Estére brings her unique sound to Africa
|||Estère Dalton, who is simply known as Estère, is part of the next wave of nu-pop-soul. Think Yukimi Nagano meets Kelis. Hailing from New Zealand, the singer-producer is embarking on her first African tour, starting at the Azgo Festival in Mozambique this weekend.
I caught up with her over the phone while she sat in a mixing studio where she is finalising her second album.
“I’ve been working on the album for the last year-and-a-half or two years,” she tells me. “I’m going to be releasing it in the next year. I do have a title for it, but I’m scared to say because things could change. But I will be releasing it soon, along with a heap of singles and videos.”
Estère’s self-titled debut album was released in 2014 and songsa like Cruel Charlie (about a fictitious ex-boyfriend) and I Spy (about the metaphoric scrooge) have gained the artist a following. On Culture Clash, she sings: I am a child of culture clash/one whole, two halves. It refers to her heritage as the child of a Cameroonian father and a Kiwi mother.
I ask her if this influenced her music.
“Having African heritage and always relating a part of myself to my African ethnicity made me gravitate toward certain rhythms and melodies that have influenced my work. It’s also like I can see where I come from in the music of others who are African. In New Zealand, there weren’t that many mixed children of African descent so it was interesting to try and navigate that world.”
It was as a child that Estère realised she was really into music. Particularly drumming. She says: “I played around with sounds that made rhythmic noises because I liked drumming. But when I was starting to produce and make beats, I appreciated the sounds quite differently.”
This served her well when Red Bull partnered her with ground-breaking producer, Oddisee, for their Prodigy series. For two weeks, the pair worked on a project and the time was mostly spent as a way for Estère to learn more about music and herself.
Of this experience, she says: “It’s really interesting to work with another producer. In general, it’s really important for me to retain autonomy on my beats and my music so I didn’t do that many collaborations.
“And often, when other producers want to work with me, they only want me to sing. I learnt a lot from Oddisee and just observed.
“He worked with me to show me how to develop as a producer. We’re still good friends and I opened for him when he came to New Zealand a few months ago for some shows.”
Estère is excited about coming to the continent for a few shows and will have her trusty MPC, which she famously named Lola, with her. “I got an MPC and then spent so much time with her that I grew to feel like she’s got a personality of her own,” is the way Estère explains why her instrument has a name. “I don’t have a daughter and probably won’t for a long time, but Lola is the closest thing to one,” she laughs.
This artist has famously coined her own genre. Being the first to perform as an electric blue witch hop artist, Estère says she wanted to put a name to her sound before anyone else could box her in. “I find that people often want to categorise and put you in a genre that they think you are.” she says. “They are judging you on something or other and I just wanted to create a space that would be my own.”
Catch Estère at the Azgo Festival in Maputo on Saturday, the Good Luck Bar in Joburg on May 26, the Zakifo Festival in Durban on May 27 and the Bushfire Festival in Swaziland on May 28. Visit the respective websites for ticket information.