Speech Debelle Writes For ClashMusic

Ramble, rant or reminisce, this is an artist’s opportunity to pen their own Clash article.

This issue, Speech Debelle talks us through the year that was winning the Mercury, playing her first ever Glastonbury and the death of a legend….

“I have to pinch myself now and again to check that this is all really happening. Of course I’m completely ecstatic about how my year has gone. Music is my life now: it’s my day job and it’s no longer something that I simply have to entertain as a hobby. So, in many ways, I couldn’t be happier. But it hasn’t been easy by any stretch.

If you don’t have a record deal it’s quite hard to be focused, especially if you’re busy living your life like I was. So, it took me about four years to get the album finished, mainly because I was just writing it at my leisure and because I had other commitments like having to hold down a job. That’s why the album sounds as it does, because I was just writing for my own benefit and for my own sanity: it just felt good, and I didn’t expect any sort of reward at the end of it.

I’ve never really managed to finish anything in my life at all before, so getting the album out was definitely my biggest achievement to date. ‘Speech Therapy’ is about getting therapy through music and through expression, but at the same time it documents my coming of age: I started writing it when I was nineteen, at the time when everyone is still figuring out who they are.

So, every song is written from a different perspective. For example, the earlier tracks like ‘Daddy’s Little Girl’ and ‘Wheels In Motion’ were written from the comfort of my own bedroom, completely without music. It was only in 2004 or 2005 that I hooked up with some friends in a studio and began working with music and writing to beats. I had definitely got used to writing without music and therefore had to push myself quite a bit. But it’s all about fitting into your environment and I feel now that I’ve trained myself to write as equally well with or without music. Although what I would really like to do next is to train myself to write without actually having to physically write things down. This means that I could literally be in a cab and an idea could come into my head all of a sudden but I’d be able to remember it clearly enough to lay it down when I arrive at the studio.

I know in my mind how the next album is going to sound, I just need to get those initial two or three songs down so it can actually make sense. To make a simplistic comparison, ‘Speech Therapy’ was like a hip-hop Tracy Chapman and the next album will be like a hip-hop Ray Charles. Imagine a song like ‘Georgia On My Mind’ by Ray Charles with a hip-hop beat and me rapping over it about a contemporary issue. So, I’m just keen to absorb myself completely even more in the whole songwriting process this year. But, saying that, I want the next album to be a lot grander in terms of instrumentation. Winning the Mercury has obviously given me more financial stability. ‘Speech Therapy’ was made on a really small budget because I couldn’t afford to do it any other way, but now there’s more of a budget there I want to utilise more instruments. So. instead of just having a violin and a cello, I can have a four-piece quartet and a harp and a trombone and whatever else takes my fancy.

But my year has not only been about winning the Mercury. Playing Glastonbury was an amazing experience - it was my first ever festival and my first time on a big stage with a band. I definitely prefer playing to bigger audiences: I find it a lot less nerve-wracking than performing in front of a crowd of twenty. And Glastonbury was also very personally significant on another level, as it was there that I first heard about Michael Jackson’s death. It affected me in a big way: he was a massive influence on me and my work. Throughout history there have always been people that really stand out as affecting and influencing a lot of people in a positive way and Michael Jackson is definitely one of those people, his music is like a religion.

But of course winning the Mercury has opened a lot of doors for me. People are more willing to listen to what I’ve got to say now. I was on a very small label before and it was heartbreaking to have to leave them, but after I won the prize on the Tuesday, all of my records had sold out by the Friday. It’s just a reminder to everyone that you can only play your position and when you’re a small fish in a big pond, it’s exceptionally difficult. But I still feel that I’ve got a lot to prove. I’ve obviously thrown a wrench in the system but I still need to cement myself more and I believe that people will give me a proper chance now.”