I started to think about calling myself Greentea Peng. I didn’t start writing songs until I wrote Sensi. I was just doing covers and playing around, getting used to singing again, you know what I mean? Then, when I moved back to London I started writing again”.

I want to move on but, reading back to that interview snippet above, and there was that moment when Aria Wells almost decided against music - and the world would never have heard of Greentea Peng. I think that new name gave her confidence and a sense of determination, and she has really made strides since.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wil Spooner

Sticking on the teenage years, and I think the move Wells (I shall refer to her thus regards her life pre-Greentea Peng) made to Mexico when she left school was pivotal. It seems like an unusual move, but it appears to have awoken her. In an interview with The Line of Best Fit last year, we learn more about that move to Mexico and the creation of the Sensi E.P. of 2018:

“Despite always having been naturally creative, Peng admits that she had suppressed her talents for a long time, the result of teenage angst and trying to figure out who she was. “I was quite inside myself and angry at the world,” she confides. However, she took the leap of moving to Mexico once she had left school, pursuing her desire to travel. It was here that her love for music was re-ignited. “I was watching a lot of live music and it reminded me of how much I was in love with it, how much I needed it. I needed a creative outlet,” she explains. While out there, she met her manager who would encourage her to carry on singing. Once she had returned home, her talent became a serious professional opportunity and she released her first EP Sensi in 2018.

Not only has her time travelling triggered Peng’s musical ambitions, but it’s helped to shape the sounds she creates. At one point during our conversation, Peng remembers lying in the desert of California, smoking joints while listening to Erykah Badu and J.Dilla’s “Didn’t Cha Know” way before she started singing again. This coming together of jazz, hip-hop and lo-fi textures is something Peng emulates in her work with London producer Earbuds, who has become renowned for his collaborations with Slowthai. “I had already been playing around with another mate in the studio,” she remembers. “I listened to the beat for “Moonchild”, and I was like, ‘this is mad, I love it’ but I was like ‘how the fuck am I gonna write to this?’ And it just came to me one day. I finished it on the overground while on my way to my first session”.

There are a few other things I want to address before getting down to the review itself. I have brought in information regarding Greentea Peng as an artist and how that name came about; the teenage years of its creator and how she went through some tough years. I want to bring in revelation and information regarding Greentea Peng’s voice and spirituality. As we learn from an interview in VICE from 2018, songs that tackle quite heavy stuff are transformed and made almost healing and spiritual:

“I’m a bit taken aback by the chaos that prefaced what we hear from her now. Her music is rich and calming, like a camomile paste you’d rub into your skin (please don’t try that, I just made it up). Her voice evokes the grit of Erykah Badu or Amy Winehouse, over love letters to weed’s calming effects (on “Medicine”) or how chasing money may still leave you empty, on single “Moonchild.” So it’s a jolt to know that the positivity, the light, the curiosity she feeds into her music now came from a pretty dark time. Sensi sounds like a stand-in for a rebirth, I suggest.

“It really was,” she says, drawing her jacket a bit closer as a lorry rumbles by. “I was at the point where I couldn’t even… I couldn’t even process my own thoughts or emotions. I was so detached from everything: the universe, myself, everything. I was in a huge amount of denial about what was going on in my life. I was angry, deluded, selfish…” She chuckles drily, and her voice trails off. This honesty, about 20 minutes into our conversation, is what listeners have tapped into in her music – she’s been able to channel anger, confrontation and contemplation into songs that invite you in”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Hadden for CRACK

I think a lot of songwriters can be a bit limited when it comes to inspiration and their palette. They might talk about themselves quite a lot and, whilst important, their personal lives are never quite as intriguing and fresh as other subjects. There is a personal aspect to Greentea Peng’s music, but she is someone who is moved by the natural world and something higher. In a feature from CLASH last year, we discover more about her compositional inspiration:

“They just intrigue me I guess, The mystery excites me,” Greentee reflects. “I’m obsessed with the sun, and have been from a young age - I'm very sun orientated. I get very depressed in the winter. The moon drives me mad, so I sing about her a lot. 'Saturn' is a trip - I wrote it on mushrooms in Mexico, on the beach. So that song is literally a trip."

As well as looking beyond herself and our mortal realm, Greentea Peng looks beyond the human too – she often sees the natural world as making more sense than the human, like we're a sort of disconnect on earth. "I feel closer to trees and nature and animals – I wish i could feel closer to humans,” she says. “I go through stages of being very withdrawn and distant from humans." Is that why she looks outward? "Yeah, and I have a mad inner space, so it's good to look out sometimes. Putting things into perspective, the mundane shit".

