Even with the steadiest of winds comes an inkling that the pace may pick up on you. Inevitably so, you change the course of your path. If it’s not for the sake of avoiding taking the wind out of your sails and idioms alike, it comes down to the security of a grounded repose. One sigh of relief as you find it, follows the knowing that you can’t stay in the sweet spot for long. The journey ends as it began though; packing your things. Remember, the pivots are the most preeminent parts of ourselves. So once the sails hang slack, and our mental quietude festers, the question comes down to ‘What’s next?’
Chi, Lagos-born, London-based musician, knows the question intimately. In media, confidence has been a bolded adjective for the artist, and it fits. Once self-directed and floating along the model/influencer tide, Chi found footing within couture-sprinkled habitats. Stretching far and wide within the Mowalola-inflected culture, to underground neo-soul and punk scenes, she now rides the wave of everything she loves, combined, just the way she likes it. In reference to her sound that is. In a way, she answered the question anew following her reinvention with Psycho, a bare and unguarded track pulled from her Fall album to come.
With great esteem, we speak with the genre-defying virtuoso on topics of candid songwriting, the UK-centric come-up, romantics in all its forms, beauty, pain, and everlasting affirmations.
Your Colors performance just dropped, so congrats on that! I’m wondering how you’re feeling about having Psycho out? It’s super bare and vulnerable.
I'm so happy. Colors in general is something that I've literally been wanting to do since the start of my music career, it’s like seven years of manifesting at this point. I cried when I found out I was doing it. I cried after I did it and I cried the day before it came out as well. I cry a lot. It was definitely a milestone, I’m so happy I got to do it.
With your album to come sometime in September, what does Psycho represent to the concept of it all for you?
It’s very much me showing the beauty and pain in the everyday human experience. The things I specifically talk about feel like things that people go through a lot but don’t necessarily talk about. I think my writing style can be pretty raw, and I just say it how it is. I go through a lot of difficult times, but I’m never regretful nor upset these things have happened to me. It does build the person I am, and I think that’s beautiful. Pain is beautiful.
How do you think you approach pain? It sounds like you have a pretty good head on your shoulders.
Oh, it definitely drags me down. I’ll experience it however it manifests in me at the time. Sometimes I can deal with it, but other times it takes a toll. One thing about me is I don’t ever stop during pain. Recently, I like to let the emotion run through me how it’s meant to and carry on through my everyday as it’s happening. That’s something I’ve had to learn, and I like to give myself a lot of grace. I won’t really beat myself up for feeling it. It’s just the human experience; all of this is beautiful.
Physically, where have you been for the process of crafting this album? Whether it’s the world you’re trying to create or the lyrics you’re trying to convey, I’m wondering, have you tied any specific places to the album itself?
I started recording it in London. One of the tracks, I made months and months ago before I even knew the name, but I would say I properly started recording it in Lagos. I like to go there at the start of every year to reset.
When I started the record in Lagos, it sounded so different from what it is now. It was kind of folky; I was in my Florence + The Machine era and listening to a lot of folk — all of those older Jean Dawson, and even Youth by Daughter, which is an old Tumblr song. I remember hearing that and knowing I wanted my album to sound beautiful. In the process, I was so hell-bent on having that sound that I was almost not allowing myself to be expressive, making it something that wasn’t necessarily meant to be. I let go of it, then I was in Los Angeles.
I was linked up with Jack Laboz and Oscar Scheller and making really poppy songs, and was like, this is fucking wicked, I want to go into that more. A few songs stood the test of time, but it was essentially a redirection. I wanted it to be pop and fun, but I also kept big and passionate folky elements as well. It’s this massive fusion of everything — I always say my music is like a melting pot. It’s everything I like to listen to jammed into one song, it’s almost chaotic.
When I started the record in Lagos, it sounded so different from what it is now. It was kind of folky; I was in my Florence + The Machine era and listening to a lot of folk — all of those older Jean Dawson, and even Youth by Daughter, which is an old Tumblr song. I remember hearing that and knowing I wanted my album to sound beautiful. In the process, I was so hell-bent on having that sound that I was almost not allowing myself to be expressive, making it something that wasn’t necessarily meant to be. I let go of it, then I was in Los Angeles.
I was linked up with Jack Laboz and Oscar Scheller and making really poppy songs, and was like, this is fucking wicked, I want to go into that more. A few songs stood the test of time, but it was essentially a redirection. I wanted it to be pop and fun, but I also kept big and passionate folky elements as well. It’s this massive fusion of everything — I always say my music is like a melting pot. It’s everything I like to listen to jammed into one song, it’s almost chaotic.
