FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: FLO — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

PHOTO CREDIT: Melanie Lehmann via NOTION

FLO

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I initially…

PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Ford for NME

spotlighted FLO in 2022. They were just coming through then so, for this Spotlight: Revisited, there is a lot of ground to cover. A lot has changed. I will get to some interviews with this incredible group. They consist of Jorja Douglas, Stella Quaresma and Renée Downer. I am not sure whether they would label themselves as a traditional girl group in the mould of TLC, Destiny’s Child, Sugababes or Eternal, say. One can definitely sense a connection with groups like that. Maybe an R&B group. However, as girl groups are a rarity now and it is not a huge scene like it was back in the 1990s and 2000s, I feel like they are keeping a light on. Ensuring that they are still a thing. Their acclaimed 2024 debut album, Access All Areas, I think should have been nominated for a Mercury Prize. It is a stunning album that I hope they follow up soon. Maybe not as gritty or edgy as some of the older U.S. girl group contemporaries, they did put out a distinct sound. One that they will build on. There is very much this feeling that British R&B isn’t a thing or isn’t big. There are artists like FLO reviving it and putting it in the spotlight. There are a couple of 2024 interviews from NME that I want to get to. The first was when FLO played at Reading and Leeds. Getting their reaction to that experience and also talking about their debut album, Access All Areas:

“Hi FLO! What was it like performing for the first time at Reading and Leeds Festival?

Stella Quaresma: “The crowd was incredible.”

Renée Downer: “For our first performance, we would have hoped that everything would have come together in terms of production. But, the crowd gave us life, and they kept us going, which is the most important thing.”

You did a mash-up of your song ‘Summertime’ with Aaliyah‘s ‘Try Again’ – why did you want to pay homage to the late icon?

Quaresma: “I feel like she was the first – maybe not the first, but she was such an it-girl. She did so many things for people like us who love R&B, so thank you, Aaliyah.”

Jorja Douglas: “Also, Timbaland [was] on the production, and that’s so influential as well –especially to our sound – so it makes sense to incorporate it into our set.”

You guys have been lauded by the likes of Victoria Monét, JoJo, SZA and more – how is it like getting the respect of your fellow R&B it-girls?

Downer: “It’s the best type of compliment. The respect is just so lovely to receive that from people we actually look up to.”

One of the biggest co-signs you got was from Kelly Rowland – what was that like?

Douglas: “We’ve actually met her in real life a couple [of] times, and every time, she’s just always so kind and just wants to help [us]. [She] wants to know how it’s going and wants to share some advice, so she’s so genuine and down-to-earth. It’s been really nice meeting her.”

How do you feel about people comparing you to Destiny’s Child?

Douglas: “I think our work ethic is comparable. If anything, their work ethic is a lot more extreme than ours. But on that level, the work ethic and the attention to detail – that is what we take from Destiny’s Child.”

You’re releasing your debut album, ‘Access All Areas’, later this year – why now?

Downer: “It’s finally ready. We wanted to be really open, dig deep, and write music that actually had meaning for us. So the title explains itself, really.”

What themes do you explore on the album?

Douglas: “Self-love, love…”

Quaresma: “Relationships with a whole spectrum of different people; work, friends, boyfriends, partners…”

Douglas: “You can interpret the songs [however you like]. We may be referring to a boy or a man or whatever. It could be about your boss, it could be about your colleague, it could be about your mum, it could be about your dog. It could be about anything, whatever feels right for you, but you’re gonna vibe [to it].”

Who was an inspiration on the record?

Downer: “Brandy. We love her, and one song on the album particularly just has that essence of R&B. We wouldn’t know her this well.”

Quaresma: “We want her on it so much.”

What statement do you wanna make with ‘Access All Areas’?

Douglas: “There’s just so much to know.”

Quaresma: “Multifaceted. That you can go to the album to feel a whole range of things, you know. Feel like a baddie, feel hard, feel like other people are going through the same things, feel like you’re strong. There’s a lot going on.”

When you look back on your career a few years from now – what do you hope you’ve done?

