TRACK REVIEW: Tinashe - Bouncin — Music Musings & Such

TRACK REVIEW:

Tinashe

Bouncin

9.3/10

The track, Bouncin, is available from:

https://open.spotify.com/track/3FPj7V0TGXHNkdxPmMoa1A?si=8a8efd9faa1140ae

GENRES:

R&B/Pop/Alternative R&B

ORIGIN:

Kentucky, U.S.A.

RELEASE DATE:

9th July, 2021

LABELS:

Tinashe Music Inc./Equality Distribution

__________

IN this outing…

PHOTO CREDIT: Dennis Leupold

I wanted to review an extraordinary American artist who I have been following for a bit. Kentucky-born Tinashe put out her album, Songs for You, in 2019. It is her fourth studio album. With news that another album is on the way, it is exciting to see what she delivers. Tinashe released the single, Pasadena a few weeks back. I am going to review her latest track, Bouncin. Before I get to that, I want to take a chronological approach - and work my way from Tinashe’s early life and albums. I want to bring in an interview from SPIN from back in 2015. We get a nice section of biography up to that point:

“Though she’s only been making waves in Top 40 for the past two years, Tinashe — born Tinashe Jorgenson Kachingwe in 1993 — is no stranger to the Hollywood circuit. With four mixtapes under her belt (plus a 2007 to 2011 stint in the Stunners, a bubblegum-sweet girl group that she joined at age 14), she’s been putting in long hours since she was seven. Her parents — mother Aimie, a physical therapist and professor who tweets regularly from the appropriately chosen handle @TinasheMomma, and father Michael, a Zimbabwe born professor of theater — moved from Chicago to Los Angeles when Tinashe was only eight years old in order to further support her dreams of stardom.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jasper Soloff

“When we were in elementary school, she would always do the school talent shows, and that was when people realized, ‘Oh, she might do something with this,’” her best friend, Alicia (who declined to give her last name), remembers of Tinashe’s early drive for success. “She’s always been ambitious. Even when she was in school, she was always in the top classes. I mean, she has a Grammy as the background on her phone.”

With her family and friends on board, Tinashe pursued acting first. Following bit roles in flicks like The Polar Express and Akeelah and the Bee, the teen scored her biggest onscreen break in 2008 when she joined the cast of Two and a Half Men as a recurring love interest for the schlubby Jake, played by Angus T. Jones.

After her one-year Men stint wrapped up, Tinashe turned her focus solely to music. The Stunners disbanded for good in 2011, and she figured the time was right to pursue a solo career. She uploaded In Case We Die — her debut mixtape — to her website in February of 2012. All but one of the 15 songs were written by her, and she produced most of the set as well. Critics took notice; MTV’s Brad Stern said that the collection “recalls the moodiness of the Weeknd or Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — an incredibly impressive sound to achieve.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Pat Martin

“I am creative but I can be accessible, and I can be cool,” Tinashe says. “It’s very rare that people are able to be all of those things. But I am.”

Rather than letting the year escape her, Tinashe capitalized on the buzz. In July, she signed a major-label solo deal with RCA — her current home — and dropped her second tape, Reverie, that September. A year later came Black Water, which opened her up to a swath of new collaborators, including now-familiar names like Boi-1da, Ryan Hemsworth, Vinylz, and Dev Hynes.

“When I was first getting to know her, she reminded me of Left Eye,” says Cambridge-Mitchell, who worked with the legendary R&B group TLC in the ‘90s. “Her presence, her personality and intensity, and her clear focus, goal-oriented everything. She’s very much like if Left Eye and T-Boz were one person.”

“Whatever it is that she wanted to do, she was gonna get it done,” adds Trevor Jerideau, Tinashe’s A&R rep at RCA. “If she couldn’t get to a specific producer that she admired, she’s going to make that beat herself. She’ll go on YouTube and try to figure out what kind of software they were using or how to actually construct that track and make it. She sourced all those [mixtape] beats. She did. I knew that she was going to get to where she had to go, and where she wanted to go, regardless of anybody standing in her way”.

Even back in 2015 (a year after the release of her debut, Aquarius), we could see this incredible talent that was primed for bigger things. Even though Tinashe’s music has changed since 2015, one could see this ambitious and passion artist back then.