“I’ll ignite your gaslight” is one of the ending lines in Psycho. It feels like this perfect marriage to fuelling confusion, and it’s hauntingly repeated. What does it mean to ignite someone’s gaslight?
I feel like whenever I’m being gaslit, it’s the one time I struggle to control my reaction and emotion. If I’m giving an opportunity to be open and honest and you’re still lying to me, it’s like, oh my god, I’m gonna lose my shit. I’ll crash out, I’ll make the gaslighting worse. I say at the start of the song, “I like to be inside of reason, til’ the point you give me a reason.” The lying in an open space can make me be a psycho.
I feel like those glimpses of toxicity can be an indication of what things could be like if you allow them to be. These moments are so interesting ‘cause you can blow up and afterwards be like, what’s for dinner? It’s definitely romantic, but when I’m writing, I like to draw in many different situations to relate what I’m talking about. I like to take lines from other experiences.
I feel like those glimpses of toxicity can be an indication of what things could be like if you allow them to be. These moments are so interesting ‘cause you can blow up and afterwards be like, what’s for dinner? It’s definitely romantic, but when I’m writing, I like to draw in many different situations to relate what I’m talking about. I like to take lines from other experiences.
For me, Psycho feels like the push and pull pattern of something romantic turned sour, but it’s obvious that both parties play into the same tainted game. There’s this need to stay and fuel the fire. What do you think it takes for a person to get to that point?
I think the push and pull genuinely comes down to the self. Your own internal struggles that you haven’t necessarily faced nor dealt with have a lot to do with the ego. All that comes into play when people are in relationships, unless you really face yourself. The whole ‘love yourself’ mantra is such a broad statement. It’s not just about love, but you have to go through the motions of accepting you’re a twat sometimes. I feel like people don’t do that enough.
“I go through a lot of difficult times, but I’m never regretful nor upset these things have happened to me. It does build the person I am, and I think that’s beautiful. Pain is beautiful.”
Back in June, you tweeted “Beauty is not enough, you also need to be evil.” Is this more of a personal read, or an outward expectation for beautiful people?
I’m talking to myself a lot of the time on Twitter (laughs). I think I’m too nice with love interests, and I feel men generally respect you and are more drawn to you when you’re just a little bit mean. That’s obviously horrible to say, and I’m just like, why can’t everyone be nice? But regardless of how pretty you are, they’ll walk over you if you’re not a little mean. The game is the game.
Under your Spotify is your I like to blink playlist. Sprinkled are so many bad-ass British artists like FKA Twigs, BabyMorroco, and Shygirl. What’s your favorite thing to do as you bump them?
I listen to music in transit a lot. When I wake up in the morning too, I’ll put this music on. But honestly, I kind of suck at listening to music right now. I feel like I just listen to people’s albums rather than my playlists and stuff. I like albums from start to finish; that’s kind of my thing now. I’m quite a happy person, so I’m generally in a good mood when I listen to these songs.
Right now, the UK is popping off and every new drop feels like something beyond self-expression. There’s something super sexy and confident about it. Why do you think the hub is in this prime for music? What’s in the land’s air?
I love what’s going on in the UK right now! There was such a drought for the longest time, and I think it led artists to just go into themselves and want to do better. It made everyone come so hard, it’s insane. Shygirl and BabyMorroco, like, ugh, they’re killing it!
Whether it’s pivots into neo-soul, experimental rock, or R&B, you float in a lane that remains high fashion through both vision and sound. How do you maintain a realm where sound is style in itself?
I don’t think about that so much. I have a lot of friends that have great sense of style though, so they mostly keep me up to date. I’m so lucky ‘cause I have her [in reference to Mowalola] studio lowkey. It's a backup wardrobe if I ever need anything.
It’s too early, but as the days lean closer to this album, what are affirmations you prep yourself with?
Funnily enough, I started praying. I have a few friends that are quite religious and were like, just give it a go. So I started that, and it’s nice. To focus on something and say these things out loud like my hopes and wants feels new.
Lastly, what are affirmations you’d prep the listener with?
Just be yourself, trust yourself. I’ve had so many people in my ear with the ‘this is what you should do’ or ‘this is how it should look’. Every single time I’ve gone off someone else’s idea, it has just never hit. You just gotta do you.
