FEATURE: Spotlight: Bellah — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

Bellah

__________

I actually interviewed Bellah…

back in 2019, but she is someone I am minded including now. Whereas she is not brand-new on the scene, she is a rising artist who I have seen grown and put out the most exceptional music for a few years now. I think 2022 is a year when Bellah (Isobel Akpobire) has put out some of her best music – someone looking to new and bigger horizons in 2023. I have loved her music for years now, and I am so pleased she is getting credit and dues! Who is this immense and truly wonderful artist? She has been compared to American artists like SZA, Summer Walker and Kehlani, yet the London-born artist is someone standing out alone. Growing up doing musical theatre, Bellah developed a love for music and the arts from there. She started writing and creating her own music when she was seventeen. There are some amazing young artists based around London (I think Bellah is in Essex) that are helping to mould and shape the sound of music’s future. In terms of genre, I guess R&B is where you might place Bellah – though she crosses genre and has this unique sound. Adultsville is her new E.P. I shall end with a review of that. She played a headline show at London's The Lower Third last Wednesday (23rd). It shows that there is a lot of love and demand for this amazing artist. I had my love for Bellah cemented around the time of the release of In the Meantime. That 2020 E.P. is amazing. I want to bring in some interviews this year, as so many press sources have been showing their respect and affection for one of our greatest artists.

To start, I want to bring in a review for In the Meantime. This is what was being said about a sensational E.P. from someone who, even in 2020, was showing herself to be fully-formed, assured! Bellah was hitting huge highs:

“London-born Nigerian singer-songwriter Bellah has been quietly building her rep as an R&B star on the rise for a couple of years now, but music has been the love of her life for far longer. The 22-year-old artist got a taste for the limelight and musical performance from attending theatre school in her childhood. She continued to hone her craft and perform throughout her teens and at seventeen, she began to create her own music. Gifted with an effortlessly silky-smooth voice, Bellah also displayed raw musical talent that impressed the people around her. In turn, their encouragement gave her the confidence to pursue her passion for music professionally.

Bellah’s new EP ‘In The Meantime’ is her second project following her first album ‘Last Train Home‘, which was released September of last year. The EP offers four uncomplicated yet fabulous R&B jams that seamlessly blend together to create one blissfully chilled-out listen. Casually intimate and oozing with sexy R&B sparkle, ‘In The Meantime’ tells the story of a relationship as it develops in a way that feels like we’re reading pages from a diary. As Bellah breezily guides us through her innermost thoughts and feelings, her velvety vocals take centre stage. The lyrics are honest, conversational and without pretence and addressed to the object of Bellah’s affections (or dissatisfaction), simply referred to as “you”.

The opening track ‘Stand’ is a grooving introduction to Bellah’s luxuriant voice and melodic chatty vocals, as she sings about the joys of part-time love. It’s R&B pop perfection, driven by a buoyant guitar melody and enriched with subtly vocal layering and plush harmonies. The instrumentals are low-key but the song builds nicely, before it breaks down into a heavier beat as the final chorus runs into the outro. Bellah is direct in describing how happy she is to be in an easy-going relationship, singing, “I couldn’t love you everyday / I’m so tunnel vision baby / You’d get in the way”. Reading it cold, it almost sounds harsh but the warmth in Bellah’s voice conveys such a sense of ease and contentment that her sometime lover should really take it as a compliment. There’s a possibility that ‘Stand’ actually represents Bellah attempting to convince herself of her satisfaction with the arrangement however, the overwhelmingly mellow mood of the track suggests that their sexy situation suits her just fine.

‘Good Thing’ represents a shift in perspective, describing that relatable scenario of remaining guarded and restrained in a relationship out of fear of it ending. In the verses, Bellah suggests that she and bae should slow things down. Far from having the enviably chill attitude she displayed in ‘Stand’, her desire to grind things to a halt instead comes from a place of vulnerability. With a light beat and soothing electric guitar melody, Bellah belies the emotional conflict she expresses.

