Sasha Keable: From early collabs to forging her own lane in R&B - EP3

0:03What? That was lovely, yeah. That was more than I bargained for, to be fair. Mate I'm on the ball today, mate. I'm on the ball. Like actually pretty new. I'm like quite flippant, I don't really. This guy's current. I'm like quite proud of myself. I can see that in your face. I throw that answer out the back. That was crazy. I felt better.

0:30back again bro episode three let's just let's just go to right to it man final of the week final of the week yeah what were we saying what's my choice yes your turn what have we got bro we've got it right here we have a shakai okay work of art very clean album cover i would say clean and do you want to see the back there is a shakai is another of those artists i did not know how to say the name for for too too long i'm not gonna lie like i kept it quiet for a long time i just didn't even say his name for a very very long time yeah yeah no i i'm the same i had to say the meeting yeah yeah because i was bringing a reference to it and i was like i was stumbled um stumped rather yeah yeah but yeah a shaké um so it work about obviously you've got sort of like references to Basquiat there as well um him with a little paintbrush um this one obviously I love the music it's got some bangers on there let's have a look what have we got we've got 230 we've got Basquiat we've got I'm a piano um lonely at the top great guy yeah it's just got some tunes on there however one of my favorite elements as you know I love a I'm a sucker for a bit of color yeah in my life because I feel like if you're spending money you may as well be like kind of unique in a sense yeah go all out this is the vinyl yeah green and white i'm here to get obviously nigeria where he's from yeah and yeah when i spin in on the record player looks particularly clean um so yeah that was one of actually you bought this for me as you said before at my request i don't know how you felt about it what a great friend i am right yeah no yeah i think it was for your birthday i want to say or christmas i'd also quickly draw our attention to some of the some of the like image readers inside as well i feel like it's a nice touch yeah very cool have like this little poster and then you've got the same as the reverse cover here which also have has the track list on as well um so yeah man i really like this one is that his best album we're saying or i don't know i don't know he's got um i'll pop it up here there he is um yeah he's three albums deep now um yeah mr money with a vibe work of art and Lungu Boy I believe is the third one I don't know it's a good continuation for me like it's just the whole album's in a good mood is it his best I don't know I don't think I've listened to it the full way through I only have when you played it actually when I gave it to you I feel like it's one where you'll be pleasantly surprised how many other tracks that you know even if you don't know the titles but sonically so that's why I feel like with this anyway this is my vinyl appreciation of the week there it is there is and again i like the fact that it is you know obviously he's very prominent in it but it's also um demonstration of art as the title suggests as well so yeah we've got we've got a splash of color in today's episode i like it i like it okay okay so what have you been in this week what are we saying uh what's there of note that's happened this week oh i've got something actually before we before we go ahead before you tell me your life life struggles and that obviously we've just put this vinyl on on the on the table we've got a couple of other things that have been here every episode that we haven't really spoke about um we've got this this rockety thing i know well i mean why is it why is it there i know why it's there but uh i can't remember i know it's something to do with music which is why we put it there but what what is it to do with music yeah so this is a lego times pharrell collaboration okay um what the heck is it called i forget what it's called um like the actual piece itself but yeah i i first saw it sort of advertised and i was like this look firstly i just like how it looks yeah yeah and then when i looked at the meaning behind it obviously pharrell is a g and will forever be but it was like um he was super cool he was super like intentional about what it I think it's called like to the moon or something okay and it was sort of like the the premise of um the premise of sort of like chasing your dreams and being ambitious and sort of like sticking the path really and I liked that um and for like having it in the home is also quite a cool visual reminder of that yeah even though it doesn't always nothing has to always mean everything yeah yeah you know what I mean yeah i'm with you um but yeah i really like the idea of that and um it's cool it comes with like all of the little i think it's got like 50 or so different little like lego heads like male female all kinds of ethnicities all kind of like um uh like accessories like bearded non-bearded that sort of thing yeah yeah and the idea is that you kind of find yourself in it to like plonk yourself in the cockpit type thing so have you put someone in the cockpit Bro, have a look at the cockpit.

5:36Go on then, go on then. Let's have a look. How do I open it? This is in the front, yeah. This, nice. Oh, okay. So you've got... You've put a little bearded character in there. I guess, yeah, a little stubbly. Red cap, if I hear it. And you've got... Oh, the missus in the back of that. In the back, they're not next to each other. I mean, it's only right that a woman is chauffeured, you know? Yeah, yeah, I hear that. I hear that. You've got to treat them right. all right so yeah well we we played football this morning early start weren't it mate i'm i'm dying a little bit inside i'm not gonna 8 8 30 a.m on a saturday um which isn't crazy but i do like a sleeping and my body's just falling apart bro obviously we're speaking about this before my knees hurting my shoulders hurting my back's hurting like i don't know what How old are you, man?