Downer: “Just the revival of R&B girl groups because they’ve been gone for a long time.

Douglas: “We want to be known for, you know, [having the] R&B album of the year…”

Quaresma: “[Being] trailblazers…”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Tallulah Ballard

I want to move to an interview with Gay Times from last year. As huge fans of Access All Areas, it is a really interesting interview. I do think that other groups like FLO will follow. A British R&B girl group scene that has potential and future promise. At the moment, there is a bit of a small showing. However, FLO are leading lights that will open the door for others:

“FLO might need to add another ‘A’ to the title of their debut album because, as the tenacious trio tells GAY TIMES, “we’re allies, babe!”. With their future top five-peaking album Access All Areas (deserves number-one), Stella Quaresma, Jorja Douglas and Reneé Downer made sure to honour their LGBTQIA+ fans with a little assistance from Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, who invites “ladies, gentlemen and those who don’t subscribe to either” to enjoy their much-needed brand of “bad bitch replenishment”. “It was very important,” Stella says of the inclusive, intergalactic intro. “We welcome everyone. It’s like a family and we love and support everyone.” (Allies? Check!)

Executive produced by pop genius MNEK, Access All Areas has been released to widespread critical acclaim for the trio’s insane harmonies and chemistry, as well as their modern spin on girl groups while simultaneously paying homage to legendary acts like Destiny’s Child, TLC and SWV. If that wasn’t enough, FLO continued to gag the rainbow people when they released an extended version, sub-titled Unlocked, with remixes from R&B divas (and gay favourites) Bree Runway, Kehlani and Chloe x Halle.

Read ahead for our full interview with FLO, where they discuss their love for the LGBTQIA+ community, the absolute slayage of their GloRilla-assisted single ‘In My Bag’ and which beloved album track they have major “plans” for. Bonus: Stella, Jorja and Renée also name their favourite girl group smashers of all time.

GAY TIMES: Girls, this album is insane. It’s called Access All Areas, so, who’s allowed in? Who’s getting express entry? And who’s not allowed in? Who are you telling to bog off?

Stella: It’s funny because, even the people you think shouldn’t be allowed in, are allowed in because they need to listen and know what’s up.

Jorja: Yeah, there’s no list! That’s the purpose of the album. We have to let everyone in. They have to see all the sides of FLO; the good, the bad and the ugly.

GT: Let’s talk about how you landed Cynthia motherf**king Erivo for that stunning, intergalactic intro?!

Jorja: It was quite simple, which made this experience even more magical. We’ve had experience asking people for features and essentially not getting them, or being told we’re going to and not getting them. So, to have us ask and for her to deliver was… wow. It felt like the missing puzzle piece. It sets the whole album off on the perfect foot. Not only was her narration so beautiful, but her talent and who she is as an artist is equally as special.

Stella: Honestly, it was perfect timing.

Renée: The stars were aligning for us.

Jorja: She’s being pulled in every direction possible and she gave us the time of day. And we’ve only met the girl twice. She’s such a kind person and we really appreciate her.

GT: In that intro, I – and a lot of LGBTQIA+ people – were so happy to hear the inclusive line about “ladies, gentlemen and those who don’t subscribe to either”. Why was that important for you to include?

Renée: We’re allies, babe!

Stella: Yeah, we had to. It’s very important. [Access All Areas] is for everybody. We welcome everyone. It’s like a family and we love and support everyone.

Jorja: We don’t give a hoot what you are, who you are, as long as you’re tuning in and appreciate the music. That’s all we ask for.

GT: Historically, a huge portion of a girl group’s fanbase are of the rainbow variety. Have you noticed that support over the years?

Stella: Absolutely. Honestly, it’s the best.

Renée: It’s unwavering. It’s such a lovely dynamic between us and our fans, they just get it.

Jorja: They love the drama, they love the laugh. I think, as people who can sometimes struggle with their identity, being able to find themselves [in girl groups] makes them feel secure. Also, our music is super empowering. We want people to feel good and provide comfort within themselves. I just think we’re all on the same page.

