Music show: KeiyaA returns with ‘Hooke’s Law’ – a genre-defying journey of self-love

[Applause] [Music] Hello and welcome to Fat 24’s weekly music show. I’m Jennifer Benraheim. Coming up, [Music] from her go vocals to honest lyrics, Chicago born New York based musician Kia makes music that tries to excavate what it means to be human. Her debut album garnered her praise from the likes of Solange, Jay-Z, and Moses Sumni. 5 years on, she’s back with her sophomore record, Hooks Law, a genre defining journey of self-love, and she joins me in the studio to tell us more. Kia, welcome to F 24. Thank you. delighted to have you on. I was just saying before we started that I’m obsessed with this new album. I will be delving into it a bit further, but first up, we’re going to talk about one of the big releases of this week and that’s from R&B and pop legend Mariah Carey. Here for it all is her 16th studio album and it’s her first since 2018 and it’s said to reflect the Grammy winner’s personal journey over the past 10 past a few years, the past decade, as well as her life as a mother. One of the singles off the album is called Type Dangerous. And hip-hop fans out there might recognize the sample. It’s Eric B is president by 80s and 90s rap legend uh legends Eric B and Rakim. Let’s take a listen. [Music] Guess I had to flee. Now it’s sex in the city and a couple little flings. Motorcycle man had a for me like to rush through the tunnel and a break next speed. computer boy toy. He was fun for a while till I caught him on the web hacking all the girls. You know the guy say what construction turns out he was moving them they want to settle down but so Mariah took home best R&B video for that song track type dangerous as well as the honorary video Vanguard award. Now the Grammy award winner made sure to point out during her speech that this was the first time she took home a VMA and actually asked why had it taken so long. Now, Kia, are you a lamb, which is of course a name that we call Mariah fans? Absolutely. Were you listening to her growing up? Absolutely. How could I not? She was everywhere on the radio and onto my TV. Yeah. And her videos are incredible as well. I love her videos. Yeah. Um I definitely remember the video with the booty shorts and the roller skates. My favorite one. Um and then her mo her some of her recent stuff like that song Get the F Out. I run that on repeat all the time. Love it. Yeah, she’s timeless and iconic. Now, we’re going to go back to your latest album that’s coming out soon called Hooks Law. Now, tell me why this choice of a physics law uh as a title. What does it symbolize to you and your music? It symbolizes a lot to me in my life right now. Um the the physics term it it actually kind of came to me from this tweet from a writer from America, a black woman named uh Mandy Harris Williams. And she tweeted a couple times that a downward spiral is a loaded spring. And I was like, what is that? What is that? It just sounded such like a beautiful poetic way to describe what it means to like go through depressive episodes or go through really rough times. And it instead of thinking of it as like, you know, you’re going down into the depths to your lowest point in life, it’s sort of like fuel to push you forward. I thought that was just such a beautiful way to like motivate yourself through that time. And I just decided to Google it cuz I was like, this sounds like some science, some kind of science stuff. I had to also Google was not good at science. Just want to raise that. Me neither. Not my best English and math, but not so much science for me. Um, yeah. Yeah. And I Googled it and it was like Hook’s law, the force of a Yeah, I’m not going to try to explain it, but yeah. Downward spiral loaded spring. Everyone Google it after the show. Now, Hook’s Law comes 5 years after your debut, which was of course critically acclaimed uh called Forever Your Girl. And I believe that your experiences making that album and the postrelease experience um really were formative to the making of this new album. Tell us more about this time and how it was so influential on this new record. Um yeah, I mean it was already a wild time for me in my life. It was like right before COVID and the world pandemic and the world lockdown, but I was kind of going through my own personal sort of I don’t want to call it a personal pandemic, but in a way it was because like I had just lost my job. I had kind of quit to avoid getting fired kind of thing and I ran out of money eventually got kicked out of my apartment and I was just kind of floating around crashing on couches, not really going out. So, I already was like, “Oh, I need to make this album and put it on Band Camp so I can make some money.” And then after that, I blew up and got a lot of attention and support and success, but I was still sort of like in this mindset of crashing on couches and being depressed and not good enough. And it was almost like this imposttor syndrome like I am I have to perform this version of myself and the gig doesn’t start when I step on stage it starts when I open my eyes and when I wake up now. So that’s why I made milkthought and the videos for stupid prizes and take it especially as soon as I open my eyes there’s people in my house looking at me because that’s what it felt like. Well um you mentioned stupid prizes. We’re going to listen to that track and have a look at that very cool video. [Music] But I can’t stay the same and I can’t play these games and I can’t play the spades cuz I’m winning stupid prizes and I can’t use the lies of the same old lies I try to stay alive. Tell me how I’m supposed to drive when all I know is to survive. When all I know is to lie on high. Tell me how I’m supposed to drive when all I know is to survive. All I know is to lie on. So that was stupid prizes from Kia’s upcoming album Hooks Law. Now the record is also quite political with lyrics such as what you think about the fact the world as we know it was shaped by hate and and conquering a murder overflowing. Now this feels like a dicey