A Wanjaful and Honey experience: The artist (1/4).
Just over a year and a half ago, Wanja Wohoro blessed our eager ears with her debut album ‘Matriarch’ to high critical acclaim. The 9-track project is a creative endeavor that weaves a journey through contemporary womanhood from a personal lens.
In her words, “Matriarch takes the listener through Kenyan folklore, the turmoil of youth and lust, the anxiety of discovering one’s place as a young woman, and the dream of one day becoming a leader.” A month after it’s release, she was named Apple Music Africa’s ‘Favourite New Artist.’
Her following year in music was as successful, if not more, as the preceding one. Youth, the second single off her debut album, was accepted as one of the many submissions to the emPawa 100 mentorship program, pioneered by Mr. Eazi.
So who’s Wanja Wohoro?
Wanja is an afro-indie-soul singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Nairobi, Kenya, and Sydney, Australia. She captivates her audiences with not only her unique style but also her emotionally-packed lyricism and rich, soulful vocals.
Before her debut album Matriarch, she had released a joint two-track EP titled Dust, alongside EA Wave’s Jinku. Dust was released just about three months before Matriarch, and it serves as the starting point of the collaborative history between EA Wave and Wanja Wohoro.
In the last quarter of 2019, she came back with two singles, Bright and Atmosphere. Both tracks featured other musical acts: Junior Nyong’o on Bright while Kahvinya on Atmosphere.
Honey EP
Honey is a two-track EP that features production from the EA Wave Sound Collective.
We spoke to the songstress on her latest EP.
This interview has been further condensed and edited for clarity.
Tell us a little about yourself and how you got started making music.
I was born in Australia and moved to Kenya when I was about four years old. I spent most of my childhood here until I was twelve. I was very outdoorsy; I remember I loved playing outside a lot. When I was inside the house, I loved and enjoyed drawing almost more than anything. I guess I can say I’ve had a pretty vibrant imagination, hitherto, and yeah, I enjoyed my childhood (chuckles familiarly).
My dad was quite musical, and there was always music playing at home. It was either my parents playing Stevie Wonder or Van Morrison or my siblings who were playing Usher or Blink 182. My dad used to play the piano and guitar and used to sing as well back in the day. So I assume that’s where I at least got the spark for music.
I’ve always been creative too. I’ve enjoyed creating things from a very young age and being in the arts in general. It would be difficult to pinpoint my earliest encounter with music, but at some point, I was in the children’s choir. As far as I can remember, I took quite a liking to it.
I’ve always loved music, but what made me want to be a songwriter was not until I was a teenager. I was living in Australia, and my dad bought me a guitar. I began to spend more time creating my music, and I just fell in love with the process of expressing myself through music.
How would you describe your sound?
I’ve always found this a difficult question to respond to because defining oneself can be quite a challenge. As much as I wouldn’t want to box myself into a particular sound, I would consider my music as a vibrant mix of indie and soul music.
I also refer to myself as a singer/songwriter. The breadth of the genre title allows most artists, like myself, who play instruments and write their music to categorize themselves as such. For that reason, I ultimately think it’s the best genre title for me.
I feel as though my sound has naturally evolved. If you play music consistently, the evolution of your sound is a natural byproduct of being a practicing musician, at least it should be (nods in agreement). Also, over time, I have become a lot more honest and confident in what I have to say while being unapologetic about it.
I’ve also allowed my voice to grow organically, and I must say that I have enjoyed that process. I’ve learned to rely more and more on the indieness of my vocals as opposed to trying to sound more pop or more R&B. I’ve also bettered my artistic skills, and I hope that I can continue making such improvements.
I can’t highlight any specific instances in my journey that have characterized a considerable shift in my music. I believe it’s just something that happens naturally over time when you create music, as I mentioned earlier. I’ve always been open to exploration, so I’m down for things to change a lot more and to continue getting musical influence from other artists.
Break down the creative process behind Honey as an EP, from an artist’s perspective.
