Music
Discover how Iyamah gets her music out there any way she can
The hotly-tipped UK artist performs her tracks Lone Soldier and Silence for your enjoyment in this exclusive session.
"If there's something on my mind I'll speak it, I'll sing it, I'll get it out in any way that I can," says Sophie Bond, aka UK-born artist Iyamah. These days, she's increasingly getting it out in smooth and sinewy neo-soul cuts that showcase her agile vocal, and feel for a jazzy chord, reggae groove or hip-hop beat.
Brought up in Brighton by her artist mother, Iyamah found her community in the city's reggae scene. Inspired to write her own songs by a perceptive piano teacher, she came of creative age with the help of the holy trinity – Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Amy Winehouse. But she's also spent time writing toplines for drum 'n' bass features in Brighton's club scene, later guesting on the track Senses by heavyweights My Nu Leng.
A tour with acoustic-soul singer Mahalia last Spring, and a string of delicately produced singles, has helped raise Iyamah's profile, but forthcoming debut Truth EP looks like being her springboard release. In this See. Hear. Now. session, you can watch her perform two tracks from the EP: Lone Soldier, which deals with her experience of growing up quick and dealing with the repercussions later, and Silence, a slow and sultry exploration of the importance of communication.
Watch Iyamah exclusively perform Lone Soldier and Silence in the player above.
Iyamah in the studio at her See. Hear. Now. session
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