I said I was going to go chronologically but, actually, I want to quote from a Bustle interview. Here, we get a comparison of Tinashe now compared to when she put out her debut single, 2 On. This is an artist who cannot be boxed in; someone who is taking control:

“Tinashe still loves to get “2 On,” but now seven years after that debut single, she’s focusing more on herself. The triple-threat entertainer essentially built herself a wellness retreat while hunkering down during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I was vibing over here,” Tinashe tells Bustle, laughing. “It was like a resort. I had all my plants, I was waking up early and doing dance and workout classes on Zoom. I took that period as an opportunity to focus on things that I really didn’t have the time to.” Her emphasis on self-care — soundtracked by Thundercat, Erykah Badu, and mental health podcasts — inspired her new album that’s focused on movement and spirituality.

After a string of mixtapes that established her DIY-R&B roots, Tinashe made her mark with “2 On,” a Billboard charting trap-pop banger of such epic proportions that Twitter references it in memes to this day. Her 2013 major label debut album Aquarius, a bulletproof collection of glacial, atmospheric R&B and devastating pop ballads, showed she was a force to be reckoned with. And yet, her label apparently didn’t think so, sending her into long periods of inactivity and constant delays of her sophomore album Joyride, which came out two years after its scheduled 2016 release.

When she left the label, her supporters breathed a sigh of relief. “I think it was just a gut instinct, in terms of it was what I needed to do,” explains Tinashe, whose latest singles dropped July 9 (“Bouncin”) and June 9 (“Pasadena”). “I didn’t feel like the relationship was progressing in a way that was really productive or good for me mentally, so I thought, ‘I need to do what will fulfill me.’ And that's retaking control of my vision, rebuilding my confidence as a creative, and focusing on why I made music in the first place.”

Her first album as an independent artist, 2019’s Songs For You, proved that Tinashe can’t be boxed in, ranging from the electro-disco grooves of “Save Room For Us” and “Perfect Crime” to the hip-hop swagger of “Cash Race” and “Link Up,” where her alter-ego Nashe rears her head. Now, as the world opens up and she prepares to perform again after the cancelation of her planned 2020 tour, she’s about to give us something more spiritual: 333.

“333,” a number she’s casually inserted into teaser videos over the years, is now becoming a album of the same name, inspired by the impact that her “angel number” has had on her. “I think it’s always felt like a good omen to me, something that feels like there’s good things coming in the future,” she says. “It reminds me that I’m always on the right path and the universe is looking out for me at the end of the day.” 333 will continue Tinashe’s exploration of genre, with a renewed focus on high-tempo and hard-hitting beats that will make you move. “I think that’s so underrated in how important it is spiritually and emotionally, just to be able to dance and have fun in our day-to-day lives,” she asserts”.

I want to stay on the subject of control. This is something that a lot of women in music fight with. Either they are too easily defined, or they have to battle for artistic control or they are manipulated or sold short. For Tinashe, it seems that she is finally in control and she is doing things her way. Look at this 2018 interview from Vulture. This is, perhaps, the first year of her career when she turned a corner and was relaxed:

“I need to regain control,” Tinashe says, eyeing a speaker across the room in the New York offices. She catches the irony of her comment quick enough to clarify that she’s talking about a playlist she curated, which someone at her record label, RCA, tinkered with without consulting her, because she could just as easily be describing the last three years of her career. Since 2015, the 25-year-old singer has been talking to anyone who will listen about her forthcoming sophomore album, Joyride. It was intended for release that year. Then 2016. Then 2017. Then …

Singles sparked up, then fizzled out; a tour for the album was attempted, then canceled; in 2016, she released a mixtape, Nightride, for free. Amid the delay, Tinashe would lash out at her label in private messages to fans on Twitter, accusing RCA of prioritizing labelmate Zayn Malik’s debut solo album over her own work. To get their attention, she leaked her own lead single. A collaboration with Britney Spears and invitation to dance in a Janet Jackson tribute, at Janet’s request, followed. Still, there was no album to show for her troubles. In a week, the wait will be over: Joyride arrives April 13, still on RCA.