Tying into what I have sourced above, there is this fascinating blend that you get with Greentea Peng! It is easy to bring in big names like Erykah Badu when pointing at inspirations, but I don’t think that is far off the mark. Greentea Peng, like Badu, mixes a variety of emotions and subjects; there is something soothing and smooth about the voice, but there is also a real spark and energy. This is explored more in a NOTION feature from earlier in the year:

“In a myriad of genre-blending sounds evocative of a grand coalition between Amy Winehouse and Erykah Badu, Aria teases the perceived boundaries between opposing states: looking inwards and outwards; hope and despair; tender vulnerability and strength. She crafts shapeshifting music that draws you in—it’s like a soothing balm chronicling the trials and tribulations that punctuate our everyday lives. Through honest and frank poesies to love and loss, for Aria, it’s about the feeling and gaze that she can hold with the listener more than anything else. “You wanna connect with people,” she tells me. “You wanna get everyone vibrating on the same frequency as you and you wanna be spreading love”.

I will move things along soon, but one cannot talk about Greentea Peng without mentioning London and how that inspires her. It is very evident that so many things about the city infuses her music and affects the way that she writes. I guess, what with London being so multicultural and broad, you do get so many different points of inspiration! Going back to the interview from The Line of Best Fit, and the lure and power of the city of explained and explored:

“London is at the heart of Peng’s writing, in what she explains as “the tongue-in-cheek of it, the kind of vibe... it’s an attitude, innit.” At present, she’s chatting over the phone while taking a break from a studio session in the city, before performing a DJ set. “It’s the most diverse city I’ve ever been to. Growing up I very much loved London, my Dad brought me up very ‘yeah London town, the best town in the world.” Listening to songs like “Inna City” from the EP, you can hear the capital laced throughout. From the twang of her vocals, to the eclecticism of the production, and lyrics like, “Your double vision, inna city / You can get it if you're witty / Work your way up in a jiffy / What you got, I want it, gimme,” she perfectly illustrates the lovable-toughness of life in the Big Smoke.

This is where Peng grew up until she went to secondary school, at which point she began living and studying in Hastings, a place that could not have been more different. “It affected me in many different ways, in hindsight it’s one of the best things that could’ve happened really,” she explains. “It helped shape me a lot, it gave me two different perspectives, two different lives. It was cool being able to grow up in nature and by the sea, and still come down to London”.

Greentea Peng has travelled quite widely, and I think so many different parts of the world go into Greentea Peng’s music. It seems that there is something about London and the people that is especially resonant and important, Circling back to the ACCLAIM piece, and the subject of London came up:

“London has always been an eclectic and exciting city for music. Why do you think that is, and how does it differ to other cities in the world culturally?

There’s nowhere like it, because there’s nowhere as diverse. I’ve never been anywhere as diverse as London, it’s mad here. It’s the people that make it, which is why stuff like Brexit and this Windrush shit that’s happening is peak, man. Because this city without the people ain’t much of a city at all. That’s wagwan with the music too, it’s a big social and creative hub”.

There are four more things I want to tick off quickly before getting down to assessing Greentea Peng’s Revolution but, sticking in London, and it appears that her patch in South London is particularly stabilising. When she spoke with CLASH, she talked about how she has found balance:

"I'm lucky I live in South [London] - it's green, full of trees, I have a garden - so every morning I sit and look at the trees and chat to the birds chilling on my roof. Even when I did't I’d find that balance, go walk in a park, and I'm lucky - my parents live in Hastings so I can always go there and look at the sea. I know I'm lucky and it's not that easy for everyone, I feel blessed."

Maybe it makes sense then, her jumping around from place to place, yet feeling rooted in a pocket of London - keeping that balance. And part of that is making sure not to be isolated, keeping up creative connections and energies, with those she makes music with. "I love having a family, a team you can rely on and grow with creatively and mentally, Greentea smiles. “And musically - the more instruments the better".

PHOTO CREDIT: Stefy Pocket

Before looking at Greentea Peng’s style and identity, I want to briefly touch on travel and how this has fed into her music. Whilst it seems that she is settled now and travel has been beneficial, I am interested in whether travel has been stabilising or quite disruptive. Looking at that feature/interview from CLASH, and it is not only different physical areas that have influenced Greentea Peng; different areas of the musical map have made their mark:

“But she hasn’t always been this settled. Greentea Peng has lived in many, very different places - London, Hastings, Mexico - how's that affected her approach to music? "I think it's all contributed to a bit of a mix up, I'm a bit confused,” she says. “Everything's mash up and integrated. It's kind of fun. It's obviously not a conscious thing you do, going off like that, but looking back it's effected my style and music. I've taken a bit from everywhere and made it my own."