6:30It's crazy. That's it. Named all of the key components. I'm not even 30 yet. And my body is just falling apart. So, but I just love the game. So I need to think of something. I need to do more stretching or Pilates or something. I don't know. But yeah, yeah. The body's just crumbling at the moment. Have you ever done Pilates? No, no. Do you want to? I think so. I don't, I'm just figuring out, is it reformer or just like regular Matt Matt Pilates I think reformer's easier is what I've heard yeah that's the impression I get too which sounds counterintuitive yeah I don't like things that are too easy you know I need to struggle going through it I want to know where I'm at and if it's bad then it's like a good sign for you to stick at it but I'm as stiff as a boat so I can't really I can't maybe easy like might help me because I if I just can't they tell me to do some stretch or something I just I'm nowhere near it I'll just be like, well, I can't do this.

7:29It's impossible, isn't it? We should do it. We should do a session. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I guess. It just doesn't sound fun, is it? Yeah, yeah. That's big. And you pay for it. I'm like, I already pay for football and for gym and stuff. Now I'm paying to be made to look a fool for my lack of flexibility. Exactly. As you say, we're getting slightly older. So it's a good way of looking after the body, I guess. Yeah, I think so. I think so. Yeah. I saw Jordan Ward's got an album coming. Coming, right? January, I think it's coming out. Oh, is it? And he's released a single with Sailor. With Sailor, yeah.

8:06Which I'm about. And yeah, he's just one of those guys that he's found his type of sound, Sonic, and he's just doing well with it. He's probably my favourite artist in the past couple of years, I would say. How new is he? What did he have out before Ford? that's his first like album but he had an ep okay um i can't remember what it's called but it had like hibachi and stuff in it um yeah so he's he's had he's had he's been releasing music since like i want to say 2017 is what i want to say okay well then but yeah a while but it's like eps and singles and stuff like that um and just like feet like a lot of the songs that i knew before forward was him just featuring on songs with people instead of it being his own song.

8:57But yeah, now I think the new album is going to be called, well, I don't know if he's announced it, but I think it's going to be called Backwood. Oh, is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, he's keeping on theme, which I'm here for. And yeah, he's just, he always, his music is always good and he collaborates with a lot of good people as well. So yeah, like one of my favorite albums last year was Narsen the producer oh yeah I remember it's like almost like a because obviously he's just a producer he's just like it's just a collab collaboration album with all like all the artists that he works with and it's yeah that was what I think one of the underrated albums of the year because the quality was just really good and the artists there were really good as well so yeah definitely listen to that if you haven't and that's it alright recent rotations so I've got three new like actually pretty new I'm like quite flipper this guy's current I'm like quite proud of myself like I can see that in your face well like recent rotation I keep on saying old songs so I've got three new that I said like this month of October well I'm filming in October so number one is Finn Askew okay Finn Askew like I found I found this guy.

10:18I saw him on like Instagram and stuff. He does like a lot of covers of like R &B songs. He's like this, this like white ginger guy from England. And he's just like got mad, like soul. He's got kind of like raspy kind of voice as well. And it's like, you don't like this. Covers are always really good, but I never really checked for him in terms of his actual music. And then, yeah, I stumbled across a single that he released in October called Vows which is just like a very clean R &B single um I don't think he himself has released that much music as of yet but he does have quite a big following on Instagram yeah and social medias and stuff so but yeah Vows that's my first um I've yeah seen him doing heaps of covers as well I saw him do Kalani Folded most recently I think she commented on it as well yeah the one that got me was the Lauryn Hill Jesus what's the song called?

11:20Some guys What? Do it? Yes thank you that thing and that so yeah that's the first one I was like this is actually a pretty good rendition he's cold he's cold yeah he just like chucks out so many covers like quite like does it quite consistent and fast rate so yeah man so if you haven't listened to the single definitely give it a good I haven't, I'll check it. Yeah, it's just a clean album. A lot of the time, those type of artists that do a lot of covers, and then you check their music, and it's like, it's not that great. And you're like, you're just a cover artist, and that's your thing. But this actually, it sounds good.

