FEATURE: Spotlight: Mnelia — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Mnelia

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I respect an artist…

PHOTO CREDIT: Bella Howard

who puts a lot of effort into their social media channels and official website as much as the music. That is the case with Mnelia. The London-based artist has a great and retro homepage, but she is also someone who is shaking up British R&B. There are a few interviews I want to bring into this feature. Going back to 2021, I don’t know if I had heard Mnelia back then. I discovered her music earlier this year I think. I was instantly struck. It compelled me to discover more about an artist who clearly is going to go places. Already seducing and thrilling with the Closure Tapes E.P. released in May, she is primed for big things. I am going to come to some interviews from this year. First, NOTION spotlighted the remarkable Mnelia back in 2021. She was really started to take off after the 2020 release of her E.P., After 6:

“Breaking through the constant churn of new music is Mnelia. The rising artist’s nostalgic, 90s R&B is a welcome oasis in the current music landscape, much of which is inflected with the same sounds. But the North Londoner’s irresistible tunes are pinning her as the next queen of the UK R&B scene.

Sharing her latest single, “Senseless”, takes Mnelia’s R&B vibe and blends it with a pop appeal. It’s hard not to get hooked as she sings about losing her senses when she’s near her lover. “I’m not the type of girl to forget how to act/ But boy you got me losing all of my senses”, she sings coyly. It’s a seductive, bubbly number that further cements Mnelia as one to watch this year.

“Senseless” is Mnelia’s first single after her debut EP, ‘After 6’, dropped last year. But it was “Say Yeah” that acted as the launchpad for Mnelia. With candyfloss vocals that could make Ariana Grande jealous, it’s a crime that we haven’t been able to get down to the Y2K tune in the club.

Notion caught up with Mnelia to chat about her new single and its accompanying music video, dream collabs, showing people what she’s capable of and much more.

Firstly, congrats on your new single “Senseless”! It’s such a bop. How long had it been in the works before release?

Thank you! It was originally made in November 2019, actually before “Say Yeah”. I wouldn’t really say it was “in the works” though as I made it a while ago and left it to simmer until I felt as though it was the right time to drop it. And thankfully it worked out well, as it’s the reception has been really positive which is always a

The music video is also such a vibe. Where did the idea for the concept come from, and what was it like filming it?

It was lovely filming it! Because I filmed it with TP (Terry Paul) who’s always my go-to guy. Honestly, it’s always a collaborative effort, featuring myself, Terry (Director), Meghan (Producer) & Komali (A&R).

How has the past year been for you creatively?

The past year has been insane! I haven’t really had a past year “creatively” more so I’ve had moments where I’m able to work a lot, and then less so, and vice versa. There’s definitely been a lot of adjusting, but it’s been good.

You had a breakthrough with your song “Say Yeah”, which came out last year. Looking back, did you expect the song to be so successful?

I never expected the track to do so well, but honestly, I feel like I say that all the time with each of my releases! Normally I don’t really have an expectation, I just get on with it. I prefer to make the music and allow the songs to do what they’re destined to do, and hopefully, it resonates with people.

Last year you also dropped the EP ‘After 6’. Can you talk us through the themes and inspirations for the record?

I wanted each song to encompass a different dynamic, especially with what I was going through (pregnancy) at the time. No one knew what was happening behind the scenes, so I wanted to make a 4 track EP and let people know that I’m capable of more than just “Say Yeah”.

If you could collab with any artist – dead or alive – who would it be and why?

Alive would be Lenny Kravitz. Dead would be Duke Ellington. I love Jazz, and specifically his style of Jazz! I wouldn’t collaborate with an artist people expect me to.. as that could happen naturally within the industry. I feel like I would go out of pocket and work with someone I wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to work with. That way I would have a song that’s an “experience” and not just an mp3 file or bounce from a session. – Even though I know my cousin wants me to say Aaliyah!

Where do you find the greatest forms of validation?

