Shura

0:13Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. This time I had the pleasure to welcome to our studio British singer-songwriter Shura, which Monaco Radio listeners will recognize from our playlist. She's back with a new album, her first since 2019, I Got Too Sad for My Friends, which maintains her usual ethereal vocals, the synths, and this time it also packs an emotional punch. Here is Shura with more.

0:51Well, I think firstly, I would say that in general, I like to take my time. I think even when the first record, Touch, came out in 2014 and it wasn't until 2016 that I had an album and we even made a website called HasShuraFinishedHerAlbumYet.com. So it became a bit of a thing. But with this record specifically, lots of reasons. I think I was halfway through touring the second record when that all had to sort of overnight come to a halt. And I think I'm very like, I work in phases. So I'm like, I'm writing, I'm recording, I'm touring. And I rarely sort of mix those phases. I hear all the time about artists who write on tour and I'm so jealous.

1:35I'm like, that would be so useful. Doing two things at the same time. Yeah, two things at the same time. Can you imagine? So I think I wasn't really ready to kind of re-enter writing when I probably needed to. And also life was, for all of us, I think just, I wasn't really experiencing anything. And I certainly wasn't experiencing, I mean, it was unique to all of us, but it wasn't unique in that I would just be writing about being stuck playing video games in my apartment. and that's what everyone else is doing and I don't know how much we will want to visit an entire album about that. So yeah, it was kind of a mix of things.

2:14During this period, were you mainly in New York, right? Mainly. Mainly and then I moved back. Well, I didn't really move back. I came back to London to do some bits and then realised I couldn't return. So my partner had to move when we finally decided to come back and be in London. and she had to move and pack all of our belongings, like not just hers. It was a kind of mad, mad endeavour. Well, let's talk about the new album. Even the name of the album, I got too sad for my friends. I mean, it shows that this album does quite an emotional heft to it as well. And of course, I've listened to the whole album.

2:51I think some songs are very sure for those who know your music, but some others are quite different. I do think this album does a certain level of depth and sadness as well, if we can say that. Yeah, I think that's fair. I think, you know, it's also for those fans that, you know, are expecting a nothing's real too and they do exist and they existed before I put out Forever. You know, it's not that record. I think there's treats in there for people who love that era of mine. So it's not a completely like, I don't care about you. There's sort of like nuggets of fun. But I really just, I think the theme for my life and this record was just I don't want to do anything the same way because I don't really see the point and I don't really see how I could grow and even if at the end of it I sort of ended up with something maybe I didn't like, I thought it was important to try approaching it in a different way and I mean luckily I love it and I think that's always the only thing that you can sort of hope for when you embark upon a creative process is that sort of by the end of it you like the thing you've made.

3:59and it's complicated you know there are periods where you're like oh my god what am I doing the valley of despair definitely happens when you're creating but no I'm really proud of this record but even the production I mean one thing that is still there I mean you know talking about the fans is the I mean the crystal clear vocals I mean that that's the beauty that's still in there the lyrics might be a little bit more you know but but it's beautiful yeah I think it's a really internalized what maybe I mean I say that but then nothing's real was all kind of very internal and anxious and but it feel it felt kind of like a teenage approach to sort of those those topics and I think you know one thing that I will always do is is kind of I just love production and I love that process and adding all these details and layers and I think for those people who enjoy that aspect of my music, the detail and the kind of sonic landscape and fabric of it, we'll find that this is really rich, even if the textures are different.

5:00Exactly. Because sure, there's a lot of the electropop perhaps that you're known for, but you've added a lot of elements of kind of a little bit of folk, a little bit of Americana as well. So tell us, was that kind of music that you always listened to it or was it a complete departure for you? I think a lot of Americana and kind of chamber pop, it's part of the fabric of, you know, we're very familiar with it because it's played. So a lot, and I think artists like Paul Simon, for instance, I was listening to a lot of those kind of classic records when I was writing this and I think because I think they were just very comforting to me and I feel like I can't speak about that without mentioning also Cassandra Jenkins who features on Richardson, but her record and overview on Phenomenal Nature was a record that kind of really got hold of me and in a way that a record hadn't for a really long time and sort of listening to her music and the fact that it felt comforting and like something I could crawl up into, I think was something I really needed and also felt like I needed to explore in my own music.

6:07And in Richardson, I think that song is precisely about your time in New York. Yeah.

6:15Slow back, they stopped answering, so I stopped talking. It's a beautiful song. Yeah, about wandering around in circles, more or less, whilst listening to her record and thinking about kind of, I mean, it's about, I keep joking that it's about walking, but it's also very much about kind of bigger questions. And it was sort of spurred by a conversation I'd had with my dad where he had told me that he had very long conversations with his mum in his dreams, even though she'd long since passed. And he would sort of update her about his life and us because we never got to meet her. And I was just so sort of struck by how sad and comforting that was that one day when my parents are long gone, I can still hang out with them in my dreams and sort of just thinking about how lovely that would be, although I would prefer for them to be here, of course.

7:12So it was just, yeah, catastrophizing whilst walking in New York. And talking about that sadness, do you think you got too sad for your friends? I mean, you do actually quote the title of the album on the song, World's Worst Girlfriend, right? But there's some humor in it, perhaps, there as well. Well, I think there has to be with a title like World's Worst Girlfriend as well. I think that's how I felt, but it wasn't really the reality. and I think that's part of the sort of almost the sadness but also the comedy of it. I think when we're sad we often retreat ourselves without realising. So as much as it's not really a criticism of my friends even, I think I was retreating from them because I wanted to spare them my misery and I felt like a burden.