Track three entitled ‘Easy’, feels like a major scene change. Things have developed and Bellah has a lot to say and sonically, things have shifted too. A sparkly, trilling piano keeps the beat while Bellah’s voice shines through, clear and bright, backed-up by angelic choral harmonies. The dreamy sonic atmosphere makes it sound like Bellah’s delivering a divine verdict, admonishing her lover (or is it herself?) for falling in love when she, “made it easy, easy to walk away, far away”. It’s a beautiful track, rounded off by a clip of dialogue where a young woman, most likely Bellah is reassured by a motherly figure, who tells her she wants to rescue people because she wishes someone had been there to rescue her in the past. It’s a sweet, intimate feature that makes the record feel authentic and reflective of Bellah’s genuine experiences.

‘Easy’ rolls perfectly into ‘Need Me’, the fourth and final chapter of this sped-up love story. With typical honesty, Bellah describes how she’s accepted the duplicity of her feelings, admitting, “truth is I don't love you, I love the way that you need me”. Her bright swooping vocals sound phenomenal against the song’s slow heavy beat and jaunty guitar riffs which lends the song a slightly mischievous tone.

Listening to ‘In The Meantime’ feels like watching a close friend have an epiphany about a dead-end relationship. Though it explores feelings of confusion and uncertainty, thanks to Bellah’s warm, honeyed vocals and her dynamic, uplifting melodies, the record is steadfast in its (seriously) good vibes. Bellah may be a new voice in R&B, but watch this space, she’s on the rise and has just announced that new music is coming soon”.

Hyperbae featured Bellah in August about the amazing Adultsville. I know she was a bit nervous about releasing the E.P. into the world. She needn’t be! It is a remarkable and instantly work from someone who is going to a massive name before you know it:

“Tell us a bit about how you got started in the music industry.

My mom put me in musical theater when I was younger, so I’ve always had a love for music. I also remember going to a Beyonce concert once and feeling like “well, now I’ve got to do that.” Everything else I wanted to do seemed really insignificant in comparison to what I’d just seen. I performed at a local festival and I found management there on the spot and honestly, the rest is history. They put me straight into artist development, helped me write songs, helped me grow as a songwriter and then in 2019 I started putting out music.

What was the turning point for you or the moment where you started to really feel like an artist?

I don’t know whether I even feel like an artist now. I feel like an artist in terms of the characteristics, like I’m an artist and a creative but in terms of really sitting back and being like “Wow, this is my job and this is what I do for a living and this is what I do full time,” it’s still a bit of a weird concept to grasp. Especially with things that I would have done for free that I’m starting to monetize. Sometimes it feels a bit like you’re not doing anything but you’re doing everything at the same time.

How would you describe your sound to those who haven’t heard you before?

Fluid R&B and smooth-inspired R&B. Sometimes I go into one genre and sometimes another but at the core of it, it’s R&B.

Who are some of your influences, past and present?

Brandy, Abba, Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Lauryn Hill, SZA, Frank Ocean, Drake and Daniel Cesar. There are actually so many people.

That’s a long, impressive list! What can you tell us about your creative process, how does it start?

It starts with a prayer, like “God help me to be creative today.” Then some good food and some good conversation. I like to write from a place of reality and a place of experience because I think those are the songs that people relate to the most. Good conversation always helps with that. Usually, I’m sat with a producer and a songwriter and we’ll have a conversation and someone will say something and it’ll be like “That’s it, that’s the song. That’s the tagline. How do we say that in the song?” Sometimes I’ll be at home and think “this would be good to write about,” and then I can go into the studio with someone I trust and love and be like “I really want a rap song that sounds like this, or that encapsulates this feeling.” More often than not, it’s just about getting in the studio and praying that today’s the day the creativity runs wild. Sometimes, there are days we just don’t get it and that’s okay, there are on days and there are off days.

How do you deal with your off days?