My sons smile! And my mum, she tries to act cool and proper chilled at times when I expect her to jump out of her seat. So really, when does get excited and my mum admits she doe like it / something I know it’s sick and is something impressive.

PHOTO CREDIT: Kiran Gidda

If you could rewind to one moment in your life, what would it be?

Hearing my son laugh for the first time! That was a crazy moment and I couldn’t believe it. It instantly became my favourite sound in the world. And also Merky Fest. Being in a place where music, sun and enjoying with my friends was the only concern was a good time.

What would your advice be for artists starting out?

DO IT! Even if it seems scary, just do it, or someone else will. You don’t want to look back on life with any regrets. It’s important to believe in yourself – a lot of your success will come from believing internally that you can get it done.

What can we expect next from Mnelia?

Have some more babies! Joking! More music, more sick music and “experiences”! I intend on being an “experience” to anyone that comes across me. Through my music, brand, live shows, personality and overall human stand point. I’m learning every day and hopefully, I can continue to inspire others to come”.

Mnelia has been on the scene a while now. The north west London artist has a child, and she is making some of the best music around. All of this deserves respect. She wants world domination. Going from strength to strength. I think that she will definitely take over the music world. Someone who knows what she wants and is going after it! Earlier this year, GRM Daily. If you do not follow this incredible artist, then you will want to get your ears around her music. I am a little late to the party, though I am making up for that lost time now:

“What would you say has been the biggest challenge so far in your career?

“Getting over myself. I’m too conscious of everything I do, from the way I walk to the way I talk, or I was. But I had to really learn how to get over myself. And also, I think, in the middle of that, because I had a child, the identity crisis that I experienced was a bit mad, because before I had my son, I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing. And then I had my son, and I was like, wow, I really don’t know.

“All I know is that music is a constant, and it’s something that I will wake up every single week I want to know where I’m going studio, so I’m making that song because to me the most rewarding thing I experienced throughout life apart from having a child now, is leaving the session and listening to the bounce and being like rah you made that? like yeah are we going to make something better?

“So I would say definitely identity crisis and stepping over the obstacle of insecurity, which is something to hard deal with. I think it amplifies itself when you’re in people’s faces, 1000%, but I also just think whether you’re in your bedroom or whether you’re on a TV screen, your insecurities are your insecurities. So having to be like, whoa I’m scared. But it’s a step-by-step thing. I’m starting to realise you’ll never really ever be 100% like, yeah, I’m that person because there are days that are built to knock you. But like on the other side of that day, that I’m starting to get used to that.”

One of the most interesting collabs on there is the KwengFace collab on “White Lies”, how did that come about?

“It was kind of random, but I don’t believe in random things. I genuinely feel like fate aligns itself. Like, I feel like we were always going to end up crossing paths one way or another. We have too many synchronicities for it to just not have been like that. So, my A&R at the time, she goes around London playing my music essentially, like she’s one of the biggest cheerleaders and she must have gone to a session with his manager, played the song once…and the next thing I knew I just got a bounce, I didn’t hear Kwengface is gonna jump on your song. I didn’t hear anything. There was no prelude. It was straight into it. Kwengface is on your song.

“I listened to it. I was like, is he singing? Like, the man’s singing. I was like, no matter what happens, I have to do something with this. Just because I genuinely feel like for someone who does drill to step so out of pocket on an R&B song, and actually sing with his full chest. I said, you know, big up yourself. Honestly, I have the utmost respect for Kweng. I love him so much. He’s legit my brother. And I feel like it was almost like we made the song like five years prior, had known each other for 10 years, like that was the most effortless collaboration I think I’ve ever had in my life.”

“He made it so, so smooth. And I never have rocky collaborations. Anytime I ever, always so smooth. But that one, takes the cream, it was just amazing. It’s one for the boys…I make sure that a lot of my music is digestible for them.”

Sticking on the topic of collabs and stuff, who would you say is your dream collaboration?