Given the long road and detours it took to get here, it’d be fair to expect a chip on Tinashe’s shoulder – some lingering resentment or paranoia that the other shoe could still drop. But she’s surprisingly unbothered when she arrives at New York in late March, with a small entourage wholly invested in her interests. A publicist lets it be known that the artist has vetoed any looks that are too frilly. Great care is taken to queue up the right music (a mix of YG and Belly, plus that “weird” new Lil Dicky song) for her to slip into her natural, dancer’s zone for the photo shoot. She is impossibly flexible, holding contorted poses long enough to elicit gasps from the room. For the first time in a long time — and maybe ever — what Tinashe wants, Tinashe gets. The singer spoke to Vulture about her setbacks, not being a music industry prisoner, dating in the age of Instagram, and creative control”.

It is amazing and shocking to think what she went through! I guess that Tinashe’s experiences and fight is one common to women in the music industry. I am glad that Tinashe seems to be in a better and more comfortable place in her career. She is one of the strongest and most inspiring modern artists. No doubt she is giving strength to so many other women!

I do want to remain on this subject for a bit. There is a 2020 interview that was conducted during quarantine. Tinashe spoke about 2019’s Songs for You. It is clear that she has more freedom and control. That being said, there are still quite a lot of other cooks in the creative kitchen:

“Tinashe likes to live in the moment, but when we speak over FaceTime in mid-March, she’s quarantined like the rest of Los Angeles. It’s early in America’s spread of the new coronavirus and, luckily, she’s got her home studio. “It’s my career. It doesn’t stop,” she says of what she frequently refers to as “making art” as opposed to “making music.” Her spring tour may be postponed, and will have to be rescheduled, but that doesn’t mean she’s chilling.

“I’m typically the type of person who hates being told what to do,” Tinashe says from her house in the Hollywood Hills. She’s fresh-faced, hair barely mussed, in a teal hoodie that matches the gel on her nails—quarantine chic. “Anytime someone mandates me to do anything, I don’t want to do it.” She lives alone with her cat but frequently has collaborators, family, and friends over to eat her cooking on Taco Tuesdays, and work in her backhouse studio.

A Tinashe song starts with a vibe, an unearthed emotion. She works out how she feels in songwriting: “That’s the best part.” There’s no premeditation. To keep things one hundred percent her, she doesn’t ask anyone outside of trusted friends or family for their opinions.

PHOTO CREDIT: João Canziani for Vulture

“I think that’s where you kind of get lost and confused,” she says. “And, at least for me, when I’ve listened to too many people in the past, that’s kind of been negative towards my creative process.”

Songs for You is 15 tracks of true Tinashe, which is to say at moments stripped down and leaning into vulnerability (‘Remember When’, ‘Save Room for Us’), and at others providing boss bitch commentary, for example on the too-damn-catchy hit-the-club ‘Link Up’. Some songs could be seen as vengeance on a jilted lover (the album’s first track, ‘Feelings’, or ‘Hopscotch’), but what comes across, more than ever, is Tinashe’s ability to write total bops that benefit not only her but the people she’s got on the song (‘Die a Little Bit’ with British rapper Ms. Banks and ‘So Much Better’ featuring G-Eazy).

“I have way more confidence in myself as a songwriter,” Tinashe says. “As the head of creative, I really kind of steer the ship, as opposed to maybe when I was younger, when I would work with people who are more successful than me, kind of allowing them to dictate where the session went or the song went. Now I don’t want to waste any time doing that. I look at it differently. Like, let’s just get to what I want to create”.

It quickly becomes evident that Tinashe is relishing being her own creative director now and having the upper hand in shaping everything about her career and output.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jasper Soloff

But it’s also still a process. Though she has 20 different producers on Songs for You, she is the only woman producing on her own album. (Outside of the Ms. Banks track, she’s the only woman, period.) “I’ve still probably only met a handful of female producers and engineers—I can only name a few,” she says. This is the only time she seems at any level of discomfort during the interview, thinking through it as she talks, serious and unsmiling. “It’s definitely something that’s still a very, very, very, very, very, very heavily male-dominant area to work in, so I’m just doing my part as much as I can to encourage more young people to get into that side of music. Not just as an artist but also as a producer and engineer.” She’d like to work with more women, she says: “I could do more.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Paola Kudacki

It’s all about feeling comfortable enough to experiment—to make something for the sake of making and finding the gems that deserve the polish. The week of release in November 2019, Songs for You peaked at #147 on the Billboard 200, but Tinashe is less concerned with churning out chartable pop hits than her label ever was. She’s unbothered by the kind of validation that the greater industry uses as benchmarks.