I say to myself “Let’s stop here. Let’s not force it,” because when you force it, it’s not that you can’t write a song, it’s just that it might not be a good one. I’d rather not waste that time because sometimes the vibe is off or you’re just not in the mood. Sometimes your mental health is in the bin and sometimes that works for songs but sometimes it really doesn’t work. You just have to be flexible and know your limits and everybody else’s limits, too.

You’ve said before that one of your aims is to be a frontrunner for R&B in the U.K. Why is that important to you?

I want to be a frontrunner for R&B because I’m a Black woman. I see that as a prime representation of an actual success story. I want to be all that I want to be so that I can say, despite what was supposed to be endurance, I still made it. I would love to be able to say, “Yeah, I’ve seen this work for somebody that looks like me,” but right now I wouldn’t really say that and I want to, I want that to be the change. I want the 13 or 14-year-old who wants to sing right now to look at Bellah and go “Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

What’s it about?

It’s called Adultsville and it’s about what it means to be in this weird capsule of time. This weird coming of age period where you’re becoming an adult and an autonomous human being and having to do sh-t by yourself that you never thought you’d have to until you got there. It’s about learning things and unlearning things and just being without any relation to anybody else. I’m an adult now, so in a sense, I am no longer somebody’s child. (I am, but you get what I mean, I’m just learning to be Bellah without being Bellah, the oldest daughter or the cousin Bellah.) Just Bellah that exists in the world and eventually will become somebody’s mom, somebody’s wife. What does that look like? What does that sound like? How do I process that? And how confusing is all of this? The album talks about relationships, general life and how lost I seem to be in all of it.

That sounds pretty powerful and vulnerable, which often makes for the best music, doesn’t it? It’s almost like the era of you right now, where you are discovering yourself.

Yeah, I’m at that bit in between making a definitive decision for your life and when you weren’t allowed to make those decisions. That gap, that little dash in between is where I’m at right now. I’m balancing career and love and family and friends and finances and all that weird stuff that they didn’t teach us about”.

I am going to move onto an interview from COMPLEX. One of Adultsville’s singles, Prototype, is among my favourite singles of the year. I was keen to know why Bellah selected that as a release. This is a particularly great and interesting interview:

“Since 2019, Bellah has been consistently giving us heat: the singer-songwriter’s debut EP, Last Train Home, had the critics on their toes, with many not sure if she was actually from the UK or the States based on her R&B output being on the level of greats from the jump. A year later, in 2020, Bellah dropped The Art Of Conversation EP, which she says “let the world know that I was getting sick of doing what I was doing, so that I could grow.” But the real catalyst of her current trajectory is the COLORS live session she did last year for her song “Evil Eye”, which led to co-signs from the likes of SZA, Tems, and BBC 1Xtra’s Nadia Jae.

On Adultsville, her third and latest project, Bellah explores what it means to transition from a girl to a woman in this day and age. Reflecting on her life and career as a whole, it’s the inner page of a diary she says is her “most transformative, painful, eye-opening, beautiful and shitty chapter of my life.”

“I was in the studio with [Grammy-winning songwriter for Beyoncé, Wizkid and more] Ari PenSmith when he asked me, ‘What do you want this project to be about?’ I expressed that I’d been going through a weird time, where the people I thought would be in my life forever were no longer there. Some of the people I’ve met more recently have a bigger place in my heart than some I have known for years. My position in life is changing, so many things are changing for me, and I wanted to talk about it. Ari actually gave this EP the name Adultsville; we created this space where I was at peace, a safe space for me to truly express my thoughts, my doubts, my fears—and the rest.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Narcography

Bellah: the artist, and Isobel: the person—what’s the difference, if any?

Bellah: the artist, is a force to be reckoned with. Bellah aims to become a household name, and she executes her plans with precision and caution. Isobel is sentimental, soft, sensitive, and pretty much still a little girl, one who wants to inspire greatness. I consider her to be my inner child. For Bellah to thrive, Isobel does everything in her power to help her, and Bellah does everything in her power to fulfil Isobel’s dreams. Despite Isobel’s responsibilities, Bellah sometimes protects her, and sometimes neglects her.

