“I feel free,” Tawiah says with a happy sigh. “I’ve been in the industry for a long time, worked with so many people and been through struggles with major labels. So now it’s like, bring it on. Let’s go!” It’s a few days after her special immersive performance at The Albany in South London to launch her debut album, Starts Again, and this seasoned artist is still on cloud nine. And rightly so. Being among the audience for this one-off show - the room cocooned in cloth that was brought alive by film projections from Tawiah’s travels to Ghana - it was beautiful to feel the love swell and hear her soar through this accomplished body of work with a little help from a closely curated cast of dancers, musicians, backing singers, guest vocalists and designers.

The ambition and scale of the gig was a match for the deeply personal ground that the album covers – Tawiah’s fractured relationship with established religion, her exploration of her identity as a black queer woman and memories of long lost love affairs. It’s also an achievement that couldn’t go uncelebrated for an artist who has been in the business for over a decade. Having won awards, toured the world and collaborated with the likes of Cinematic Orchestra, Blood Orange, Mark Ronson, Cee-Lo and Wiley, she was way past due on delivering a long player that squared up to her critical acclaim.

“I actually recorded these songs in 2014 with Sam [Beste, long-time producer] and the first five became my 2017 EP. I wanted to take my time and make sure I had the right team around me, and as an independent artist it’s tough,” she reasons. “But at the top of this year I had a conversation with myself, ‘You have to put it out in 2019 - and if you don’t you’re a waste girl!’” she chuckles.

And so she dug deep and made this magical release happen. An honest and emotional work, Tawiah’s simply soulful songs often speak directly to, and of, her family. Recreate is case in point. “I grew up in the Pentecostal church and thought I’d end up marrying a pastor’s son,” she recalls. “But I stopped going many years ago, which caused a friction between my mum and me. I struggle with religion and the blood on its hands but Recreate is about my rediscovery of the spiritual realm and relearning my relationship with God.”

Similarly, the shimmering track Mother’s Prayer opens up with her great grandmother singing her favourite hymn, and draws deeply on Tawiah’s gospel roots. “My mum doesn’t understand my life and anything outside of the church is madness to her. But since hearing this song, it’s opened up a dialogue between us. I am learning to stand firm in my truth, and she is learning to accept it. That’s all I can hope for.”

Mother’s Prayer rounds out the album, like it did the Albany gig, ensuring that there wasn’t a dry eye in the house by the end of her euphoric set that night. “My grandmother lived until she was 103 and was a proper matriarch to the day that she died. It was amazing to learn about her life when I went to Ghana for her 100th birthday and so I wrote this song in the same key her hymn.”

Meanwhile the title track accepts her addiction to her artistry, come rain or shine. “In many ways my relationship with music is like a relationship with a lover. As much as I think I can quit, and have been at low points where I’ve tried to walk away, I will always start again for as long as I live. That’s the vibe. I’m all, in babes.”

With that in mind, can we presume that it won’t be another 10 years before her next album? “Definitely not. I’m already writing it, yo,” Tawiah promises. “Performing live has always been my forte, it’s what I reserve my energy for, so I’ll be taking a smaller version of this show on the road in early 2020, and then it’s album number two. Write that down because it’s a fact!”

Start Again is out now on First Word Records

Read our 2017 interview with Tawiah here

Visit Tawiah

Published on 15/11/2019