“My biggest goal has been to try to push people out of their comfort zones creatively when they come in the studio,” she says. “What would you do if you weren’t worried about making money and you could just do what you want, like we’re 15 again? Let’s be on that. I encourage that. I think that leads to better art because when you take into account the opinions of other people, your art inherently suffers because you lose that sense of exploration and risk; you’re trying to calculate too many things. By eliminating that as a factor, I think that music gets better”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sony Music

I shall move this on now. Scratch what I said about a linear approach to biography! I am going to skip back to the excellent 2018 album, Joyride. Her third, it remains very underrated in my opinions. Circling back to that Vulture interview…we get a sense of what it was like making the album:

“Sometimes the narrative surrounding albums overshadow the actual album. Is that a concern with Joyride?

There were a lot of setbacks. I made the mistake of even talking about the project too soon. When I look back on the entire journey of it, I’m very thankful for the time that it did take. It pushed me to create the version of the album that is coming out now. It was important that it ended up taking as long as it did.

“You’ve written this album throughout your early 20s. How was it excavating your thoughts during such a transitional period to make this album?

I’ve changed a lot since 2015. There have been highs and lows. At the beginning, I was super excited about it and anxious to put out a project [snaps fingers] right off the bat of my first album. That’s probably why I initially told everyone about it, which is a mistake I’ll never make again. Then there was a period when I got down on myself when the project didn’t come out when I said it was going to. I felt embarrassed and that people were disappointed. I had to delay my tour because my album didn’t come out. I planned that tour way too soon. After that, I had a mini confidence crisis where, for the first time, I could feel thoughts of doubting myself seeping in. That was disturbing. Then I had to go through a third evolution mentally where I had to regain control.

PHOTO CREDIT: James Bailey

At that point, I decided to build a studio house in the [Hollywood] Hills that was going to be my creative sanctuary where I just honed in on finishing the project. No more fucking around. I’m gonna make sure this is the way I envisioned it. Once I brought in producers and writers, we were in there every day being creative — painting, writing, graphic design. We set the vibe, had Taco Tuesday parties. That was a huge turning point for me. Once that summer happened, I regained a huge sense of confidence and purpose: Okay, I’m doing this. I really made this happen. I’m gonna make my best music ever. That’s what we did.

You’ve talked before about this need to prove yourself. Prove what to whom?

I don’t know. I always feel like an underdog. Underestimated. I feel like I have to prove that I’m serious and here to stay, that I’m not just a cute girl. Sometimes I think people think I’m stupid or that my art is not real art. Those things always bother me.

Where is that criticism coming from?

Myself. When you’re a super perfectionist, set unreasonably high expectations, and don’t hit them, you can be hard on yourself. I’m my harshest critic because I put the most pressure on myself. But I also manage it pretty well, all things considered. I never let it break me. I think I thrive under pressure.

Do you feel you had full creative control over this album?

Um, yeah. Yes. At this point, for sure. There were times along the way were there were creative discrepancies, but I’m happy to say that this project is all me. Everything from the cover art, to the sequencing, to the number of seconds in between the tracks, that’s me. I even started DMing Little Dragon, as a fan, around 2014 and eventually got them for “Stuck With Me.” I was so excited because this is the only feature I’ve ever facilitated on my own. And through Instagram! Shout-out to the DMs, making things happen”.

PHOTO CREDIT: João Canziani for Vulture

I am keen to review Tinashe’s latest single - though I think it is important and useful knowing more about her and how she has got to this point in her career. Interview Magazine asked Tinashe about being involved in the production process for Joyride:

“BARR: What can you share with fans that they can expect from Joyride?

TINASHE: I’m excited for fans to hear. I think it has a lot of great energy. It’s something that you wanna play that makes you feel good, and it’s something that I hope everyone will appreciate, because I’ve definitely put a lot of work and energy into it for a while, so I’m excited for everyone to finally hear it.

