Digital Cover Story 26: Shakka
“There's always something to tell you that you're not quite what you think you should be in your dreams. There's been a lot of self-deprecation where you stay in your feelings for years and I had to rationalise it."
When it comes down to honouring homegrown talent, Shakka deserves all the mentions. For the past decade, the London-born star has been actively dropping projects — four EPs and a mixtape — and hit songs such as ‘Man Down’ with AlunaGeorge and ‘Say Nada’ with JME. Shakka’s hard work and talent earned him MOBO Awards for Best R&B/Soul two years running as well as two Urban Music Awards. After years of grinding and writing songs for the likes of Ella Eyre, Dua Lipa, and Zak Abel, Shakka has delivered his long-awaited debut album ‘Road Trip To Venus.’
Words by Fabio Magnocavallo
Upon announcing his debut album in August, Shakka informed his followers via social media that he had previously been signed to three major labels who had told him he wasn’t ready to drop an album. It goes without saying that it’s every artist’s dream to release an album, regardless if they don’t have the potential to make one. However, Shakka freely admits that if he was to look at the demos he thought were going to be the album 10 years ago, he would have “slapped” his 21-year-old self but knows that being a musician is all about the ongoing evolution. “In hindsight, you learn all that sort of stuff because you just want to be better,” Shakka tells EQUATE, adding, “I’ve always felt like I could drop an album, I felt like I had the ability to do it. I felt like I studied enough albums to pique an audience’s interest.”
“The contrary to that, however, there was always something that made me feel like I wasn’t ready to drop the album,” he continues. “This could be because I wasn’t getting nominated or winning awards, or down to me not getting the views I wanted or comparing myself to other people. You can sometimes get inside your own head and you tell yourself you’re not as good as Stevie Wonder or Andre 3000, ” he says before continuing the introspection. “There’s always something to tell you that you’re not quite what you think you should be in your dreams. There’s been a lot of self-deprecation where you stay in your feelings for years and I had to rationalise it,” the singer reflects.
Shakka is the real deal. He sings, raps, writes and produces his own material. Even though ‘Road Trip To Venus’ may only be a number of weeks old, there are songs on the tracklisting that were born more than half a decade ago that he purposely put aside. “I saved a lot of songs because there are very few people I trust,” Shakka explains. “There were times where I was like cool, this song has to be on the album. There’s a song called ‘Huntin’’ and it’s from about 2014/2015. It was a song I didn’t believe anyone else could make and that’s kind of the key element as to what I want my album to have.”
Shakka believed in the material but knew he needed to find a team who would support his vision and would be able to translate what he was trying to say in his songs. “I feel the whole album was an evolutionary process. Being on a label where less than 50 percent of people understand what you’re trying to do meant that I didn’t feel comfortable releasing songs with them,” he states. “I feel like it’s very easy in life to settle for less and that can’t happen with songs like this because songs are brainchildren. I don’t make the same songs as I did before so this is in fact a moment. I need this moment to go off right and I need to make everything in my power to make sure that it does.”
“I would like to hope my existence and the existence of this album means that my nieces and nephews have other alternative role models in their stratosphere and in their space.“
- SHAKKA
Throughout Shakka’s career, he has teamed up with artists from all over the world to create music, such as Idris Elba, Wiley, Sigma, and Mr. Eazi, to name a few. The other two collabs that appear on the album include singer Imani Williams for ‘Doin’ Time’ and rapper GoldLink for ‘Solo.’ Despite being in contact with other musicians during the creative process, Shakka didn’t believe it was necessary to fill the record with collabs for the sake of it, even if they are “fun” to be a part of. “It definitely felt like I had to tell my own story, hence why I wasn’t putting so much emphasis upon trying to source people to collab on this project. I hadn’t put a project out since 2016 so in my mind, I felt like people need to know what I have to say, they need to know what I sound like, and where my headspace is,” he insists.
Ahead of the interview, I decided to make a note of my favourite songs from ‘Road Trip To Venus,’ which in fact proved to be a challenge. Not because of the lack of bangers, but due to the fact I was practically writing down the tracklisting in order. Instead, I asked Shakka what his top picks are. “I don’t think ‘Huntin” will ever be a song I’m not proud of, it’s in the top 5 songs I’m most proud of,” he says. “It’s hard to pick a favorite but ‘Solo’ had been on repeat for a while. It’s one of the very few songs where I don’t think it’s me. I can just hear it as a song and I would add it to a playlist. I don’t think I’ve ever done that with any of my songs. I don’t even care how conceited that sounds, that song, in particular, feels like an effortless vibe I don’t have to think about.”
