Toya Delazy on a new single, a new sound, and new beginnings
|||Toya Delazy cracks open a can of Red Bull, fills a glass halfway and then adds sparkling water into the glass. It’s a cold Jozi morning and she’s just landed from London to preview her upcoming single, Nu High, to some Gauteng press.
Later, she tells me the energy drink and water concoction is to ward off the fatigue from spending so much time abroad where she has been working on an upcoming album, predominantly in London.
I ask her what the August 2016 release will be called.
“I thought I’d call my album Jetlag because I’m always jetlagged so much.
“Then I was like: ‘come on, Toya’,” she rolls her eyes and then laughs. “I haven’t thought about what to name the album. If I was still in my record deal, I would have called it Resurrection. The powerful names. Now, I don’t know.”
The deal she’s referring to is her oft-tumultuous one with Sony Music. The singer-songwriter-producer recently severed ties with the major label after airing her grievances with them many times on social media. She explains what happened: “I felt, like, held back. I’ve always wanted to expand and I had all these ideas and I felt like they weren’t valued enough.”
“I didn’t get the support that I needed to go out and do it. Especially when you’re signed, it’s not like you can be like: ‘I’m doing (what I want) because I’m signed’. The only way I could achieve the things I wanted was to let go of the label and take it in my own stride and do it by myself. It’s finally working out and I’m happy.”
She runs her own independent label, Delazy Entertainment, with herself as the flagship artist. She’s also signed an all-girl rap group, Klutch Kollektive. Now wearing two hats, I ask her what it’s like to don a business cap.
“I’m learning every single day,” she confesses. “With all the experience I’ve had when I started with Sony and drawing from my own experiences, that’s what’s helped me know how to handle certain things.”
“Nowadays, I feel like all artists should have an art side and a business side. Because at the end of the day, if you want to make a living out of your music, you need to under-stand how the business world works other-wise you will end up in a bad deal. And that’s not what anyone wants – especially a young artist who is trying to get out there.”
“With music nowadays, it’s not like artists last long like the Aretha Franklins of the world,” she continues, “You don’t want to spend all that time stuck in a position that doesn’t work for you. So how do I juggle it? I just learn. I read up a lot and mainly draw from my experiences. Working with a major teaches you a whole lot about yourself and how the music business works. Because it is a business.”
It’s not all work for Delazy, though. She plays a lot with different sounds and her newest song, Nu High, is her experimentation with disco and future house. Nostalgia permeates with lines like “I remember when I was young/chewing sugarcane in the sun”. It’s decidedly pop in its writing and sonically harks back to 90s dance that, to me, is a little reminiscent of Daft Punk’s Around the World.
“That disco feel,” she exclaims, “I love those vibes.” This Pump It On singer is also planning a tour around the SADC region later this year. But for now, she wants to make sure everyone hears the new song.
“I feel like this song sounds like me,” she grins. “Like when I began but just more grown up. It’s fun. I hope you guys enjoy it. It’s good to grow up, I felt stuck for a while.”
• Toya Delazy’s ‘Nu High’ will be released digitally on June 10.