BARR: I know that you like being involved in the production process, but that’s not always easy on a major label. Did you have a hand in the production on Joyride?

TINASHE: Yeah. I think it’s important to have a hand in every single aspect of your career, from the creation of the music, to the art, to the music videos, to the production of the music, everything. It’s just my vision has really come through with this project, and I’m excited for people to see.

BARR: How have your fans reacted to the wait for Joyride?

TINASHE: They’ve been very dedicated. I have some fans back there who have been fans forever. I know them by name, so that’s meant a lot to me to have those kind of people supporting me”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parker Woods

Stockings on Joyride. SPIN caught up with her and observed that the album was a definite step up. It seems that, to that point, it was her most personal album:

“If it’s not already clear, Tinashe swears she’s gunning for worldwide superstardom on Joyride, a still very much in-progress album that aims big in its production, songwriting, and ambition. The final track list has yet to be revealed, but early demos include gorgeous ballads like “Fires and Flames” as well as collaborations with Houston R&B up-and-comer Dpat (“Coldish”), and London soul singer Joel Compass (“Touch Pass”). She’s also enlisted former mixtape cohorts Boi-1da (“Not for Nothing”) and Dev Hynes (“Ghetto Boy”), as well as power-players like Hit-Boy and Travi$ Scott (the title track). Joyride — which is due sometime in late January or early February, according to Tinashe’s team — also notably boasts its share of proper pop singles, including the already-released Chris Brown duet “Player” and “Prisoner,” a scorcher produced by members of Max Martin’s camp, Wolf Cousins.

“It becomes the story of my life,” she says of the record. “People always want to make an artist so uni-dimensional. People either hear my radio songs and think I can only make music that sounds like that and I probably have no substance and no lyrical content and no point of view, or it’s that I’m only supposed to be an underground, indie, ‘mixtape-in-my-bedroom’ artist and the fact that I’m making anything that’s commercially accessible makes it garbage, which isn’t the truth. It’s definitely become a process trying to convince people that yes, I am creative but I can be accessible, and I can be cool. It’s very rare that people are able to be all of those things. But I am.”

Hitting that happy medium is a daily task Tinashe’s constantly adjusting to, but she says she’s thus far had the support of her label the whole way through. “Being a pop star is, at the end of the day, the ultimate goal,” says Lisa Cambridge-Mitchell, the singer’s product manager at RCA. “But, you don’t become a star — putting aside the ‘pop’ part — on a song. You become a star because you show dimension. You become a star because you show depth. You become a star because you’re interesting. All these planets have to align and then, holy s**t, you’re a star!”

The Face interviewed Tinashe in 2019 and asked about her split with RCA. Although there would have been positives being with RCA, breaking away seems to have been liberating in a sense:

“After Tinashe initiated exit talks with RCA, news broke earlier this February that she had officially split with the imprint that she called home since 2012. But by that point, she’d already begun work on her fourth album, Songs For You. Released in November, it marked her first full-length project as an independent artist. The moody tracklist, headed up by the sneering Die a Little Bit featuring Ms Banks, calls back to her earlier mixtape work, bubbling with ideas that, true to form, careen between genres. This time, the reaction was surprisingly different: Songs For You vaulted to No. 1 on the iTunes album chart, and non-single Save Room For Us featuring MAKJ launched to the top spot on its R&B chart.

For Tinashe, the record’s success signalled that trusting her gut and forging ahead on her own had been the right choice all along. “If I want to put something out or I think this is the song or move, it’s not overanalysed, it’s not strategised to the point where it takes the soul out of it. It’s not hyper-curated,” she says. “It’s just instinctual.”

That also meant abandoning the need for chart success. It’s something she fell into and struggled with in the years signed to RCA, and you can’t help but notice that tracks like Superlove reached for a persona that simply wasn’t her own. “It came to the point where I was chasing whatever a hit may be and trying to sell these genres or box myself in sonically, which I never felt fit who I was,” she says. “With this project, it was important I get back to creating something that was important for me. But at the same time, I also had the realisation that that is what my fans want as well. That’s what they are going to respond to the best, is stuff that feels really legitimate to who I am.”