time in the world to say to the least and in a time where freedom of speech is kind of under threat especially in the United States. Do you think it’s important for artists like yourself whether in the world of music uh cinema etc to use their voices to speak out? Absolutely. I I think it’s historically always been important and I think artists over time, some of the biggest pop artists have always used their voice for political just to express political issues and issues of the people. And I think being a black American artist, it’s like been especially important for us. And I think we live in an interesting time where there are genocides happening that are being kind of like live streamed and broadcasted right to our phones. And that’s unprecedented. So I think it’s even more important for us to be using our voice. And then secondly, yeah, freedom of speech is sort of like getting attacked on all fronts in an unprecedented way. But but I think most importantly out of all of that, like they’re trying to erase the history. And the history is that the biggest pop artists always spoke out against issues. And now we’re in this place where we’re told to believe that speaking out will sacrifice your career. And so I think that’s like even more of a time to speak even louder now than ever because they’re trying to silence us and they’re trying to tell us that we were never losing our voice to begin with. It’s important to to keep that voice, you know, loud. Now, moving on to some other music news and some positive professional and personal news for US hip hop artist Cardi B. She was recently cleared of assault on a security guard in what was a highly publicized trial. I’m sure we all saw clips on social media of that trial. Now, she also just announced her pregnancy with her sports star boyfriend, Stefon Diggs. All this as she drops her long-awaited sophomore album, Am I the Drama, uh that has actually broken records, becoming the fastests selling album by a female rapper to be certified platinum. The album has a host of starry collaborations from the likes of Janet Jackson, Selena Gomez, Megan Stallion, and Kelani, like we can hear on this next track, Safe. Just somebody that can make me feel. Yeah. Look, I a couple but nobody ever made me feel safe like you. Cuz when I’m with you, I just know I’m fine. I’m fine. [Music] So, that was Cardi B and Kelani. Great video. Yeah, honestly. Bring us back to the 90s. Uh now you mentioned earlier on that uh like not only were you making this new record over the last 5 years but you were actually working on an experimental play in New York called Milkth Thought. Tell us about this show and actually how did these two projects intertwine or did they influence each other? Yeah, they definitely intertwine and influenced each other. Milk Thought is like I’m I’m hesitant to call it a play because there’s not really like a formality to it, but there is dialogue. I did write a script. We are acting and dancing. It’s like an experimental play. It’s kind of like a live music video. It’s this weird theater piece that is like an insight into like what it’s like for me to spiral at home and to like navigate doing shadow work, dealing with like parts of yourself that you are afraid of or or or demonized. And I don’t want to give it away, but there’s even a point where you I I I almost tried to myself u my my other self and then they sort of helped me come back to life and we and it’s like a journey of self- loveve similar to my album um and I started working on it because I um performed here in Paris at Boris to Commerce and I got a little bit of budget to like I had it in my mind that I wanted to work with house furniture and play in the house and they were like well here’s some budget let’s rent some furniture and I improvised what became the framework for Milk Thought. And luckily, New York has so many beautiful like performance residencies for younger artists and they took a chance on me at Aon’s Art Center. And so I was able to take what was like improvised here and like develop it over the course of a year with a couple of collaborators, my collaborator Ava Novak on the dramatury front and Lamkin on the coro. And yeah, we we made this um and I wrote the album at the same time. Well, two great projects. Now, thank you so much for coming on to the show. We’re about to wrap up. Uh now, remember Kia’s new album, Hooks Law, is out on the 31st of October. Where can we see you in Europe anytime soon? Do you have any dates coming up for us? Yeah, I have a few festival dates all over Europe. Um I’m playing at Uber Jazz in Hamburg. I’m also playing at Legess Who, which I’m really excited about. And then I have a headline show in London at Corsica Studios on the 13th. Amazing. Okay. Well, check this out, guys. And before we go, enough time to tell you about another set of shows not to mi miss. And that’s from the father of Ethiopian jazz or Ethio jazz called Matu Astatk. H. He’s embarked on his farewell tour after six decades in the music industry. You can catch him at Salel in Paris this week. Now, the 82-year-old has also dropped his first major studio album in 10 years called Mulatto Plays Matu, and it’s a new interpretations of some of his classics. We’ll leave you with a taste of one of his recent live performances right here in Paris. For more arts and culture, you can head to our website. There’s more news coming up on France 24 right after this. [Music]

On today’s music show on Arts24, Jennifer Ben Brahim sits down with Chicago-born, New York-based singer, songwriter, and producer KeiyaA. Known for her gossamer vocals and genre-blending sound – mixing jazz, soul, and electro – KeiyaA made waves with her debut album Forever, Ya Girl, earning critical acclaim and fans like Solange, Jay-Z, and Moses Sumney. Five years later, she returns with her sophomore album Hooke’s Law, a deeply personal journey of self-love that serves as a musical diary of one of the most challenging periods of her life.
#KeiyaA #HookesLaw #SelfLove

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