There is greatness in the room. Corinne Bailey Rae and Eska haven’t met before but as Nataal brings these two legends of British music together, there is an instant and heart-felt energy between them as they show infinite love to each other’s fearless artistry. Among the headliners for the new Roundhouse Three Sixty festival, we’re here to discuss their important work with the London venue’s creative youth programme. Corinne shared a stage with the Guildhall Session Orchestra (an ensemble of alumni from Guildhall School of Music & Drama) to perform her celebrated album ‘Black Rainbows’. While Eska curated a cast of student singers and dancers for ‘Love to Love You Baby: Donna Summer Reimagined’ alongside Mica Paris, MNEK, Katy B, Kele Le Roc and more. Naturally, both blew the roof off and then some.

Now, as Eska drops her bold and majestic sophomore album, ‘The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman’ – a personal journey of everyday transcendence from this Mercury-nominated polymath – and Corinne continues to evolve the spiritual stories of resilience on ‘Black Rainbows’ with each live iteration of the work, what gives both of them joy is to give forward to those who come next. Let’s get into it.

CORINNE BAILEY RAE: This is my version of Eska. I'd come to music through indie and punk then I made a record that was more soulful pop, and I found myself in London in a scene which I only knew through the backing singers I was working with. They were all these Jedi Black singers and they always referenced Eska as the real deal. So, it’s crazy that we’ve never met.

ESKA: Corinne, I'm really grateful for this opportunity to tell you that that ‘Black Rainbows’ is something else. I'm so happy for the world to have a record like that from you. It's like a kaleidoscope of sonic worlds, an amalgam of love from so many different streams.

CORINNE: Thank you so much. It took me outside myself because those songs are other people's stories. For much of my career I’ve sung about my feelings and experiences. But this is a record that inhabits my understanding of the objects at [Theaster Gates museum] Stony Island Arts Bank and how charmed and charged they are. I get to sing about Harriet Jacobs, you know? It’s been a special focus for me, to the point where I'm not the same. I'm transformed by doing this work.

Let me say, I just heard your new song, ‘Magic Woman’ and it’s absolutely incredible. It’s in one time, and then it’s in another time, then it’s banging, then it’s strange, and it's just brilliant. It's so embodied and so hip. And it reminds me that, when I worry about what to do next to be commercially successful or whatever, I just need to do what I want to do and figure the rest of the stuff out. I want to continue to make music without the boundaries we put ourselves in, and when I heard ‘Magic Woman’, I thought, that’s what Eska is doing.

ESKA: I appreciate the support. Thank you. You know, it took me a couple of decades to figure out my impetus for music making. And at the core, I realise that I'm a storyteller and I use music as the driver. And that’s enabled me to be very clear about the stories that I want to tell. Sometimes a story wants to be an opera. And sometimes it wants to be a song for my kid. It’s liberating to not be so concerned about the format, because it does take a specific type of care and concentration to make a body of work like an album. So other times, I can be free to cross pollinate in more immediate ways. Of course, the songwriter works with the fashion designer, the painter, the architect, the museum.

CORINNE: Exactly. I sometimes find a musical collaborator to be the least inspiring. It's like, they do their thing and you do your thing. And the people I admire the most, I'm not trying to be on their song. I just want hear what they're doing. But then I’ll go see an art exhibition or a dance performance and all of these oral ideas come to me. I make connections and my imagination wants to fill in the gaps.

But I want to ask you about the production on ‘Magic Woman’ because it sounds like three songs put together, so how did you come up with the path of that song?

ESKA: The time signature changes because I wanted a physical response to that drop, right? I often think about the physicality of the music as I'm making it. I felt like the lyrics told me the song needed a strong structure. And I decided a long time ago that I will do what the song wants. I’m not beholden to a particular sound palette across a body of work. I've also learned not to listen to that voice that's going, ‘But Eska, but you can't do that.’ When that happens, I know that that's what I should be doing.

CORINNE: I felt the same with my album. I felt very freed in terms of musical style, texture, tempo, mood and all of that. That attitude comes across very clearly on your record, too.

ESKA: And I get so much joy from listening to your record. This is someone who is maintaining integrity in a process. I’m hearing where you are in the moment, which is incredibly exciting for other Black female artists to witness. What it champions is incredibly powerful on so many levels.

CORINNE: The work doesn't feel done, either. I was originally writing 20 songs and then focussed on 10. So, it’s got a part two. There’s one about the freedom fighters. And there’s another about the visual artists Betye Saar and David Hammons. Yeah. It feels like there's some work to be continued.

This is rhetorical, but how many pieces of work does it take to bring definition to oneself?

ESKA: I've done a lot of collaborations over many years and only put out two solo records. So, there’s not enough work for people to really understand the kind of artist I am. But I remember talking with Grace Jones one time about some of her celebrated works and her celebrity. She said she was never really that big in any one moment in time but it’s been an accumulation of the narrative to now becoming an icon. I can only hope to be able to produce enough work to express my artistic intentions because it can’t be done on just one record.