11:56So hopefully he'll have some traction, and then he can actually become a legit artist in the scene. Sick. I'll check it. All right, my first one this week is a producer who's now stepping into being an artist himself as well. He's called AP Go Crazy. Okay. And crazy's with a K. Okay, yeah. Yeah. And the song is called Little More. And I came across him on TikTok, and bro, production goes crazy. Really? That's better name. Yeah. And yeah, bro, it's just so clean, isn't it? and like he's been clever with the the way in which he's presenting it and like he's showing like he's showing the producer setup it's like sort of like top down pov and so you can kind of straight away from the first frame see that he's like that guy with production now and then it like this it goes straight into the instrumental and bro just so clean and so i was waiting for there to be a full version because he just posted the same thing sort of like in yeah kind of again and again so some more context around him quick as well so he's he's produced a lot like he said he produced I think he's actually British but he produces for a lot of Americans so he's done like Rod Wave 2C Young Boy NBA so he's done like a lot of stuff and it's like successful stuff so he's very established in his own right so it's sick that he's doing his own thing now and I'm excited for what else is to come because this the sonic of it is beautiful I think you'll love it so do check that out ap go crazy a little more a little more cool oh is it me is a b for the next one okay so my number two uh again pretty recent as well album that's come out in october um is an artist i've followed for a while now uh chase secure um so the album is wonderful love um and the single that i i'm listening to at the moment is seeing red okay um and yeah just the whole album in general is yeah it's very it's very clean um if you've listened to chase a core in his last album or ep i don't know which which they're calling it uh yeah it's kind of it's much of the same but it's it's um still very current i guess but um he's been featuring in quite a few like artist songs recently as well and that's kind of why i checked for him because i was like oh yeah i wonder if what this guy's doing and i was like oh damn he's got he's got a whole album flippin' out let's go and yeah yeah so yeah it's very good um there's quite a few good features in the album as well so yeah definitely give it a go um so yeah give yeah seeing red is the is the song that i like in the moment nice i'm gonna check it go for it what's your number three then oh yeah i've got number three you said you've only got two yeah this is my number two oh sorry sorry but this is the fourth one sorry so i'm jumping ahead yeah sorry it's my fourth it's baffling me bro this wasn't rehearsed we don't we it's supposed to be you the me i got god oh man uh all right so my second one is uh an artist uh it's actually an artist alias so this is like the second artist um yeah expression okay sorry not let's do you patching out i know what alias means so the artist name is ie and then a full stop so it's lowercase ie full stop what does ie mean like what does it stand for like in english like is it latin i don't know it's a latin thing and it's got you've asked the question and i know what it stands for for the artist oh come on so um so it stands for uh infinita esperanza see with the okay which translates as infinite hope okay okay so who who is the main artist yeah so main artist is called sunday i believe that's how you say it so it's s-o-n-d-a-e s-o-n-d-a-e okay cool i'm assuming it's sunday yeah yeah i was thinking it was sunday but he is a christian artist okay and so i'm assuming some sunday plays into it yeah it makes sense yeah yeah um so yeah ie his alias so he's only there's only two tracks out so far uh one of them is called peter and one of them is called i need you here and yeah i came across it i was sort of like deep in a like Spotify whole and it's quite satisfying when you find an artist that's only got a couple releases and it was quite sort of like incognito in a sense like there's not really much imagery there the artwork's a bit sort of like um abstract I guess but those two releases are really nice it's sort of like sort of like indie R &B sort of vibes like quite um quite stripped back and almost like lo-fi-y in a sense of like it's not big production and stuff but it's really good and you know his lyrics are like quite faith based drawing off of like his main artist and his own like life experience I feel like the Christian artists again in their bag like now I feel yeah there's a there's a lot of guys that are very good and it's nice to see that they're like harnessing the proper talent side of it I know you were going to say what are you thinking?

17:29No, I was going to say, who's the young UK? Yeah, DC3. Yeah, he's wavy. He's like British Kendrick-y type vibes. Yeah, that's me. So, yeah. Yeah, the guy, he spits a little bars. Yeah, and his video concepts are always very cool as well. It's clean. I do rate it. I do rate it. But yeah, I feel like I've been listening to the Justin Bieber swag stuff recently. and like that sort of like Dijon-esque, like more, not more, the strips makes it feel a bit like it disqualifies it, but a bit more like not pop production type stuff. Yeah, I mean, you already know, McGee is my guy. McGee is the guy. So, yeah, and I like McGee.