Powerful. You just released your third project, the brilliant Adultsville EP. That title is quite striking—how did it come to you?

I wanted to create a project that fully represents me. I was in the studio with Ari PenSmith when he asked me, “What do you want this project to be about?” I expressed that I’d been going through a weird time, where the people I thought would be in my life forever were no longer there. Some of the people I’ve met more recently have a bigger place in my heart than some I have known for years. My position in life is changing, so many things are changing for me, and I wanted to talk about it. Ari actually gave this EP the name Adultsville; we created this space where I was at peace, a safe space for me to truly express my thoughts, my doubts, my fears—and the rest. I want this to be the soundtrack to people’s lives.

“Prototype” and “In The Moment”—is there a particular reason why those songs were chosen as the project’s first two singles?

The process was a three-day camp and it was the third day those songs came. The “Prototype” track kinda came when I was angry with people treating me like I’m a child, or belittling me, so I just put all the energy into the song. “Prototype” was the first single because it’s me telling my fans there’s a shift happening and I’m evolving. Everyone’s heard one version of me, but there’s another version of me that I want people to embrace. It’s all about evolving. “In The Moment”, funnily enough, was a song I didn’t believe in at first. I had some serious self-doubt at the time. You know when you have a weird moment in your creative process when everything isn’t enough? I felt I wasn’t producing the best version of myself. One day, I shared the song with Ari and he told me it was one of the best hooks I’d written, but that made me look at myself and wonder why I didn’t have the discernment to hear that. I feel like these two songs gave the audience a glimpse of what the project was going to be like. It’s a very introverted EP and the singles are very extroverted, so it’s the perfect balance.

You’ve had some serious co-signs from the likes of Tems and the aforementioned SZA. How did those seals of approval make you feel?

A lot of the snowball effect came from the COLORS video of “Evil Eye”. It’s a blessing to have people I look up to rate my work. I’m aspiring to be like them, so to have them give that co-sign just shows me that I’m doing the right thing. The words of encouragement I got from SZA really gave me hope, and everyone else has been so kind and lovely. It all still feels so unreal that they know and appreciate my work.

Do you feel like your voice is appreciated within British R&B?

You can lose what you want rather than what you have. Objectively, do I feel like my voice is appreciated? Not necessary, but are people showing me love and am I heavily supported by the people? Yes, and I’m forever grateful for that support. Am I on my way to building a community? Most definitely.

How do you feel about the Black British music scene in general right now?

I feel like there are so many of us doing incredible things. We won’t be seen until we realise we don’t need to fight each other and we need to fight against the common enemy for all of us to win. We fight unbelief, which is the common enemy. I do feel like we are a hundred steps ahead in terms of where the scene was before. There’s so much range, vocalists and talent within the scene today—it’s growing, but there’s still so much to do. I’m just happy to be where I am at this stage”.

Before getting to a review, there is one more interview I feel is worth bringing in. The Line of Best Fit recently featured Bellah as an artist on the rise. Someone whose music will definitely move you and stay in your head, 2023 is going to a massive year for her! I cannot wait to see what comes her way:

“Though adulthood comprises of many elements, Akpobire believes it is accepting your own personal philosophy that truly marks an adult. “You basically have to be okay with the way you decided to live. And if you're not, you have to change it yourself. That's kind of where I was, where so many things that happened to me. I can sit down and take it the way it's been given to me, or I can make this work in my favour. And I believe that this is what adulting is”

This has been challenging for Akpobire, who has found herself initially resistant to change amongst friendships evolving, kids being born, and careers starting. She uses the idea of a video game to explain how she copes with the hectic nature of her world. “My life is a video game and you're going to repeat the same levels unless you learn the lessons to learn this level.”

