AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 8

Sounds
AC: So it was in New York that you went more into the
singing part of your your path?
JB: It's funny, I was singing the songs, but I was still not
thinking of myself as a singer. I grew up with a very specific idea
of what a singer was. Etta James was a singer to me. Chaka Khan
was a singer to me. But I didn't sing like that. So I wasn't thinking
that I could sing at all. So I was still hyper-focused on the songwriting
part of it. And while I was in New York I was introduced to
this poetry community called The Strivers Row. I signed on with
them, and started doing shows. And then it became more interesting
for me — it's how people were responding to not only what
I was saying, but what I was presenting musically. Now, thinking
about my voice in terms of how it's changed over the years, just
with getting older, the things I can and can't do; I think singing is
much more of a study for me now, because I have to learn how to
navigate a body and muscles and things that are going through
their own natural process. So I can't approach them the way that
I used to, and I have to think about what I eat, if I exercise. All of
those things make me more of a singer now than I was if only
because of that.
AC: We know that folk and country all have roots in Black
music, but they’re not seen as ours today. How do you see your
music in continuity with the wider history of Black music?
JB: Genre has always been a tricky thing for me. I think the
folk / country classification is one of the trickiest because it has
its own implications in terms of who can and who cannot. And
that's always been something, I guess, that's drawn me to it, not
just to sing it, but to really look at what that is. And it's storytelling.
So I never felt an embargo on whether or not I was allowed to
tell a story — that didn't seem so off-limits to me. I think what did
is being called a country artist or being called a folk artist. That
felt like people wanted to keep that away from how they heard my
music. And it's interesting — there are so many Black country
artists that were not classified as country. Ray Charles released
an entire country album. So did Tina Turner. Charlie Pride is one
of the highest-selling artists in the world in country music.
So there were all these things that I was seeing that weren’t
real, that are just a way to make sure there is a space that's
untouched. And I never liked that idea. So in terms of the wider
picture, for Black artists or Black music, there's nothing we've
never touched, or created. And again, I think, part of growing up
in Oakland put some things in terms of intention, and pursuing
things, in perspective for me pretty early on. I think it made it
possible to just focus, to just drown out the noise of what genre is,
which at its worst is musical segregation. Like what you like, play
what you like. That's it.
I will — fortunately, and unfortunately — never experience
my music the way that other people do. So I'm always surprised
with what someone hears when they listen. Because I might
be going for one thing and someone can hear something completely
different. But for my sound, I think that being in love with
musicals, really does sort of speak to some aspect of the ethereality
you mentioned. As a kid, all of my favorite musicals books, and
even movies were all fantasy, and escapist. Even as an adult, I'm
learning I can very easily go into a world and completely detach,
and be somewhere else without realizing until I come back. So
I think, that ability actually makes it easier to not bring certain
realities into the music so that it's a space where you're dreaming.
Because dreaming is as much part of reality for me as anything else.
And I think for most people, you know, life is complex
and difficult at times. I need that dreaming place. So I guess,
other people need it too. And that might be what they're
hearing. So all of the influences, country, folk — I've never been
someone who said no to any genre or avenue of music, because
anything that isn't what I do is interesting to me and makes an
impression. So when I sit down to write, those impressions
come through. I try not to be too invested in that and just know
that I'm the avenue by which the music comes. So whatever is
meant to be in that pot, or the recipe that was meant for that pot
is what’s there. I'm just doing the work of picking up the pen and
the guitar. AC
Listen to Jennah Bell's Anchors & Elephants on Spotify
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