Shakka is a great example of a British act making top-quality R&B music alongside the likes of Mahalia, Sinead Harnett, Nao, and Ray BLK. They already have everything that is needed in terms of talent and artistry, the only thing missing is the exposure they deserve. Many over the years have questioned and discussed the disconnect between the UK R&B scene and the mainstream audience. Shakka believes one of the main reasons their talent is celebrated the way it should be is because the artform was born in the US. “The closest thing to R&B for the people in the UK is northern soul and so the connection they get to the genre are people like Amy Winehouse and Duffy,” he explains. “The majority of people that connect and identify with the cultural references R&B provides is predominantly black people or people that live in a place like London. Other people might gravitate to ballads or pop-rock or the music that is being touted as trendy today.”
Shakka describes ‘Road Trip To Venus’ as “an amalgamation of a lot of different feelings” and “a kaleidoscope of different expressions of love.” Whether it is self-love, lack of self-love, lust, cheating, losing someone, or coming to terms with growing up, the album was inspired by many emotions. He continues: “There’s always been this feeling within me that women are not listened to enough. It could be coming from the movies and in music that I grew up where the guy has to be the alpha male, whereas, women are always second in consideration.” And the title of the album has its own story too. Shakka wasn’t holding back as he explained.
“When it came to ‘Road Trip To Venus,’ I already felt like there was a detachment between the sexes in terms of communication. Borrowing off the old folklore that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, in my mind, it felt like cool, let’s have a journey, and hopefully, when I get to Venus, all of the answers I want to get and all the questions about love can be answered by the home of love in my opinion. The road trip implies a few things. Every song feels like a new city so whenever you’re driving, you can always encounter a new environment and space. I feel like the variety of textures and sounds that exists within this album is again to being on a road trip.”
As for the album artwork, it is the first time fans have been able to not see Shakka as an animation on the artwork. He openly expresses his previous EP and mixtape covers have been a homage to anime. “The idea that you could really push the boundaries of storytelling with animation by really emphasizing the emotion of something, I really gravitated towards that,” he says. “My top two anime of all time are Cowboy Debop and Samurai Champloo. Anime is the culture that I needed to make me realise there is a world outside of SB.TV,” he adds, with a chuckle.
‘Road Trip To Venus’ is a 19-track body of work with well-thought-out interludes and three collaborations. One of the talents that feature on the LP is fellow British singer Tiana Major9, who Shakka thinks very highly of. “I fucked with Tiana Major9 for years. It’s coming up to a decade that I’ve been a fan of her music and her style of performances,” he explains. “In my mind, a song like ‘Scuba Deep’ with an artist like her just made sense based on her understanding of gospel, blues, and R&B. I wouldn’t say that’s rare in the UK but it’s rare to not have someone who knows it so much.”
“Whereas, R&B in particular, in order to survive, not only needs great music and the songs but also needs exposure, collaboration, and the culture for it to thrive. I don’t think those three things exist in the UK. I don’t think we get supported enough even though we don’t have stupid amounts of talent. A lot of talent we have in the UK are writing for people in the US, myself included,” he continues.
Aside from blasting the album on journeys and creating memories with the songs, Shakka is hoping ‘Road Trip To Venus’ is going to resonate with like-minded people/peers and will allow the younger generation around him to have someone to look up to. “I would like to hope my existence and the existence of this album means that my nieces and nephews have other alternative role models in their stratosphere and in their space. There’s a huge emphasis upon ownership and upon looking good just to survive, let alone just existing and be regarded as someone who is normal to be friends with. More and more people are finding new ways to communicate the idea that it’s the right way to exist and the way to be,” he shares.
“Hopefully ‘Road Trip To Venus’ can be a stimmings for that. I’m not trying to create a TED talk nor am I trying to create a movement about team normal. I know I was an inbetweener when I started this thing, I know I was a weirdo when I started out. I know there’s a lot of people who are like me where they don’t feel like they fit in with the blueprint that is dictated to them or expected from them. Weirdos like me exist and we need to be comfortable in our own skin otherwise we will get caught up in whatever the internet dictates to us. I wanna provide a balance in representation in black people in the UK and in the world. I wanna make it easier for the mandem to talk about their fucking feelings man. I want people to love more.”
Watch his most recent visual for single ‘No Problem, Fam’ below
Stream his album ‘Roadtrip To Venus’ HERE
Keep up with Shakka on socials…
Instagram: @iamshakka
TikTok: @iamshakka
Facebook: @iamshakka
Twitter: @iamshakka