8:01And so I think that's what's sort of interesting about it is that we often when we're going through a difficult period rather than reaching out for help, we just sort of dive further inwards. Absolutely. I want to talk about the artwork for the album. Is it true were you inspired by The Little Prince, which is amazing, right? It's an icon. I am ashamed to say I'd never read it. You never read it? I'd never read it. When I was kind of contemplating the artwork, my partner, who's French, said, you should read The Little Prince. And I was aware of it. I knew, you know, I even knew the imagery. It's so famous.

8:40It's sort of inescapable. And yet somehow I had not read it. So I went to the local bookstore, picked up a copy. I was so struck by it. I just was like, this is not a children's book. Like it is and it isn't. And I just love that image of him standing on top of a mountain on planet Earth and not being able to see a single human being. And I really, that really resonated with me because at some points in this period of time that I wrote the record, I really did sort of feel like I was all alone on a mountaintop being like, oh, my God, the world is so big. Where is everyone? Like, I need something that I'm alone.

9:21Yeah, the loneliness of sadness was really struck me. So yeah, I was also playing this very good game called Baldur's Gate 3 and there was kind of medieval Dungeons and Dragons aspects. So it's sort of a mesh of this nerdy thing that I was sort of doing in this book that sort of really, really struck me. And I wanted to be sort of alone in a landscape you didn't really know where it was and protecting all these bits that are not really worth protecting. like who cares about my arms it probably should cover my tummy or something useful. It's funny you mentioned video games you are I actually didn't know this you are a big video game fan and kind of do you like that world of fantasy almost in a way so your hat actually I have to tell our listeners is magic right?

10:08Yeah magic the gathering hat. Yeah I know I'm outing Is it okay if I said that? Yeah I'm outing myself as a mega nerd. No I've always played video games but I've never been interested that much in fantasy I was always kind of science fiction girl and I even said to I have a kind of discord server which I kind of made for fans of mine who were watching me on Twitch during the pandemic and I even remember saying to them I don't really like fantasy when they were recommending games to me it's just not for me so they are all now taking the piss out of me because they're like wait I thought you said you didn't like fantasy and now you play this game and you're obsessed with it and now your whole album campaign is you dressed as a kind of gnome bard night thing and it's as much a surprise to me as as anyone but i i am now able to really enjoy fantasy as a genre i just think i i needed to unlock it for myself is that passion for video games and and other things help your music somehow or is it a place where you can i don't know relax it's just a hobby well relaxing helps the music definitely so i think you know having a world I can sort of dive into where I'm not thinking about a mix or lyrics is amazing.

11:22But no, it definitely does inspire me. I think back to the first album and White Light was half inspired by a video game character I fell in love with in Mass Effect 3. And certainly the opening to that track musically was hugely inspired by the soundtrack to The Last of Us. So I think there are things in games that definitely feed into my music. I do like, I don't know about you, but I like, you know, those 80s games, like even Mario. I like the sounds, the electronic sounds. They're amazing. I think it's fantastic, you know. I would listen to it the whole day. I did. I actually did a mix once of kind of video game soundtracks and it's really fun.

12:01I might ask you to send me the link for that. I will. I've got it. Coming back to the album, I forgot, you know, one of my favorite tracks, which is a single from the album, is Recognize. And that's why I said in the beginning of the interview, they're sad, emotional heft, but it feels to me that it's a very dreamy, it's a beautiful song. What can you tell us about Recognize? I think it was after I'd written it and it was very sparse. It didn't have any percussion and the percussion, if you listen to it, is pretty out there. It's these huge kind of frenetic stick rim shots, I guess, is what you'd call them.

12:46I mean, when I had written it, I knew already that that's what needed to be there. And I sort of thought that this would have to be the first song I released. And I remember saying to the producer I was working with, we have to produce this as if this is the first thing people are going to hear after five years. And at that point, you know, you don't know for certain that that's what's going to happen because the label get involved and say we want this single and et cetera, et cetera. No, I really wanted to sort of invite people in with this slow kind of ethereal synth that would be comforting, I think, to some fans and then have these sick hits that interrupt kind of out of nowhere and kind of objectively too loud to kind of interrupt and sort of make you suddenly feel not at ease or confuse you and go, OK, I thought we were getting this thing, but actually we're getting something else.

13:40So what are we going to get? I kind of wanted to, yeah, kind of trick people. So comfort them and then trick you and be like, no one knows where we're going from here. Which is, I think I'm a bit of a troll sometimes like that. But like a joyful, more of a cheeky bard, I think. The fans will understand, I'm sure. What about the stage? Are you going to be back on the stage later this year? Are there plans for it? so we have two shows um in shepherd's bush uh in june um at bush hall and that's 10th and 11th and that is frighteningly soon to me because we're still working out how to do all that um and then hopefully we get to visit other places but i quite like it because i live in shepherd's bush so it means i can just sort of like you can walk i can walk there and there's a great pizza next door so um i can share that with fans afterwards

14:45Thank you very much, Shura. I got to set for my friends, who will be released on the 30th of May. The show was edited by Elliot Greenfield, and thank you very much for listening.

14:59Thank you.