British singer Yola has signed to S-Curve Records and returns with her first new music in three years today (September 19) with “Future Enemies.”
The song, the live video of which premieres below, is a mysterious tale, set to Yola's incomparably rich vocals, about a relationship she preemptively calls calling it quits before it can break. Expanding beyond the rootsy, groove-filled songs of the past like 'I Don't Wanna Lie', 'Diamond Studded Shoes' and 'Faraway Look', 'Future Enemies' combines synthetic electronics with R&B and dance vibes and signals a new musical. directed by the six-time Grammy nominee. Yola wrote and produced the song with Sean Douglas and Zach Skelton.
“There's a moment when you realize you're not going to get along with someone. They haven't noticed yet, so you have a unique opportunity to disappear from their lives before they realize you're destined to become enemies. It's a luxury not to have an endless supply of negative memories of someone because you never made them,” Yola says in a statement about the song. “I choose to save time for situations, places, and people that don't have a doom timer because they don't see me or focus on a reality that doesn't serve me or my well-being. Of course, when you're a woman, culturally black (as well as physically black), brunette (and feminine in energy), plus size (and willfully main character in energy), from a completely different continent and living in the West, let's say you should you are both careful and selective in life, in love [and] at work.”
Yola's new direction draws from her past as part of London's Broken Beats scene that spanned the mid-1990s to the late 2000s, and which she was a part of as a member of the electronic collective Bugz in the Attic. It is reflected in “Future Enemies” and her new EP, My wayreleased on November 15th. The EP also draws on her love of various eras of R&B, including 70s soulful pop and 90s neo soul, while thematically exploring creative autonomy and even historical movements, including the Windrush Generation of immigrants who they came from Caribbean countries to the UK after WWII until 1973.
“I've been deliberately hinting in this direction for years. From covering Soul II Soul for Apple Music to my touring covers and remixes of my songs, the broad church of soul music through the ages has always been the narrative,” he says. “I've covered Yarborough and Peoples' 'Don't Stop the Music' as a nod to my time with Bugz In The Attic (we used to cover that song).
“This time I explore my love of soul music through influences such as Chaka Kahn, Janet Jackson, Sade, Prince, Minnie Riperton and various luminaries of rare groove and progressive RnB,” he continues. “Layering programming and synths with organic instruments is at the core of the soundscape, and as usual I've metabolised these elements into a concoction very much my own.”
“In recent years, Yola has been one of my favorite contemporary artists,” he said Steve Greenbergfounder/CEO of S-Curve Records, in a statement. “Well, when I found out she had fulfilled her previous recording commitments [with Easy Eye Records]we jumped at the chance to sign her to S-Curve. The music she records for this new project is classic Yola, yet she expands her musical palette by incorporating funk and R&B influences from the late 80s in a very natural way. It's an exciting development and I think her new music will excite long-time Yola fans while also bringing many new listeners to the fold. We are ready to do everything we can to help Yola build this next phase of her career.”
Yola, who is currently starring Hadestown on Broadway as Persephone through mid-October, managed by Range Media Partners and booked by Wasserman.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/yola-future-enemies-new-song-video-premiere-s-curve-records-1235775323/