18:11He's got like a, almost like an 80s acoustic kind of sound because he uses like his obviously guitar, but like some synths and stuff, that kind of old school, which is very cool. um so yeah so yeah sometimes listening to that type of music is there's a space for it i think there's a space for it for sure so yeah i.e i'm gonna say listen to i need you here yeah a bit of a derivative of that sort of like justin bieber dijon mcgee okay i need you here okay cool this means back to you now it is my turn right it is my turn cool so i've got so i've got two left right yeah so that means you're doing both of them back to back back to back baby so i've got one noon and one old new uh this is i'm pretty fresh into this i'm pretty clean like it's only 60k listeners on spotify or something i was you're in the polls which is pretty decent i think um so i obviously again i'm not gonna know how to say the name or whatever um it's chromo i believe which is K-R-O-M-O-W Chromo oh okay I believe they do say like he does say his name in the song so that might be why I don't know how it sounds that helps but yeah the single is Look At The Sky and I guess you know me like I like a good like sample being chopped and this is like a very like yeah just a vocal sample just getting like chopped up and stuff and that's the main song and obviously he himself is like singing and a little bit of like rapping on top of it but yeah he produces it himself I think he's like a producer mainly and this is him becoming an artist himself and yeah it just sounds very good so yeah give it a go get be one of the new fans say the title again so Chromo is the artist and this song is look at the sky oh cool so yeah so that's my three new so i think that's pretty good how'd you come across him bro i didn't know to be fair i'm not even gonna lie to you i can't i can't make up a story i don't know it just fell on my it was through spotify but i don't know i was in this yeah i just went deep in the spotify bag and i was just pulled out and i was like production's pretty clean i was like yeah yeah and the vocals and stuff sounds good so um i think you can you can kind of tell it's early days in his sound i would say um but yeah give it a go for sure um and number four we're going back to 1988 gosh okay the um the birthing of uh New Jack Swing.

21:04I've just been, this week, I've been listening to a lot of R &B, which I listened to a lot of R &B anyways, but like not, I haven't been listening to hip hop really. Only in the gym where I'm listening to my like trap and stuff still. But outside it's literally just been pure R &B. So I, yeah, I went to the root of it. So the song is Teddy's Jam, which you know is my tune by Guy Teddy's Jam obviously being named after Teddy Riley who's the producer of the tune Aaron Hall on the vocals and that one of my favourite songs of that time and that like genre of New Jack Swing and stuff yeah just very clean I would just be singing it all the time I think that's what it was I think I was probably singing it when I was cleaning or something I don't know and I was like yeah let's do it justice and listen to the actual tune innit so So yeah, man.

22:03So yeah, guy, Teddy's jam. Nice. Give it a listen. Sick. All right. Artists of the week. Spotlight artists. We're going. Who have we got? Who have we got? It's your turn. I did the research last episode. You did. Took us through Koji Relical. This week, we are going to be discussing Sasha Keeble. Let's go. Sasha Keeble was a bit of a weird one for me because like, I've like known of her for a long time but I guess there's this gap and I don't really I can't really explain it I don't really know if she wasn't putting stuff out or I wasn't searching for her but I've just known her as being a good artist but obviously she's got the new EP this year which slaps yeah shout out to Disclosure for putting Sasha Keyboards on like Voices Cutting up shapes Back in the day Looking to fall On the dance floor That was me bro I'm not gonna lie I'm not gonna lie You were a shapes cutter bro Bro that voice is in my head You heard me I tried to resist I tried to dismiss You heard me That was a big big tune That was a big big tune We need to find some videos Of you flipping Getting it down The people will never see that Alright Never I've witnessed it I've witnessed it it was smooth bro yeah well you're lucky because no one else is gonna be this ever again but um yeah so go on it's your research you're you're you're leading the floor today yeah man all right so we're gonna do we're gonna do some facts first then we're gonna get into a bit of some timeline stuff just to i guess give the bigger picture and then we're gonna look at i guess some themes and some stuff that opens up like a wider dialogue i guess yeah so starting off sasha keble she's british colombian uh did you know that yes i actually did okay yeah yeah i don't know maybe i did some secret research on the side but yeah she's yeah columbian southeast london i think oh there you go i mean she's very proud of being of her colombian heritage like you'll see it in quite a lot of stuff um so that's but obviously as you say she's from elton southeast oh yeah and so she sounds very much like a South East London girl like the way she talks yeah right oh and then again her singing voice completely different but then yeah like completely fluent in Spanish and like obviously accent changes completely I wish I had that bro I wish I had a second language trust me if I'm sad I wouldn't be here bro I'm not gonna lie yeah I feel you you're not seeing me in this country if I had a different language I'd be bouncing out but yeah alright cool so she's she's 31 years old but born in 1994 and yeah fun fact for you in her early life she wanted to be Yvette Yvette yeah this is the first artist that we've done a spotlight on that wasn't doing trying to do music from the get go then because I mean I don't know K1 was on drums trying to do music I guess I guess Koji was art yeah he was doing art and stuff I guess right so but Yvette that's completely left that's what that bro I mean I don't know she may have been like five or six or something but still completely different but yeah obviously we're here to talk about the music so her introduction to music her dad he played the guitar and yeah he used to I think he worked in like IT of some sort of description and so at his work like growing up obviously like it's completely different age even in the 90s like so he had access to a printer at work as you know one would in the workplace and so he used to print out like guitar tabs and bring them home and he would sit and play guitar and she would sing along and that was kind of a bit of like father-daughter bonding, which is very sweet.

