During his conversation with Alex Mistlin, he was noted to display a shy nervousness at odds with the confident brand of music he creates and the incensed performance he gives in the music video for “Hate“: “People feel scared to say how they really feel because in the times we’re living they get crucified. I’m trying to unlearn that bit by bit and be more myself“.

It seems like part of his agitation might also stem from his awareness of the change in direction that he’s taken and the response it might generate. For fans of the sweet and unchallenging tones of 2018’s “Ottolenghi“, “Hate” may be jarring and uncomfortable, but it’s a risk he’s willing to take and likens to the journey that Kendrick Lamar went on to conceive his lauded third album To Pimp A Butterfly. “When you’re young, there’s a charm to the fact that you’re a bit naive,” he says. “You don’t know what you’re striving for. It’s a balance because you don’t want to be too old to feel connected to the culture of youth that you’re trying to speak to. There’s a sweet spot in the middle, like Kendrick with To Pimp A Butterfly, where you’re naive enough to still be free-speaking, but considered enough to refine your shit.”

To compare “Hate” to the cultural heft of Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly would be lazy and remiss of me. Loyle is a British artist discussing experiences and traumas unique to him and should in turn be appreciated on it’s own level. However, I will say I’m excited to hear more from him as the new album and direction he’s taken becomes more apparent in the coming year. As judging by the brilliantly emotive video that Loyle himself co-directed for “Hate“, it’s going to be exciting.

She explained, “it seemed bizarre that I had all this critical acclaim, was applauded over and over again, but where it counts on paper it just wasn’t translating….That’s so heartbreaking, to know financially, it’s not a worthy investment. I’m not a worthy investment. That was a tough pill to swallow. I’ve since learned that the music industry is a complex beast.” 

Both her first and second albums were very well received critically, and she said “I was enjoying some of the flattery from taglines like ‘Our generation’s Nina Simone’, ‘She lives in her own lane’. And it was positive – I was writing and performing with orchestras and touring all over the world.” However, despite the positivity of these epithets she began to feel the weight of being expected to live up to the icons of black music, saying “I was aware pretty much from day dot that I needed to go on being this ‘thing.’” 

After the experience of being dropped by Sony, Mvula speaks of how she wasn’t sure she would ever write music again, saying “I can’t tell you how much at one stage I didn’t think I would ever write a song again, let alone a whole body of work.”

On the happier topic of the upcoming Pink Noise, Mvula states that “There are two things I want people to engage with…The party, the black barbecue in the garden, and then the more solemn lullaby soulful lament, which has always been a part of my music.” 

‘Pink Noise’ will be released on the 10th of July 2021.