She says it’s because of this natural absorbing of her surroundings that means she tries not to listen to too much new music right now: "It sounds mad doesn’t it? Obviously I rate everyone, but it's too easy to be influenced."

In terms of sounds she might have drawn from other places, Greentea says it’s something more practical that she’s taken from elsewhere. "I don't know man, it's all been a process. Obviously a lot of RnB and hip-hop's in there, but a lot of reggae and dub,” she reflects. “In Mexico, musically I was listening to a lot of bands and live music – and that woke me up in a sense. I’d always worked with DJs and producers – like Earbuds [longtime producer], he's a G, he's my boy - but while I was out there seeing all this live music I thought, 'Ah fuck, I really want a band”.

One looks at images of Greentea Peng and you cannot help but notice that she is very striking! I love her tattoos, but her sense of style is very much her own. I think this plays a role in her music, and that identity and look is very clear and imbedded in everything she does. I found a feature from late last year that highlighted Greentea Peng’s beauty regime. A couple of interesting questions struck me:

“How do you tell stories and assert your identity through your tattoos?

Greentea Peng: Some of them are thought out, some are quite unconscious or just for fun. I love tattoos and don’t think I’m consciously trying to tell a story but maybe subconsciously they do. My most recent tattoo is the throat chakra symbol on my throat to remind me to always sing.

What does beauty mean to you, and what are your go-to products?

Greentea Peng: Beauty is becoming more of a nature-orientated thing. I make my own bits or buy organic natural stuff off a guy on the market. While I do enjoy wearing a bit of make-up, my favourite thing is to get my eyelashes done with my girl Oona Beauty. I love a lash. Other than that it’s a strict lip liner – I can’t go anywhere without it which is a problem”.

Linking into tattoos and skincare comes clothing. Again, looking at Greentea Peng, and her wardrobe is so colourful, confident, and characterful! I think so many artists are unremarkable in this area, or they seem to follow what is fashionable and trending. As we learn from an article in THE FACE, Greentea Peng very much follows her own instincts:

“Peng’s style represents her. She wears what she wants to wear, and doesn’t buy into the zeitgeist. “I love dressing up. I’ve always shopped in charity shops [because] I could never really afford brands, so I just made myself look cool in different ways,” she says.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Hadden for CRACK

But with such an eclectic wardrobe, how does she decide what to wear? “I dress different every day. One day it’s a Nike tracksuit, the next it’s a mad hat. It depends what my mood is. It’s funny, I don’t like to stick out but if you see the garms I wear one part of me must do. I learnt that I don’t need to copy the way [people] dress, because I don’t wanna look like any of you anyway! So I might as well dress mad and look how I want to look. The older I get the more I think ‘fuck it, I’ll wear that’. I’m not as fussy anymore”.

Just to finish up, and I want to quickly return to Greentea Peng’s music growth and the fact that there has been this real leap in the past couple of years. I love her 2018 E.P., but I think her confidence grows by the year. Even early in 2019 when she chatted with Music Week, we were hearing and seeing someone wholeheartedly being given wings and strength by music:

“Those days in Mexico, where she first met her management team, are fading into the distance fast. “It’s a completely different vibe now, man,” says Greentea. “It was a wicked start and I’m really grateful. It gave me experience of gigging, hard crowds, people who didn’t give a shit, doing dinner music, hotels… Do you know what I mean?” Music has offered Greentea Peng a lifeline. She’s still getting used to it all, but she’s happy to “ride the wave”. “I’m so much more confident, man. I used to have to get so waved before a show and drink a lot to calm my nerves, now I’m enjoying it more than ever,” she says. “I’m learning, becoming a bit more comfortable”.

I will get to reviewing Revolution, as it is another great release from Greentea Peng who, despite lockdown and everything that has been happening, has been pretty busy this year. Her new release is among her very best and most immersive.