Tinashe kept the circle small on Songs For You, curating a select group of artists to appear on the project, including G‑Eazy on the pearl-clutching So Much Better and 6LACK for the pillowy Touch & Go. But it’s more a display of her range, from the hyphy-adjacent Hopscotch to the acoustic closer Remember When. Fans took note: “I think people have seen the fact that I’ve been through it a little bit and haven’t stopped, and that’s inspiring to people,” she says. “That’s probably what’s shifted the conversation from, ‘Tinashe is whatever, her music is whatever,’ to ‘This is actually dope, she’s dope, we’re rooting for you’”.

Songs for You is an album that people need to get. One can hear a much freer and bolder artist. In terms of the themes that she tackles on the album, there is a difference compared to her previous three albums. This was explored in a Rolling Stone interview:

“Tinashe wasn’t always the type of artist to lead with her political beliefs. It’s not that she didn’t have her convictions, but trying to keep your recording career alive inside a company that’s not built for you to succeed tends to be a full-time job. She parted ways with RCA in 2019, the label she announced signing to seven years prior. If the last few years of her existence focused on achieving creative and contractual freedom, 2020 seems to be about transparency. Over the phone, the Songs for You singer is as passionate about changing systemic racism in the music industry as she is about Black Lives Matter protests. “I think I’ve always been this way, like this is just who I am,” Tinashe says. “But I do think that having the freedom as a creative takes away the fear about how you move, because you realize that it’s now it’s your responsibility.”

“There’s a freedom in standing up for what I believe in and speaking candidly about things that I think are important and just losing that fear, because a lot of the reason why people don’t is just because they have these irrational fears about how I guess things will inevitably affect them, but it’s not worth it,” she continues. “It’s it’s much more important to be honest, especially at this time. I think it’s so important that everyone is honest.”

Her latest song, “Rascal,” is tinged with a sense of rebellion. “They don’t know the road that we’ve been on,” she sings. “Bitch that ain’t a joke, I’m a villain.” For some corporate overlords, Tinashe is indeed an antagonist for the major label system. But for others, she’s an artist that escaped from the machine intact and is now speaking on what it takes to not be swallowed whole”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pat Martin

I am coming up-to-date and getting nearer to 2021. Since thew last big round of promotional interviews was in 2019, it is intriguing picking up on some. Billboard spent time with Tinashe and asked her about her 2019 contemporaries – in addition to how she thinks her career has progressed:

“With that said, who do you consider to be your contemporaries in music? Would you say Jhene Aiko is in your class?

In a way, yes. She just makes much vibier music. We came up around the same time and started putting stuff out around the same time. We were definitely very competitive with each other early on.

Do you feel that your lane has been marginalized in a way? I look at you or a Jhene and see huge social followings, quality music, but it may not sell the way people would think. Am I missing something?

I think that was what I felt when I was being this "R&B girl." I sometimes feel like they put that title on to limit you. R&B is a very niche genre and it hasn't been the most popular genre since the early 2000s or late '90s. It was a slow process of losing track and getting off course.

How would you describe this stage of your career?

I cleaned house and got rid of both my label and my management. I got rid of my entire team and built it from the ground up. Getting rid of my management had to be the most difficult thing I've ever done. I was with them for seven years and that's like family, but I felt like I had to grow and try new things and take a risk.

PHOTO CREDIT: João Canziani for Vulture

Once I made those changes, I felt completely different. I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders and I had no pressure in the studio anymore, which changed the game for me. I remember when I was on a major label, you’d go into the studio with a producer and you get one day and you feel like we have to make a f---ing hit. We got the next eight hours to do it big, and by adding that pressure, it genuinely taints the creative process.

It felt very different in the studio and I didn't have to be like, "Let's make a radio smash." I was just throwing paint at the wall and seeing what sticks. I was doing it all from my house, which is amazing. It was really natural. I'd be there just rolled out of bed in my sweatpants, so when people came into work with me, they were like, "Okay, this isn't any of that Hollywood sh--. This is real." It was as if we were friends in high school and like, "Let's make some songs." That energy carried through”.

Do you still care for that mainstream success?

It's just different now. I care, of course, because everyone wants to be successful, but that's not my goal with creating. My goal in general was to get back to my roots and do everything the right way. And to allow people the chance to discover me for who I really am”.