For Honey, I don’t know what the collective (EA Wave) is going to say about this (giggles curiously). I bet they had a different experience since they handled all of the production, which requires hours on their laptops and in the studio.
From where I sit, though, Honey was created naturally (no pun intended). Some songwriting processes are really meticulous and very involving while others are just moments when someone sends you an instrumental, you fall in love with it and immediately write over it. That’s what happened with Honey.
We never set out to make anything. I have a good working relationship with Jinku(from EA Wave), and he sends me beats now and then. Most times, they are basic ideas, and he’s always encouraging me to write over them if I like them. It so happens that one of those tracks that he sent me was Honey Bee.
He had sent me the Honeybee instrumental a while back, and I wrote over it almost immediately. I sent it back to him with the melody I had written over it, and he liked it. I completely forgot about it till months later when he reached out about it again.
EA Wave was working on releasing a project every month, and they had all liked the song. They wanted me to come in and record it correctly, and so that’s what I did. As I alluded to earlier, there must have been a lot of conversations that I wasn’t part of that went on behind the scenes.
Something that we have all learned over time is that its easier to hoard and hold onto music. This approach, again, might not be the most effective marketing strategy, but it’s crucial for us that we release music as we create it. There is a certain spontaneity with which we created this project. It also rolled over into the shoot for the cover art as well as with the release. We just wanted to get it out and share our magic with the world.
Let’s talk about Side A of Honey, Honey Bee. Walk us through the creative process behind Honey Bee.
As I mentioned in the previous response, I mostly was interacting with Jinku for Honey Bee since he was the one who sent me the original track. I recorded the song with him though I know the other EA Wave members worked together; we were working virtually.
I could answer this in terms of Honey Bee’s lyrical content. Honestly, I wrote it around this line cause I thought it was cute (laughs infectiously).
‘Under me, undo me, my Honey Bee, you’re an overachiever’
This song is essentially about falling in love with someone, and they are also equally as in love with you. You’re both a little obsessed with each other, and you’re proud of your love. All this while, both of you are amazed by it. That’s how I would describe the meaning behind the lyrics.
Let’s talk about Side B of Honey, Honeydew. Walk us through the creative process behind Honeydew.
Just like Honey Bee, Honeydew was an organic creation. I have a close-knit friendship and working relationship with EA Wave, and we share a lot of music. Honeydew was a result of one of these interactions.
There was this time when Jinku had come over to my house, and he was playing me some tracks. We were practicing for a performance, and he was just playing me some of the instrumentals he had on him.
So there I was, plugged in with the mic, and I was sort of riffing over different tracks. I could say it was sort of a jam session, but without all the instruments (silence). It was just Jinku with his laptop and keyboard while I was there with my guitar. A lot of songs we’ve written together have come about in this way.
This one was more of a vocal riff, though, which I didn’t even anticipate becoming anything more. Later on, Jinku sent me a version of it using the scratch vocal that we had recorded on that day.
He had liked it, and so the reason why it made it to Honey was to contrast Honey Bee. We looked at the EP as a coin, where each song represented one side of the collaboration. My vocals on the Honeydew feature are more of an instrument as opposed to being the main feature like on Honey Bee.
Give us a human story that comes from your in-person or online interaction with your fans.
I feel like the cool things happen in person. The interpersonal nature of such interactions does not compare to the interactions I have online with my listeners. I value them both, of course, but the thing I live for is having conversations about music in person.
I end up going to shows not just to perform. I also want to interact with people who listen to my music. The fact that my music has impacted them is always humbling, but by going that extra mile to come to my show, that, to me, means the entire world (dramatic pause).
I treasure those moments the most because it’s such a welcome reminder of the power of music, especially times when you feel so alienated from your audience. It feels great to see and hear someone explain to you how what you’re doing matters to them.
It’s not about conversations at times. Music has a way of bringing diverse people together. The highlight of being a live musician is that you get to have genuine interactions with people who you would otherwise have not interacted with had it not been for your music, all while having fun.
Honey EP by Wanja Wohoro and EA Wave is available on all digital streaming platforms.
Listen to it here.