PHOTO CREDIT: Stefy Pocket

With its heavy beats and a laidback vibe, the contrasts that fuse into Revolution grip you from the start. The chorus comes up first, and Greentea Peng asks some interesting questions: “Feels like a revolution/But whose revolution?/As we search for solutions/Seems like no resolutions”. Those words can apply to the state of the world right now and how we seem to be getting nowhere. Given that 2020 has seen definite shifts regarding race relations and various aspects of the world, I wonder whether Greentea Peng is referencing what has been happening in America (or more generally). There is a bit of mystery in the chorus, so one naturally investigates and searches inside themselves. I do love Greentea Peng’s vocal and musical style, as there is Neo-Soul, R&B and Reggae vibes sitting against one another - and it is both beautiful and inspiring. Whereas artists in Grime or Rap might project words with attack and venom, Greentea Peng has this more laidback style that, whilst no less potent, I think makes the words more accessible and indelible. The first verse definitely offers up food for thought: “We are fighting these wars/Like those who came before us/Their message still loud and clear/The duty now on us/See the profits, it's speaking/Only love is the release/As they crucify Jesus, Judas still singing his praises/As they shoot us down, knee pressed on the ground/As I beg for my life from you/And my brother lets me down/See, wherе do we go from here, man?/Whеn you insist on declaring war on mine/Like we won't take a stand, mm”. It does seem that there is a lot of 2020’s tensions in the lyrics. I am thinking about the killing of George Floyd and the outraged that sparked around the world – and how the long-held problem of racism in American policing came to the fore once more.

It does seem that there are no answers and improvements being made in the U.S., but one can look at the U.K. and similar problems regarding race and equality – are our leaders actually concerned and understand why change needs to occur?! I love the funkiness and flow of Revolution. I think this is Greentea Peng’s greatest song to date, and one that showcases her potent voice and lyrics. After the chorus comes back in, a beautiful post-chorus arrives: “Yeah, they shoot us down/They long for our crowns/The prospect of you and me together/Watch their walls tear down”. One could interpret those words as being quite personal and about a relationship, but I think Greentea Peng is referring to the world at large and how there is so much division. Although the heroine is angry and searching for answers, there is a spirituality and calm. In the second verse, she is confused and wondering what is happening: “They have tricked us with false freedoms/As they course freedom into the collective/So we feel like there is more that we connect with/That we need more in common than our hearts and our souls/I'm a sheep, but, for you, man, no, no/Only God is my shepherd/I'm lost and I'm wondering/Trying to decide what law this is, is it rhythm?/Nah, this shit is so imbalanced”. The addictive and compelling delivery and compositions means Revolution is a song that you will come back to time and time again. It is amazing track, and one that I hope forms part of an E.P. or album very soon. Greentea Peng is one of the brightest talents around and, on Revolution, she steps up another gear!

I wonder whether we will get a new E.P. or a debut album from Greentea Peng next year. With a couple of E.P.s under her belt, she is building a nice foundation and exploring different subjects with each song. Last year’s RISING E.P. was another terrific release and, to me, even stronger than Sensi. Greentea Peng spoke with ACCLAIM, and she discussed how RISING differed to Sensi:

“Let’s chat about your new music. I wanted to say congratulations on the new EP because I’m really feeling it. To me, there’s something really pure about your music. I think we’re so used to hearing about material shit and there’s a lot of bravado in the music we consume today. Not to say you’re switched off to those trends, obviously you have ‘Peng’ in your name but I feel like you’re operating in a different lane to your peers.

[Laughs] Oh man, thank you, I hear that. I like that you said that, because no one has really said that before. It’s something I try and steer away from. I don’t want to encourage that stuff, because we don’t need any more of that.

Can you tell me what the EP is all about?

There’s so many themes in it. It’s always about love. This one is a bop. It’s like a walk around the city on different days, one song per day. I should have put an extra song on there. It’s all different moods. Sensi was just one theme but this one is like a little glimpse at different moods”.

I want to finish up by returning to the feature from NOTION, where we get to learn what the aim of Greentea Peng’s music is. Every artist has their own reason for creating music, but it is clear that music is hugely important and transformative for Greentea Peng:

“I’m not trying to be out here preaching to people. I’m trying to express myself and be honest and if people interpret that and have a spiritual connection to that then, obviously, that’s sick because that’s what you wanna do,” she says, earnestly. “But, I don’t like labels, man. When people interview me, that’s not what I’m trying to focus on. People always focus on the spirituality, or, you know, ‘when I was younger and moving to Hastings and the effects and… I dunno. People love a fucking story innit. Like a sob story and that.”

So, putting clichés and labels—thankfully—aside, what is the underlying purpose of her music that she wants us to take away from it? “It’s my way of expressing myself, innit,” Aria states matter-of-factly. “Especially, when you’re writing about stuff that’s personal—it’s a way of shedding it away”.

I shall leave things there but, with another incredible song under her belt, Greentea Peng ends a successful 2020! Next year is a bit unsure for many artists, and I do think that things will improve. I hope we get more material from Greentea Peng, as she is one of the best new British artists and someone who has a sound and voice…