25:55I wonder if at that time she could actually sing or whether it was just like, this is something we could do together. I don't know. She's got one of those voices that's like proper soulful and that. So I can imagine she could, it's not, she hasn't got a, like it doesn't sound, obviously she has a trained voice, but it doesn't sound like she's had to train for her voice to be good. It's got that, like, yes. so much soul in it, doesn't it? Good point. She was raised on sort of, her upbringing included like soul, hip hop, R &B, and then also like Latin and Colombian music as well, as well as, I guess, some of your sort of classic references as well, which include like Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, and Lauryn Hill as well.

26:36Shout out to the gang! Classic, classic list there of some, yeah, undisputed artists. I mean, yeah, obviously this probably feels like post-Vet Ambition. She attended Brit School, obviously already talked about Elam now back to Brit School, which obviously has incredible alumni. She cites some of her dream collaborators as Steve Lacey and Music Soulchild. Okay. Which is interesting. Yeah, I mean, Steve Lacey is my guy, to be fair. I was lucky enough to see him live a couple of times. Oh, really? Yeah, I thought, Jesus, my mind is gone. I can't remember the albums, but like when he was first got Grammy nominated.

27:21And yeah, he's just, he's great live as well. Obviously he's all about guitar and stuff and he's written a lot of music for the internet and for other artists as well. So yeah, I mean, I'll be here for that collaboration. That would be very, very, very good. And then yeah, Music Soul Child, obviously. Classic Neo Soul, you know, I'm all about that. Just Friends. And that's one of my tunes. 143, big tune. That's my favorite music soul child tune. I used to play that for the little girlies and that back in the day, you know, when I'm trying to... Oh, yeah. This guy. For me, like, when I'm trying to, like, romance someone, like Neo Soul.

28:05Yeah? As a winner. Is the vibe for me. Yeah, yeah. Does it work for you? Yeah, it works, man. I mean, got the misses, so... Clearly it was successful. So, you know. we'll move on from that thought um so yeah talking about her music now uh so she describes her music as soulful heartfelt and honest maybe a little bit too honest which i thought is an interesting take and then um yeah i guess looking at sort of how someone else would describe her dazed uh magazine described as having an emotionally charged lyricism and smoky winding vocals which I thought was quite an apt description yeah definitely yeah smoke yeah smoky vocals for sure it's like yeah it's hard to describe that kind of it's not it's not raspy but yeah it's got that I just say it yeah it's got that soul and that kind of belly into it almost isn't it so um yeah I thought smoky was a nice way of putting it hence hence including it um and then last year 2024 she had a big uh a big I guess non-music moment in a sense in the point of view of not her own music where Beyonce co-signed her in Beyonce in her Beyonce's GQ piece yeah in September of last year um in yeah there's a segment in the interview was like who you're currently listening to and Sasha was one of only two British artists included in that list the other was Ray and obviously Ray like was sort of like riding high off escapism and stuff um so that was sick um and a really good moment for her um so now looking at some timeline stuff so 2013 was when um she sort of started releasing i guess she put out an ep called black book and as you rightly mentioned that was when she featured on disclosures single voices yeah because she must have been young then yeah so 12 years ago that's like 19 we're saying um because i think i was must have been 18 when it came out um which is crazy um it's mad to like have like a smash off the off the bat crazy and then subsequently she toured with disclosure around the uk oh really yeah um and yeah as a teenager she was assigned to polydor which is one of the labels under the universal umbrella so obviously like a big deal yeah major record label um and at the time she was managed by disturbing in London as well, which is Tiny Tempers, like, label and management set up.

30:30So lots of big, like, industry looks in the ecosystem for her, which I always feel like is quite mad as a teenager. Like, that's a lot to take on at the time, whether it be, like, expectation or, like, eyes on you, and you're still very much figuring it out as an adult. So it's, like, it's just a lot. So, yeah, from that time, over the next year, she released another EP called Lemongrass and Limeleaves. um also did some work with katie b who then she also supported on tour as well um and then comes the point which you alluded to which is the gap um and so she had a gap uh until 2018 oh so there was a gap yeah like legit oh okay so there was a gap of no music um she even said that she didn't touch studio for like six years at one point really yeah which is like like see that's a big hiatus in it yeah um and so yeah to explain that i guess so i mean we'll come on to this a bit later in the sort of discussion side of it but she obviously is an artist who makes r &b and soul music one of her breakout moments with as we say on the disclosure record yeah and then work with ktb as well and so somewhat naturally but it's definitely from more of a commercial angle there was a there was a sort of I guess um ushering from the label for her to do like pop music right um which you even hear on that EP Lemongrass and Limely's sort of like you almost hear the tension on it between the R &B side but the pop side um in terms of the production is a bit of a is a bit uh blurry and isn't one thing or another yeah and you can kind of yeah it just comes across um and so yeah i'm not quite sure what happened but yeah she essentially just went away into 2018 um yeah it's often decided as a creative clash which makes a lot of sense but also you know that that time i can imagine there were things going on in the background and it probably wasn't like absolutely dormant yeah but yeah it just it wasn't it wasn't quite working and neither party was sort of happy and there wasn't a mutual agreement for things to sort of move forward in terms of releases which does make sense and sometimes is how things can be anyhow 2018 she returns um four years later with a single and then she goes on a bit of a run she drops the man ep and further singles in 2019 2021 more singles and also does a collab with georgia smith yeah um and then again we have another gap so 2021 through to 2024 yeah we've got another gap That's probably when I've caught onto her again is like probably last year, 2024.

