The US singer and producer received mass acclaim for her debut album in 2017, then vanished. After a battle with perfectionism, she’s back with renewed self-assurance and one eye fixed firmly on the dancefloor
Kelela thought she had lost her touch. In January 2020, the US singer and producer had flown to Berlin to sketch out the outline of an album to follow her much-anticipated 2017 debut, Take Me Apart. She called up a few collaborators: LSDXOXO, real name Raus haad “RJ” Glasgow, her friend Asma “Asmara” Maroof (of Nguzunguzu). Standing in a recording booth, an instrumental playing over her headphones, she felt as though she had forgotten how to write songs.
“I remember coming out feeling so rusty,” she says now. Improvising over a song now called Closure, she thought: “‘You can do better than this, Kels.’” But she sang anyway, recording melodies that she would ordinarily tweak until they felt right. “I turned to Asma like: ‘Girl, I don’t know what’s going on.’ And she responded: ‘What? That was popping.’” She laughs. “I kept thinking that it was all really basic, and that I could come up with a better melody.” Rather than beat herself up about it, Kelela let the song be.