Last year could not have been an easy one for Tinashe. Like all artists, she was hoping to perform and get out there. With an album relatively fresh under her belt, she was stopped in her tracks by the pandemic. I shall come to that more in a bit. I will return to the Rolling Stone interview. They (last year) asked Tinashe about her current output:

“What’s the new music been sounding like?

I really wanted to create stuff that felt really happy and brought, you know, joy because I was obviously feeling really depressed. We’re stuck in the house. This is unprecedented depression that we all kind of felt collectively before we normalized this. Now, maybe it’s not as bad. I think it was I really wanted to make songs that for me, felt really hopeful and exciting and fun. So there’s a lot of danceable beats and stuff you still want to play that makes you feel good. That’s kind of been my main focus. And also, like not writing literally about being in quarantine.

What’s your thoughts been on how the major labels have responded to calls for equality and equity in the wake of all of this social upheaval?

I think it’s great. There’s some first steps that definitely some people and some companies have taken that are amazing and are progress, but I also honestly kind of think it’s funny. There’s such a long way to go and it’s so deeply rooted and so systemic in the music business and in these major label systems, that it feels kind of just tone deaf and off a little bit to me. And obviously a little bit of just like performative activism and not real getting down to the issues. I obviously don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, but I’ve seen a lot that makes me want to hope for a complete restructuring of how it’s operating”.

It couldn’t have been easy coping during lockdown. Even though it was a tough time, Tinashe kept busy. In this CLASH interview, we find out about a challenge that Tinashe devised:

“Obviously, these are unprecedented times to be doing an interview. Where are you now and how are you adjusting to quarantine?

I think pretty well. It’s not too disruptive of my typical day. I’m still able to be creative for the most part but obviously, it's still emotionally taxing.

During this, it's still been a good time for TikTok and you’ve put together your own challenge with Link Up. As a choreographer, can you describe approaching the creation of a TikTok challenge?

I think it's just about doing something that’s within people’s grasps that they can understand without being a professional dancer. It’s about everyone participating. That’s the ultimate goal. Of course.

And how do you feel fan reactions and submissions have been?

They’ve been so cute. I can’t think of any that have stuck out more than others, but there’s been so many good ones.

Do you think it's helping people get through these strange times?

I think just people are starved for positive content and they want to see stuff that makes them feel good and smile and is something happy, a happy distraction. That's where that falls in.

And you’ve already been ahead of the curve with the work-from-home stuff. I remember your VR concert back in January, and with all going on with self-isolation, Twitter is now saying you were ahead of your time. How was that experience and do you think it could be the future of concerts?

Yeah. I was really interested in working on being able to bring live experiences, like on demand, to basically people who maybe don't live in major markets or can't easily access concerts.

The performance element for me is such a huge part of who I am as an artist. I just want to be able to get that across to even more people and I've been brainstorming how to execute that in a way where people still feel like they're engaged in the show.

Because obviously, that’s a one-time, you-can-never-see-this-again experience, kind of like in sports. It’s what's intriguing about it or what makes it so special”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Rutherford

Just before getting to Bouncin, I want to explore the subject of sexuality. Pride posted an article where they reacted to an interview Tinashe provided to Gay Times. She explored her bisexuality and busting stereotypes:

“In a recent cover story for the latest issue of queer UK publication Gay Times, the "Save Room For Us" singer talked about how although she didn't assign herself a label when it came to her own sexuality in the past (mostly because of other people and their lack of knowledge when it comes to bisexuality), she is comfortable enough now to call herself bi.

"It’s not that I don’t like putting a label on it, but when you say you’re bisexual, a lot of people think...they just have a lack of understanding about what it is. And I tend to shy away from terms (I guess this is the theme of my life!) that make people want to categorize me or put me in a box," she told the mag. "I don’t like that shit. But — but — I can still give you a general sense of yeah, I’m bisexual. I’m somewhere on the spectrum. You know?"

She continued:

"It’s not like all bisexual people like men and women equally — or like all bisexual people are a certain type of person. Human beings are so versatile. I don’t understand why we’re so obsessed with categorizing each other."

"I never wanted people to think that I used it for attention. There are so many f—ing stereotypes about being bisexual that made me want to shy away from talking about it. I’m much more open to having those discussions now."