“Lauryn Hill. My answer has changed so many times over the years, but I think I’ve come to realise that so Frank Ocean is the love of my life, like from top to bottom, that man with every single fibre of my being, every single time. He’s so sacred to me that I just wouldn’t even want to, he’s that one person I wouldn’t even meet, like I love you so much that I don’t want to meet and taint any perception. But for me, Lauryn Hill, is legit the epitome of artistry. From her demeanour to the way she articulates herself, her bank of knowledge, the way she conducts herself and makes music.”

“In the UK, Angel, WSTRN I would love to collab with, Ava would love to collab with, Craig David I’d love to collab with, if I could collab with Sade.”

Who are some of your biggest inspirations in the music industry and music in general?

“Definitely Frank, definitely Brandy, definitely Jasmine Sullivan, definitely Craig David. My dad, though, he’s not in the music industry, but my dad was at the epicentre of my musical influence because he was the first person to introduce me to music, he was the first person to introduce me to singing, he was the first person that mentored me, like my dad would sing in church and I would just copy him. Like, I remember I never used to be able to sing lead. I would always harmonize because my dad would be attached to harmonizing. But like, he is the epitome of my musical influence. That’s one thing that I can never take away from that man. He got me here.”

What was the process of putting the EP Closure Tapes together like?

“I’d be lying if I said it was a smooth slope. I had about two projects before I finished. So, 2020, I dropped After 6. And that was kind of like, I’ve been away for a second, only because you guys didn’t know I was pregnant, but here you go. Then early 2021, I went into the studio, and I started constructing a project. But I started to realise that because I had taken so much time out to be pregnant, I hadn’t lived life enough and the project didn’t feel true. It just felt like a cop-out. And one thing I’m never going to do is just give you a result because you want it, or like necessarily be like, people are asking for this, I’m just going to put as much of myself as I can in it as possible.

“So I had a project and I completely scrapped it, threw her in the bin. And then the process of getting back into creating Closure Tapes came at a time where there was like a massive turnaround for me. I had new management, my son was about to turn 1, I’d just split from my partner and it was like, there was so much going on and it was like this is the level of life that I kind of needed to be experiencing in order to put it in the music and finally make music of substance”.

I am going to wrap up now. Closure Tapes has put Mnelia on a new plain. A different level. Her finest and most complete work to date, she grows in confidence and stature with every new release. I cannot wait to see where she goes from here. The E.P. is getting buzz from the likes of CLASH. There are some great and really deep interviews out there. Mnelia talks passionately about her music. Proud of what she has achieved and eager to connect with listeners and for that music to remembered, here is someone who really wants to put her stamp on the music industry – which she has been doing already:

“Starting with the name of the E.P. Closure Tapes, how did that come about?

Everything pertaining to this project was a sequence of gradual revelations, which is funny because the first track on the project is Revelation. It has been quite a full circle because I didn’t look for the name. All I knew about this project was that I wanted it to reflect everything I had gone through. And what I was going through was heartbreak, fresh motherhood, and dealing with the new signee at a major label and all of these things in a pandemic. And the one thing that everyone kept asking me was ‘What do you want?’ And I would have this question asked all the time, and at a point in time, I just said to myself that I want closure. I want to understand why things in my life are happening and how they are happening like this, and I want to have that understanding and just let them be. And then, I realized halfway through the process that it wasn’t closure that I was looking for, but it was closure that I was experiencing. I knew this was a chapter in my life that I would never be able ever to leave behind. It will be something I’m going to revisit in my mind consistently. So, I started to get into the imagery of what that looked like for me, and a massive part of my childhood was that I used to listen to cassettes a lot and would record myself on them. Even with technology now, I’ve carried that on because I use my voice notes as cassettes in the sense that I will voice note everything that I’m going through, which is what I did throughout the entire process of where I was in my life. So my voice memos became my cassette tapes, and then, putting those two things together, I called the project Closure Tapes.

Tell us how and where this production of this EP started for you?

