The Muse: Meet Mahalia, the 19 year old neo-soul singer to watch

“I’ve kind of just been a domestic goddess today,” Mahalia laughs down the phone, from her hometown in Leicester. The one-to-watch, amongst the new wave of Brit female R&B and soul singers making waves, has earned a little downtime: immersed in the fast and furious music industry since being signed at just 13 years old. But if she’s feeling any fatigue it doesn’t show: giggling hysterically throughout our chat, using the F word frequently for emphasis and opening up about her “intense” relationship which inspired the viral single Sober last year (which has reached an impressive 2.1 million YouTube hits and counting). At 19, Mahalia’s ‘90s-inspired fashion and prescribed “psycho acoustic soul” music is both nostalgic and a modern soundtrack to growing up in the digital age. We catch up with the rising star to talk drunk texting, the problem with plus size fashion and pop’s diversity issue…

Hi Mahalia! You describe your sound as Psycho Acoustic Soul – what’s the Psycho part?

It’s like a little bit nuts, but it was my way as a kid to be like please don’t categorize me. Especially at the minute. After Sober came out people were saying like “R&B sensation!” and I was like “oh my god guys, no.” I was like don’t set yourself up to fail – because if the next single comes out it’s like ‘what the fuck she’s not doing R&B?’ But then however you take music is however you take it.

My parents were in a band when they were younger called Club O and they made a T-shirt with psycho acoustic soul on it – that’s how my dad always described their music. How I now understand it is psycho starts, which comes from my lyrical style; acoustic, purely because of the fact I play the guitar; and the soul part, I like to think my voice is quite soulful.

Your hit single Sober delves into the breakdown of a relationship – were you writing from personal experience?

God yeah! A year ago I was just in a really weird space – I’d not long been living in London and I was dating this guy who was older and it was really exciting. And when you’re 18 anything like that just feels amazing – it was the first time in my life that I really thought “this is it!” Like, this must be how it feels when you’ve met the person you’re going to spend the rest of your life with? Because all the emotions were there, when it ended it felt more painful. I spent a lot of time back at my mums house in Birmingham and I’d go out with my mates and we’d go to shitty nights out [and] I’d run out of the club and call this guy. I had never really been a drunk texter until this time [laughs]. My mates had to take their phone and put it in their clutches. Then I went downstairs into my mum’s basement where my studio was and wrote the chorus for Sober.

Was he your first love?

No. People say in life you have your three loves; your first, second and third and they’re all for different reasons. I’m a bit of a hopeless romantic so I know all these silly facts! I had my first love when I was 12 – which is my boyfriend now, which is hilarious. We went out when we were 11, and that again for the age we were it was very intense. He ended it and I was really upset – and I changed my Facebook status to single and it was like two weeks of being upset. Long story short, the next five years I would never really get over him. Then start of this year I moved back to Leicester and met up with him again and it just so happened that we got on.

How did growing up in Leicester affect your musical style? What’s the music scene out there?

There’s a huge music scene out here which is cool – and I think that actually playing guitar wasn’t really weird, [because] I could see girls singing songs and playing music. But I strived to be different, I wanted to merge [genres] together and be completely different.

‘70s supermodel Pat Cleveland was once told “you’re not black enough to be black or white enough to be white.” Being mixed race, did you ever experience this yourself?

Yeah! Growing up in a predominately white town can definitely affect you. I used to find it confusing, like “what the fuck, nobody looks like me”. It used to anger me. I’ve got two parents from London so I had two different accents – one for school and one for home. My home one was my real one. I think kids at school, they didn’t get it – they didn’t know how to be around me. Then when I moved to Birmingham, I got it from the other end, cause then I was around more black kids, which is amazing, I’d never had that, but then they would call me ‘white girl’.

Do you think that the music industry still has a way to go in representing all women?

In the UK we are a bit different, but I do think that there is a slight diversity issue, I think we’re growing and it’s getting better – in the music industry I’ve had lovely memories. However I understand where people’s annoyance comes from – I’ve had girls come to me and say like lighties – mixed race girls – are the only girls that do well. That causes conflict between all of us. Like where do we all fit?

Did you always want to be a musician?

No – I was really good at science, so I thought I could do something with science or maths. I got signed at 13 – I had parents who were both musicians, and knew what to do and we kind of just ran with it. I’ve never had a job and, actually ,when I was 17 I handed out 70 CVs because I Just felt like “OMG I don’t feel normal!”. I got a call back from Doc Marten! But I never took it [laughs].

We’re loving your throwback fashion statements on Instagram – how would you describe your personal style?

Cheap [laughs]! It’s quite ‘90s – [and] I will like always try and make something out of something shit! But it’s hard – I’m a bigger busted lady But what that means is I’m not a bigger girl, but have massive boobs, so fashion on me can be quite hard. Even though we’ve come a long way – all I was seeing was skinny models growing up- we have fuller figure, plus size and curve, when you’re my size it’s confusing. I’ve always loved Nike, I’ve always been a heavy Nike supporter. Perception is everything because of Instagram; I do feel self-conscious using it sometimes. I look at other female artists and I think “god how can you do this every day?”

What’s up next for you?

I’m playing in Portugal this weekend and I can finally sit down and work on my album – I’m aiming for end of 2018 release!

Mahalia’s tour is March and her single Hold On is out now. You can follow her on Instagram here. 

Main image credit: Shirt – Freya Dalsjo; Trousers – Misguided; Ring – Dior