“Life gives very bully vibes,” she jokes. “But I have to be like, What? What's the lesson here? What do I, what do I need to change? I have to really look at the lesson I need to learn because I don't want to be here. So let me learn this lesson and go. Change is so important. It’s hard, but it's important.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Garry Jones

What was the hardest thing to change about herself? Though Akpobire disclaims that she is still this person – “to say I was this person is a very big lie” – she believes it’s being a “pushover”, or “too nice”.

“I would let anything slide for other people's peace and I will never take into consideration my own,” she admits. “That is the part of me where I've recently been making decisions that have been solely me. I've felt guilty about them, but they are my decisions. Becoming a little bit more selfish has been the greatest thing for me, because people have been really getting themselves into spaces being selfish and that's how you do it. Like you cannot carry everybody on your back. That is the one thing that I'm really holding on to, not to become a selfish person, but to be more selfish.”

Akpobire has spent a lot of time thinking about how to progress to the next level in her life, and she’s willing to let her audience into the uglier parts of this process. “I wanted this project to be a soundtrack to our lives,” she says. “As long as someone else can relate to what's going on, I'll be so happy because I know I'm not alone in these experiences. I think when people sit down and listen and hear the growth, they'll be surprised”.

I will finish with a review of Adultsville from CLASH. A hugely strong release with so many highlights – and some of Bellah’s best work -, this is an E.P. that everybody needs to wrap their ears around! She wraps up a successful and impressive year by showing that she is a brilliant and bright talent:

“It’s a strange one leaving your youth and stepping into adulthood – it feels like everything comes falling down at once. You’re taught – or should I say conditioned – to think you’ll have everything in place from the moment you leave education. I mean, some people do but the majority of us are still figuring it out. The feeling of losing control, the overwhelming pressures that come with just simply living; friendships, relationships, family, bills, navigating your career whilst exploring self-love, making something of yourself, trying not to get warped by standards set by the internet (scary, I know) and attempting to get off TikTok before 12am – girl, it’s a lot. Bellah’s opening line “Just got evicted from my youth didn’t even get a notice” has never felt more real. Journeying through the ups and downs that come with growing up ‘Adultsville’ is an honest and open account of a young woman who’s finding her feet in a world of chaos. Laced with Bellah’s reputable caramel tones and irresistible harmonies, this seven-track EP is a slice of British R&B heaven.

Featuring pre-released tracks ‘Prototype’, ‘Garden’, and ‘In The Moment’, not to mention the extended version to her most prominent release ‘Evil Eye’, the one-to-watch songstress has unveiled a selection of songs that are bursting with vulnerability and integrity. Housing production from the likes of Ari Pensmith (executive producer), Sons Of Sonix, Sensei Bueno, Edgar ‘JV’ Etienne, Jonah Christian, and more, this project is laced with a selection of dream-like and hypnotic beats.

Setting the tone with the title track ‘Adultsville’ Bellah buckles us up for the train journey that is ‘adulting’ ahead. Gently reminding herself and others not to get lost in things that aren’t worth fussing over the title track is the beginner’s manual not to panic; “When something bothers me, gotta freak out responsibly”, Bellah sings. Moving into ‘Prototype’ an infectious listen delving into the trials and tribulations that come with love, tracks like ‘Garden’ and ‘In The Moment’ form a sense of honesty and accountability before the grooves of ‘Evil Eye’ take over. Closing out the project with ‘Stuck’ and ‘Always Something’ – a personal favourite – Bellah talks on the struggles that come with self-love, the effects of social media, nurturing friendships, growth, and confronting childhood wounds.

Going on a journey of love and loss, ‘Adultsville’ is a quality project from the promising star; unravelling a more vulnerable side of herself this EP is a hug from a friend and a pause amidst the chaos that reassures us to keep on going.

7/10”.

Go and follow Bellah and check out her amazing music. Such a beautiful person who has this insane amount of talent, she is helping to elevate and highlight British R&B. I have been a follower and fan for a while now, so I thought it was long overdue that I include her in this feature. She has achieved so much in her career so far, but I think that some really good things will come her way…