GT: On Access All Areas, you honour iconic girl groups from history, from Destiny’s Child to TLC. While their presence is felt throughout, this album is quintessentially FLO. So, how do you think FLO is taking girl groups into the future?

Renée: I think we’re just aware of our current generation. We try and be in the clue with what’s going on right now and what sounds people like. We wanted to take what we know and are inspired by, and make it slightly edgier, fresher and more appealing.

GT: Let’s talk about the new single, ‘In My Bag’, featuring GloRilla. Erm, that video? That dance sequence?!

Renée: Right!? Can we talk about it?

Jorja: Iconic!

Stella: You need to learn it Sam, please.

GT: I’m not sure if I’ve got any moves, but I shall try.

Renée: You can do it.

Stella: You just have to vibe.

Jorja: You can also freestyle.

Renée: Working with Sean [Bankhead] has been a dream of ours and to have finally done it on the perfect song… We felt like everything just aligned, and it was very insightful working with him because he’s incredible.

GT: Why was ‘In My Bag’ the right song to release at the same time as the album?

Stella: We always get a feeling. When we heard this song we were all like, ‘This is a single. This is such a big song.’ The feeling we got was unmatched. It’s the feeling we had with ‘Cardboard Box’. We were so sure of the song, and having Glo on it just elevated it. It felt global and so catchy.

GT: It feels right that it’s accompanied by your best video to date. Also, stealing from the rich is so important.

Jorja: For real. That’s definitely a hidden message.

GT: Which Access All Areas track will get the biggest response from the LGBT’s, dya reckon?

Stella: I think they’re going to love ‘Soft’.

Renée: ‘Soft’ is that girl! And anyone has that energy, which obviously the LGBTQIA+ community do possess. They possess that energy and I think they’re going to love and relate to it.

Jorja: I just think she’s universal. That’s the thing I love because, obviously a lot of our songs are coming from our perspective as women, but ‘Soft’ is like… If you’re getting it as in you’re getting it, then you are getting it.

GT: Is the world ready for a video to ‘Soft’?

Stella: Well, we have the remix with Chloe x Halle for ‘Soft’, so we’d have to do that video with them. I mean… It would be amazing. It would be wow.

GT: I’m glad you brought up the remixes because you landed Chloe x Halle, Bree Runway and Kehlani? All icons.

Renée: We love all of them. We’re fans of all their music, so it made a lot of sense. We pretty much DM’d them and asked if they would do it and they all agreed. It was a really short turnout time and they were on it. It was such a nice feeling to know that they really wanted to be part of the songs. Chloe said it’s been stuck in her head all day, which is the biggest compliment ever.

GT: Kehlani’s featured on ‘IWH2BMX’. Do you have any exes that are currently shaking in their boots?

Renée: No [ex] knows it’s coming! But when they hear it… That’s the purpose of the song. When we were writing that it was like, ‘When our exes hear this song… sucks to be them!’

GT: I think a lot of fans will be surprised over ‘I’m Just a Girl’, which has a more rock-influenced and ferocious sound. What inspired the direction for this song and why was it the right one to close the album?

Jorja: When we started writing this song and deciding the hook, it was very much like, ‘We need to give Hayley Williams’; just belting, just power. It’s the last song because it encapsulates everything that we’ve been through as a group, and everything we stand for as a group. It’s a statement, it’s strong and leaves you thinking, ‘What the fuck? What the fuck did I just listen to?’ It just ties the whole thing up in…

Stella: A black bow.

Jorja: A black bow!

GT: I think I speak for all fans when I say: I need this immediately. Lately, there’s somewhat been a drought when it comes to girl groups. How much are we in need of – in Cynthia’s words – “bad bitch replenishment”?

Stella: There are plenty of bad bitches around, but when three bad bitches come together, it’s undeniable. I think everybody needs a girl group. It’s so necessary for every generation, and it’s an honour to be at the forefront.

GT: As we end this interview, I need – need! – each of you to name your favourite song by a girl band…

Jorja: Oh my god, I’m opening Spotify right now.

Stella: That’s so hard… Just one?

GT: Just one!