This isn't the first time Tinashe has publicly discussed being a part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Back in 2011, when the singer was 18 years old, she tweeted about how she likes both boys and girls, and about how she has so much love to give.

According to Rolling Out, she also wrote a (now-deleted) Tumblr post in 2012 where she talked more about how she didn't necessarily want to have to label herself.

"I don’t necessarily want to put a title on it, ‘cause as soon as you put a title on it, people, you know, put it into a category where it has to be 50/50," Tinashe wrote. "But I definitely know that I have an attraction to everyone and I love everybody."

And she also opened up to Huffington Post back in 2016 about not having to assign labels to things.

"I feel, like, nowadays, people are a little bit more understanding of the fact that other people don’t necessarily want to assign themselves one particular thing or another," she said. "That’s all a part of how we’re growing and progressing as a society. I think it’s exciting that we don’t have to be so black and white, because the world isn’t black and white."

However she wants to label herself, we're so, so glad Tinashe is comfortable enough to share her journey with her bisexuality openly with the world! And we have no choice but to stan!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: FOX Image Collection for Getty Images

This takes us to the latest song from Tinashe, Bouncin. There is talk of a fifth studio album and when that might come. There is a coolness and swagger to the first verse. With this great vibe and rhythm, you are caught on the flow: “Watch it bouncin' on the ground, got my edges sweatin' out/Turn it up extra loud (Oh)/Yeah, tonight we steppin' out, been a minute since I found/Someone who could hold it down (Oh)/What you really talkin' 'bout? I been sendin' dirty pics/Hope they make it to the Cloud (Oh)/Watch it bouncin' on the ground, got my edges sweatin' out/Bou-bouncin' on the ground (Bou-bouncin' on the ground)”. Tinashe sounds laidback, although there is this urgency and edge that one cannot ignore. Mixing confidence with rawness and the explicit, it is a memorable opening passage! I am not sure whether a particular person compelled the song and where it derives from. Whilst the first verse sees Tinashe’s voice quite low, smooth and sensual, it is higher-pitched and more breathy in the following section. It is a great switch that one will not see coming. The imagery will flood into the mind and provoke images. It is clear that Tinashe is in control and calling the shots: “Cuban links, all the gold on my neck/Shinin' brighter than a spotlight/Might intimidate ya/Don't, I'ma see you later/Callin' me, all of these hoes on my neck/Lately, I don't even call back/Might intimidate ya/Don't, I'ma see you later”.

Beautiful, banging, hard-edged, seductive and sexy, Bouncin is a song that demands several listens. It is a track that is not really that similar to anything she has produced before. I really love her vocal throughout. To me, Tinashe is one of the most interesting voices in music. Maybe there are similarities to FKA twigs when she sings in a higher register. To contrast that, there is a processed vocal that is lower and slowed – as it sings “Bouncin' on the ground (Oh)/Bouncin' on the ground/Bou-bouncin' on the ground”. Tinashe providing this sensual and beautiful interjection creates this nice contrast and depth. The chorus comes back in and one gets a new appreciation for her range. I said that there was a sense of swagger. Maybe it is not cockiness. It is definitely alluring and deeply engaging. I love listening to Tinashe sing. She has so many layers and colours to her voice! From the chorus, there is another gear change. Things become bigger and more evocative. From the more tender and cool bounce of the chorus, there is more of a bright Pop embrace when she sings: “Just like this/Got that magic touch, you can call me Midas/This is what it's like when you're on my list/Shoot don't miss/Love it how it feels when we're just vibin'”. It is clear that Tinashe has someone in mind. A desire for satisfaction and companionship. Bouncin is a song that lays out its objectives - through there is a degree of mystery. The heroine is definitely direct and in control: “Don't fight it/Cancelled all my plans, all the side chicks/I know what I want so come try this/Baby, read my lips/Lemme make your night, top it off with a kiss”. To end the song, the chorus comes back in and we get the great blend of the processed low vocal with Tinashe’s smoky and beautiful vocal. A tantalising taste from her forthcoming fifth studio album, I will be interested to see what more comes from her. Bouncin is an amazing song that you will want to play again and again. It is a track that ranks alongside…