33:07And I was, and I was seeing like a lot of traction on her and, but like almost being perceived as like a newer artist. Yeah. I'm like, is this Sasha Keeble? Same Sasha, yeah. Same Sasha Keeble. like this like she's been about and like she's there's there's not been no at no point where I've been like yeah she's not a good artist like or vocally she doesn't sound good so it felt weird for her to kind of just disappear and be off of so many people's radar including mine yeah so it feels like a weird like resurgence at the moment yeah so rightly she came back on your radar 2024 because she dropped Hold Up uh in april uh which obviously is big tune yeah and it's done very well for her and i remember when that dropped and there was like a load of noise around it and similar to you like it felt like she was being discovered by a lot of people for the very first time yeah um it almost feels similar to like when ray came came back like a couple of years ago um where a lot of people like oh my god like ray and i'm like wait is this ray from like and i'm like wait hang on a second like why are they getting all the accolades now where's the surprise come from yeah yeah yeah it felt very similar to that one of the pivotal points for her I think was a track called Why yeah I think that might have been the one for me because she did the colours on that as well didn't she and that is a single on the new EP I think I think it is on the EP right yeah and that's a big big tune yeah interesting fact about that so after she was with I forget who it was but she was with someone and they were facetiming rihanna and played the tune to rihanna and she like went crazy for it it was like yo you need to you need to write for me and i think at that point you know it was like a damn like yeah i mean you can't get a better co-sign than that so very very sick and um yeah said she's got rihanna and beyonce in her back pocket like that that's crazy different uh and it's so funny i feel like so often with uk on b we talk about like oh can it like break out of the uk into america can it ever compete with those artists and you've got like an artist here who's like got those big dogs yeah eating out of the palm of her hand which is so sick um so yeah waiting on the sasha and rihanna collab at some point well i don't think rihanna's releasing music ever yeah exactly let's see she's living life there's no need for rihanna to release any music but that's a that's a whole other conversation yeah she just keeps doing these Fenty shoots yeah yeah also 2024 to close it out she had a record with Isaiah Falls as well yeah that's a big tune I do like Isaiah Falls so hopping into this year 25 she had a record called Body Language with the Ezra Collective yeah another good musical statement there a three track EP called Feel Something a track with Leon Thomas yeah yeah I mean that's my favourite song in the EP I would say I mean you know I'm a Leon Thomas guy.

36:14That's one of the guys as well, bro. He's a G, man. And yeah, they complement each other like really well on the song and just in general in styles and stuff as well. So yeah, that is definitely my favourite song on the EP. And then, yeah, it brings us to the EP At Right, the 7-track EP. Yeah, I need more. Am I going to lie? I need more. This whole comeback, that, I need... She's got a double up soon. I'm not going to lie. Because that came out of the height of summer, right? in like August maybe in this year seven tracks ain't enough of me what's that? 20 odd minutes is what I'm saying? It ain't too long I need more Well she's intent on keeping going like in an interview she said she's hoping for album late next year so hopefully there'll be either a cheeky EP before that or any singles in so she ain't going away Yeah just like one of them like when you do release singles and you do like three singles in one kind of thing Just give me that That's what we need Give me something bruv Now you're back and I'm actually here like yeah I need more so yeah that EP she says was based on Betrayal which feels very R &B of her but she has a way of expressing stuff which I think is quite unique and resonates with people in a very sort of like special way it was her fifth project like across EPs and stuff but for many people as we've sort of said felt like a debut ironically now 15 years into her career so those are I guess the headline sort of facts and stuff and now we're going to get into some sort of like discussion points um so in the context of Sasha Keeble's vocals on Disclosure's voices do you think that having a big sort of like notorious breakout moment can be harmful within the context of it being a different genre to your native sound when you don't have much other music that you can point people back to I think yes and no I'll say because uh i think there were a couple of like i mean if you if you look at from that disclosure album if you look at like sam smith that was probably the biggest song on the album i would say like there's a latch is a big big tune like but he did blow up after it but he had like a good like album run and singles like directly after latch um which made him kind of go crazy um i mean a lot of people would say Latch is still his best song I'm one of those people I need Latch Sam Smith instead of him doing these weird random concerts and stuff but anyways that's a whole other conversation but he became successful off of it so I could say like Sasha Keeble could have done a similar thing but then obviously Sam Smith went pop in it and Sasha Keeble clearly doesn't want to go pop so that does hold you back I mean, yeah, jumping from house to soul and stuff is a big jump.