Renée: I’m going to say ‘Buttons’ by The Pussycat Dolls because the type of confidence, the type of things I imagined to that song… It was just pivotal to me as a child like, ‘This is what I want to be like.’ It’s so empowering and incredible.

Stella: I’m going to say ‘Survivor’ [by Destiny’s Child] because, being in a girl group, you have to be a survivor. Women, in general, being any minority, you have to be. To have that anthem to say ‘I am something’, is really important.

Jorja: I’m going to say ‘Too Lost in You’ [by the Sugababes]. Oh my god, that song right there is, not just the soundtrack to my life, but my made-up fantasy”.

There are two more interviews I will come to. I will end with another NME chat. Heading back to last August, British Vogue published their interview with FLO. There is a real connection and love between the members. Their friendship is all that matters. They talked about their bond, their vulnerable debut album, and fame. If you have not followed FLO then make sure that you do:

“Tell me about Access All Areas.

Stella: We approached this album wanting to be our unapologetic selves. I think people forget that being a bad bitch doesn’t mean you always have to have a wall up. It’s important to know the value of being vulnerable. We wanted to lay it all out… this album is a labour of love. We of course love the songs we wrote before, but we wanted to dig a bit deeper here. I’m excited for people to see the more emotional side, the more sensitive side, too.

Jorja: I just love the album title so much. It was inspired by a song we wrote in LA in a very memorable session where the liquor was flowing. It was just strong out of the gate.

Renée: To us it represents our growth and dedication to our craft. There’s nothing wrong with showing all sides of yourself, accessing all areas, but you just need to do it with confidence.

What are your favourite songs on the album? And which ones are you most excited to perform live?

Jorja: We are so excited to perform all of them live. We are sick and tired of singing songs off The Lead. Oh my God, give it a rest! It completely sucks the fun out of performing live because we know what we’re sitting on music-wise. We can’t wait to have an entirely new set, and when we do our tour for the album, it’s really going to be everything that we wanted to do for the past three years. In terms of favourite songs? It’s so hard to pick one. We have favourites for different reasons. Each mood requires a certain song but we all love “Access All Areas”. Another personal favourite is “Soft”: it’s very fresh, very current R’n’B, soft and sexy and simple. It doesn’t need to do too much.

Renée: My favourite is “I’m Just a Girl”. It’s going to be so full of energy when we perform it live, a real crowd jumper.

Stella: My favourite track changes a lot, but I think I would say “Bending My Rules” because it’s such a vocal moment and it shows off what we can all do. But I love “Access All Areas” as it’s the title track, and we had so much fun writing it. It’s timeless.

PHOTO CREDIT: Adama Jalloh

I know you’ve been together since 2019, but “Cardboard Box” was clearly a break-out moment for Flo. Do you feel any pressure to live up to its viral success moving forward?

Jorja: There’s not really pressure. Because I think what we realised very early on is that anything can go viral. So it’s not really a pressure you can put on yourself because you’re almost fighting a losing battle. You could put the most money or littlest money behind a project and that doesn’t dictate whether it will start trending. So the pressure we put on ourselves is just to create amazing music. There’s no point putting pressure on yourself because you’ll just get depressed! [laughs]

Do you have any mentors? I remember you saying before that you had a group chat with Brandy…

Stella: I think she might have gotten a new number. I hope she got a new number, and that’s fine. We don’t really have mentors, to be honest. Though we have people we love working with in the industry.

Jorja: Our vocal coach, Joshua Alamu, is always there looking out for our wellbeing, to listen to our problems and keep us grounded. He manages artists too so he gives us a lot of advice. Also MNEK has been instrumental in our creative process and pushing our vocals. He’s really helped us. But on the other side of the industry? Absolutely no one.

Stella: When we meet someone [in the industry], they’ll often give us a few words of wisdom. “Stick together, always communicate,” that kind of thing. But yeah, we’re working it out ourselves.

How would you describe your friendship? And what has being in Flo together taught you?

Stella: Awww. [All three hug.] All we’ve got is each other in this life, in this silly industry.

Jorja: Oh my god.