There wasn’t a particular point where I said I was going to do a project. What happened was a sequence of events that led me to a breaking point. And at that breaking point, I was greeted by myself. And it was the part of me that I’d neglected; it was my emotions, my dietary habits at the time. It was every single part of my world that I had allowed to crash. So, I had to reach rock bottom for this project to exist. It started when I had a year, and I didn’t know how I would make it alive out of that year because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was using music to try and soften the blows of what was going on, and it became an escape mechanism in the sense that I wasn’t actually dealing with what was going on, and so even in making music, it wasn’t even something I was necessarily enjoying at the time. So, I had to process that and figure that out, and in doing so, I got new management, and in the process of getting new management, I found a team full of people that understood my vision. I could lean on them and worry about rehabilitating myself for a second. And it was really a thing because there were days when I couldn’t even go to the studio, and everything felt so difficult, and they helped me get through and push it. The first song I wrote was Closure, which ended up being the first single and half of the project title. And all of that came from the process of me finally not running away from myself. The one thing I wanted was to be vulnerable, and that’s what our project allowed me to do. So, it’s been a blessing to be able to make it known.

How has motherhood and being a new mother changed and impacted you as an artist?

A child’s innocence is always the most inspirational thing about them because they’re so naïve that they don’t know a thing. But yet still, they’re just they’re so keen and so eager to live the best life that they know. Ro makes me want to wake up every day and have the best time; it doesn’t matter what we’re doing. He’s just a little hub of love. He reminds me how much love is important to me. He constantly tests my capacity, from patience to happiness, when I feel like I can’t be any prouder. He makes me proud. When I feel like I can’t be tired, he makes me more tired. He is just there just for me to explore all the extremities. He consistently reminds me that I’m not in control and that I have to be accountable, try my hardest, and hold myself responsible for what I’m responsible for. But to be a child is to be free, to be experimental, to be brave, to love without limits. To know, without knowing anything, but to go and act like the world is yours, and I feel like some of these things have translated into how I make music and made this project.

You worked with several people on this E.P. including Bellah, Joyce Wrice, Miraa May and Kwengface. Can you talk us through collaboration process and how you brought them on baord?

Everyone on this project has poured into me one way or another, somebody that was a part of my growth process. I take the process of making music very, very, very, very delicately because music is one thing that my emotions are always so sensitive to. Miraa (May’s) son and Ro are best friends, so it’s effortless for me to be cool. I’m just going to have her be on the project. I didn’t even have to think about it. And Bellah is Ro’s godmother. Those two girls are the two who helped me with my breakup the most, apart from my best friend. But In terms of everyone that I collaborated with, from the girls, even down to Joyce Wrice, who someone that I adore. Some of the people that she frequently collaborates with were the ones that even kickstarted the process of me realizing that I was doing a project. We were in L.A. when we made Lalala, that was a big turnaround moment for me because it was the first time I’d gone to L.A. to work, and I made that song and was so proud of myself. From top to bottom, everybody just came together so well, and all the collaborations they’re just so rife, and they were all well-placed. Ro starts the project and his godmother ends the project. My mom is in the middle of the project.

Ari PenSmith was someone that I was so inspired by when I first started making music. When we made the song Déjà Vu I was crying on his shoulder and I had no clue I was going to be able to relate to the song in the way I did. Working with everybody it was just a spiderweb of beautiful connections and beautiful people that care so much about music that it wasn’t necessarily about what the album became and it was more about being able to have a space for my honesty, transparency, and vulnerability. I was actually able to be in sessions and cry and be with people I’ve cried with because everyone on this project knows me deeply, and they know me well”.

I am going to wrap up now. Go and check out the amazing Mnelia. She has released one of the best E.P.s of the year with Closure Tapes. I would really encourage everyone to support her and check out the music. A gem and star in the British R&B scene, I think that Mnelia is going to be a worldwide name before you know it. Someone who I feel gives her everything to music, this commitment and tireless work deserves reward and long-term success. If you have not found Mnelia and she is a new name to you, do make sure that you…