39:09And it's hard to transition those fans from that to that. So it's difficult, but I wouldn't say it's like a huge hindrance, right? It's like you just have to maneuver it correctly. What do you think? I think from an optics point of view, it can be challenging. Obviously, as you say, I'm going to say some of the other people on that album as well. Luna George, obviously more in the house space. Eliza Doolittle, you know, probably more adjacent to Sasha Keeble in the fact that she's not a dance artist. London Grammar, Jessie Ware. And they very much have integrity to what their expression is and it's not aligned with sort of dance.

39:50But I don't know the timelines. Yeah, London Grammar and Jessie Ware is a bit different because they were kind of big already. Like Jessie Ware definitely was. and London Grammar was releasing their album at the same time. That's what I'm saying. If you have like a full album and like you've got a label run with it straight off the bat, then it's like fine. But if it's like just kind of features and small singles and stuff, it's hard to, because people don't know what you're about, innit? So you can get lost in translation. So my thoughts on that are like, if you have other stuff that's cooking and you can get to, then it's okay yeah you've got other music releasing in tandem or something happening at the same time then it's like cool this is great and this was impressive but there's this and this is my kind of heart for it whereas she as we said uh went on tour with disclosure went on tour with keb and those are things that take up a lot of time yeah and if those are the fans you're getting probably at the time on facebook or whatever then when you say hey i'm actually an r &b singer they're going to be like oh yeah it's like bro we've only seen you with keb in disclosure like what's going on here exactly so I feel like for her it makes sense and it's a challenge so yeah props to her for like waiting out and coming back yeah yeah yeah she's out and she's back and better than ever so I can't you can't complain so Sasha's 31 now and as we said she most recently had a gap from 2021 to 2024 meaning she'd have been like mid to late 20s at that time yeah do you think that age makes a difference as an artist in terms of your ability to be perceived as like upcoming or new or fresh?

41:28I would say most of the time it does make a difference, I would say. Just especially, well, it depends what music you're making as well because it's the audience demographic and they want to see people their age, I would say. Like the soul, like the music that she's doing now, I think we are probably the demographic, I would say. Like it is probably our age range. so that that works well but um i guess like there are many anomalies that like start later or like an older age like for example lucky day who is r &b artist that i rate very highly his like he's probably been releasing music since like 2018 and his big album was i would say his biggest album and his biggest breakout was like three years ago, the Candy Drip album and stuff, where there were like big singles in there.

42:26But the guy is like 40 now. So, but he's like, and his songs are all about like sensual R &B and stuff like that, right? So, because I didn't even know, it's one of the artists where I listen to him, like I'm sure I've heard of him kind of thing and I've kind of looked into him and stuff and I'm like, oh, his brother's like 40, bro. Like he's been about, but but and yeah so now and he's kind of like a a big a big artist in that scene now right so um so he had his break slight slightly later i think he was in music a lot of the time but he didn't release under labels or anything like that so it can you can have an opportunity later is what i'm trying to say yeah all right cool thinking of sasha keeble and the journey and that's sort of i guess the difference between the pop lane and where she's ended up with the r &b side of things Is there anyone else that you or we can think of who's had sort of like a similar journey, whether it be like you alluded to Ray, maybe it's like they started in an R &B lane and there was a bit of a wish for them to go into pop or just an overall struggle with like creative identity in terms of the music, different parties in their sphere wanted them to put out.