Renée: We’ve just been our own champions. Obviously we’ve got family and people around us supporting us, but it’s really our own constant communication with each other about the way we navigate the industry. We just talk to each other about it and figure out what’s going on here, and what went wrong here, and what/who to watch out for”.

It has been great seeing the rise of FLO. When I first wrote about them a few years ago, they were a promising group but I was not sure how things would pan out. I have written about them since but, as they are worthy of new spotlight, it is great to be assessing them when they have achieved so much and have a lot to look forward to. I am going to end with an NME interview where FLO discussed executed their “high quality” vision. Very much in their own lane as a British R&B group, I think all signs point to FLO dominating the scene soon:

“When FLO spoke to NME for the first time in April 2022, a month after ‘Cardboard Box’ dropped, Downer said: “We’re not going to be pushed over or go with someone else’s decision without believing in it ourselves.” Two-and-a-half years later, are they fully steering the ship?

“It’s a constant battle, Nick,” Downer says with mock theatricality. “Every day we’re faced with a new obstacle, but how we’ve adapted as individuals and as a group has made the obstacles much easier to overcome. We know what to expect now and how to get the best out of a situation.”

Douglas says this battle is rooted in the fact that “the UK doesn’t really understand R&B music or how to push it”. Early on, FLO were “absolutely” encouraged to switch towards other, supposedly more commercial genres, something they didn’t mind the odd “dip into”.

“[But] I think the main thing,” Douglas continues, “is R&B isn’t necessarily associated with, like, the highest marketing and the highest quality assets. There has to be a certain quality to [our] artwork and shoots and merch, which I think is a quality that [the industry thinks] more lends itself to pop music and mainstream music.”

The trio appear to address this on the album’s hard-hitting closing track ‘I’m Just A Girl’. “How many Black girls do you see on centre stage now? Yet you wonder why thеy’re going to the States now,” Quaresma sings on the second verse. In 2019, the year that FLO formed, British R&B singer Ella Mai spoke about a “ceiling” for artists working in this genre in the UK and said: “I don’t know the last time an R&B artist was recognised at the Brits.”

FLO have since helped to chip away at this ceiling by winning the Brit Award for Rising Star in 2023. “We’re getting more respected in the UK, and we definitely want our album to do that a bit more,” Quaresma says. “But Black music, I guess, aside from rap really does flourish better in the US. That’s just a fact.”

Since then, their progress has been steady rather than spectacular. In March 2023, they dropped ‘Fly Girl’, a sleek reimagining of Missy Elliott‘s 2002 banger ‘Work It’ that featured a verse from Misdemeanor herself. It stormed into the UK Top 40 and became their second most streamed single to date behind ‘Cardboard Box’.

No subsequent FLO single has matched its success, though album standouts ‘On & On’ and ‘Woulda Coulda Shoulda’ are easily strong enough to scale the charts. But crucially, FLO have already built a fanbase who are invested (and brave) enough to email their management with notes for future live shows.

“I think most were valid,” Douglas says candidly. “At first we just wanted to focus on our vocals. But obviously there are so many elements that go into putting a show together, like choreography, movement, stage design.” With this in mind, fans can expect levelled up production values next March when FLO play their biggest headline tour yet, including a hometown show at London’s 5,000-capacity O2 Academy Brixton.

But above all, FLO are moving in the right direction because they have the confidence to carve out their own lane. Most songs on their album run three minutes and over, so clearly they don’t self-edit to suit the brevity-focused Spotify and TikTok algorithms. “We’re making real music, so it’s never going to be fleeting,” Downer says.

The same could be said of FLO, who are on a long-term mission to become the UK’s preeminent girl group. Or as Downer puts it: “We’re here to clear the drought”.

I will end things there. A tremendous girl group whose debut album gained applause and kudos, the future looks clear. They are set on domination. At present, they are in the U.S. and have many great dates coming up as part of their Access All Areas Tour. Go and catch them if you can. If you are not a fan of R&B or girl groups and do not think FLO are for you, I would advise you to listen and you will have your mind changed. Their amazing music is very much…