CORINNE: I totally agree with you. And when you perform music live, it can be different every time. The work itself is ephemeral so people have to go to the shows to really get it. You can’t recreate that energy. You have to feel it in that moment, which is rewarding and gives me so much life.

ESKA: Exactly. It’s important to get back to that real human connection, the excitement of being present, breathing the same air – the live experience – as well as the experience of holding music in a physical format. It celebrates not just the artist but the all of the musicians and creatives that worked on a project. That’s why I’ve released my album on vinyl-only for the first month before it goes on streaming platforms.

I bought my daughter a vinyl player because I want her to know what it means to hold a record, absorb it over time. Fall in and out of love with it. And not just race through a playlist. Then she can buy into the artist, look at the back catalogue, see a live show.

CORINNE: Yes, yes. Music isn’t just content to be consumed. We have to nurture the art of listening and remember that there is value in an artist’s piece of work.

NATAAL: What do you have planned for your Roundhouse gig, Corinne?

CORINNE: I’m performing with the Guildhall Session Orchestra so there's some exquisite arrangements that these young musicians have done. We've only had a small window of rehearsal time to be in union so in the spirit of freedom, embracing difference, and having done these ‘Black Rainbow’ shows in my own way, I’m now excited to be opening it up and encouraging the next generation to be in the mix.

NATAAL: What have you gained from working with these young musicians, arrangers and conductors?

CORINNE: It’s been great seeing their passion as their work comes to life. There’s a prelude to my song ‘Earthlings’ and in rehearsal, someone was really getting inside the cords so it harmonised. I was hearing it, and looked around and could see there's one girl giving it her heart, which was so beautiful. It’s exciting that they care enough to be doing exceptional work. They have the skills and creativity to summon up their own music and be their own authentic selves, which I can relate to. It gives me hope for the future of the industry and that real progress can be made.

NATAAL: What was the vision for your Roundhouse show go, Eska?

ESKA: This is my third collaboration with the venue for this, we did a Donna Summer tribute to her seminal album, ‘Love to Love You Baby’. We had about 50 young people involved as an all-singing, all-moving ensemble. The dancefloor is central to the story of Donna Summer so everyone had to move. They’re dancing on stage, in the audience, they’re doing all manner of things. It was like a Greek chorus of disco and liberation. It was also an opportunity to celebrate contemporary artists who have pushed the needle on the dancefloor, from Katy B and MNEK to Kele Le Roc and Mica Paris. It was a super fun line-up and a really a glorious night.

CORINNE: Did you perform too?

ESKA: Yes. I sang ‘Dinner with Gershwin’. It gets forgotten in Donna Summer’s cannon but it’s such a hot tune – a great title, brilliant lyrics and the production is just stellar.

NATAAL: What were some magic moments of working with the ensemble for you, Eska?

ESKA: Honestly, so many. We had Le Gateau Chocolat do an operatic version of ‘I Feel Love’ and when the Giorgio Moroder synth kicks in, Mica’s soul diva voice blows over it all and she walks into this sea of bodies. And then we drop Mica’s classic, ‘I Should’ve Known Better’. I'm getting goosebumps just remembering it all.

But in rehearsal something made us all chuckle. I’m explaining the significance of ‘I Should’ve Known Better’ to the ensemble because when I was going clubbing in London in the 1990s, that was always the last tune the DJ would play to wrap the night. Mica turns round and says, ‘Do you know, that song was a B-side?’ and this young girl next to us says… ‘What’s a B-side?’ I had to hold the child!

[WE ALL FALL ABOUT LAUGHING].

Mica is like, ‘It’s alright baby, I’ll explain’ And she told her how back in the day, there were things called vinyl records, and often when there was contention with the record label as to what song to make the single, you knew the B-side was what the artist actually wants you to hear. On this occasion, they ended up getting Omar to remix it, but it almost didn’t come out. So, she told the whole story and the ensemble was just mesmerised.

NATAAL: So, they got a lot from the experience.

ESKA: Yes, we all did. The thing was, there was no auditions. For me, it’s come as you are. Even if you are tone deaf or have two left feet, we’ll figure it out. We’re going on a three-month journey to get to the point where they can stand alongside legends. And it’s a completely bonkers process – you have to do your best. Some people drop off but then you get the ones who are serious and understand this a gateway We're also doing outreach so it’s a big sacrifice for some of them to be there but they receive support. So, as far as I'm concerned, that choir, that ensemble, they’re the lead artist in the show. And all the other artists have the privilege of working with these wonderful young people. And working in that way is a huge inspiration for me. It's making the statement that anybody can achieve this if they understand the process and bring their all.

CORINNE: Yes. I want to say to all of the young people going into music, just make your art. Don’t lose faith. It’s such important cultural work that they’re doing. You have to follow your passions and throw your music out to the world. And I think what we’re both saying is that we just want to see a world where these young people will be properly rewarded for their amazing talents.