43:39um i'm gonna pick a bit of a it's not like uk or anything um but my guy childish gambino obviously he did like a lot of rap and stuff and then his last album was just like pure singing and it was like funk and stuff and it's like what the hell but i that's that is probably it's an album that is timeless and you can go back to um it's got like a lot of it like um influences from like Bunkadelic and stuff like that which is why I really like it but then yeah if you look at it from because of the internet to that it's like a complete change and it's completely different but it worked I think he had a lot of eyes on him which was good like which helped I would say again if he did that off the bat I don't know if it would be as well received but because his last album did like pretty well he had a TV show out on TV that was doing like winning like Grammy Emmys and stuff like that and then you release an album that's like crazy artistic it shows it shows that he's a well-rounded character rather than just like you've gone from one thing to another so that's yeah that's when it's worked have you got any any examples oh I mean I threw that answer out the back that was crazy I felt I was not ready for that I expanded the question to give you time to ponder yeah I was like oh my god think of what artists has gone from one to one you didn't have to have an answer but that was good yeah I guess so the one that I thought of initially was Mabel I feel like Mabel started like in a more R &B space yeah and I definitely like I just like R &B and so I was I was into her at that point and then she had a few albums that were like like straight up pop and they were like super successful for her um which is like amazing and if you can make anything successful then absolutely fair play me personally not really here for like too much pop music yeah it's similar to what's her name is it ann marie um she's quite similar in that way like she did like more not electro but like yeah like a mixture of like kind of electro r &b kind of vibes at the start and she was like featuring like rudimental and stuff yeah and then but then she went more pop and then she blew like completely blew and it's like obviously i'm not super here for pop but as an artist she is pretty good cool and then yeah just lastly to round off this uh week's spotlight is there anyone that you would like to hear her collaborate with whether it be artist or like producer or like a band or anything that comes to mind?

46:32Okay, I'll give you a few. Oh, okay. I don't know why I haven't even thought of anyone yet, but yeah. So I'll give you producer slash artist, American Flower Child. Oh, yeah. So it'll keep her in the R &B bag, but there's a lot of, and there's a lot of like instruments and stuff going along which suits her but a lot of the time this production is a bit more of a bounce so it's less like slow serenade or ballads which like Sasha Keeble does very well and it kind of gets her into a bit more like more of a bounce which will be interesting um second uh you're gonna have to help me here mate you're gonna have to help me with the uh the pronunciation go for it um one of my favorite uk r &b artists at the moment oh elmine thank you yeah so uh yeah um they i don't i'm pretty sure they don't have a song together at the moment um but i'm feeling it will come yeah it makes sense doesn't it yeah it's one of the artists like yeah it sounds right in it so i'm here for that um and then my third would be do you know um everything is recorded is the it's basically the owner of xl recordings label okay he's like a producer as well so he does like a lot of um he'll do like an album or again an EP I don't know whatever you want to call it and it would just have like a lot of the time it has obviously just XL artists and stuff but so under that is like Samfer and like FKA Twigs and all that man because that's the young label but that's under I think they're in partnership with XL and stuff so anyways the albums are always like very very good there's always like a bit of like electronic sound to it.

48:41But there's a lot of good artists that collaborate on it. So I just want her to be able to collaborate with them, innit? So yeah, that's my third. So that's two producers and then one artist, I'd say. Oh, nice. That's really good. That was more than I bargained for, to be fair. Mate, I'm on the ball today, mate. I'm on the ball. Maybe football did me some good today. I asked the question, I didn't even have a response. What the? But here we are. I'm going to say Dame Dame. Okay. I feel like that would make sense. Yeah, yeah. And it's just sonically interesting. I feel like that would be sick. And then other one that comes to mind is just because of the sheer talent and musicality.

49:16I feel like they'd cook something sick. Masego. You know I'm a bit of a Masego hater. You're a hater? Yeah. You know, I'm going to bring it up. I'm going to bring it up. I love Masego. What? Talk about a juxtaposition. It's called a love-hate relationship. Does he know this? No. Well, if he listens to this, he might. He might find out. I love Masego yeah but he's one of them guys that I think is too talented for their own good yeah he's right he's everyday bringing out his saxophone doing the madness I hear it no there's a lot of songs like of Masego's that I like but obviously we saw him live last summer when he was in Crystal Palace and he just he knows he's talented he's one of them bad he knows he's good so but but no I mean was it the Navajo tune that's that's still he's got he has bangers but that's still my favourite tune by a mile to be fair yeah I'm trying not to be too much of a hater this podcast but every now and then every now it's love hate it's love hate I mean he's got he's got a bucket loads of talent it's crazy that's what it is yeah like obviously he's got bangers and yeah when we saw him live it just felt like he was treating it like a sort of almost like studio session the guy was just this is calm bro this is what I do what's this what's this I might do something different that makes me sick makes me sick but yeah yeah but yeah that would be a good collaboration for sure for sure sick so yeah that concludes our artist polo of the week big up Tasha Keeble can't wait to see what she does next yeah what's what's the EP called uh oh bro act right act act right yes act right good give it a lesson episode three concluded hope people are enjoying listening to these conversations and I hope people are checking for all the stuff that we're talking about I'm learning from you and your musical taste I listened to the people that you put me on to last week I hope so I've listened to the ones that you said so terrible terrible I'll make sure I do it today we'll need to put a playlist together so the people can check it out yeah for sure all of the stuff that we're chatting about so that it's got like a sonic backdrop as well but yeah cool episode three concluded thanks for rocking with us yeah let's close it there see you next time Peace.