Sasha Keable may only be 24 years old, but the South London singer has already been on a journey of transformation.
A few years back she released two well-received EPs – ‘Black Book’ and ‘Lemongrass And Limeleaves’ – but since then has broken away to work on her own terms, taking back control, finding her own voice and returning with a more honest, authentic and stripped back sound.
Latest track ‘That’s The Shit’ – its neo-soul vibes grooving up against Sasha’s lyrical dexterity and humour, bouncing off everything from bait guys to London night buses – deftly demonstrates her ability to blend the everyday with the sophisticated.
“I just needed time to develop on my own without the old team I had around me, time to myself,” she says, reflecting on the period between her last record and ‘That’s The Shit’, the lead from a new EP dropping in early 2019. “There was a point when I was so unhappy with what I was making that I didn’t even know if I wanted to make music anymore…and I’ve never questioned that in my whole life.”
Writing from her mum’s dining room, Sasha found her own sound recording scratch versions of tracks on iPhone voice notes and experimenting on the piano. “I had to think, ‘What would I have done when I was 15?’ What would I have done before I knew anyone in music? And that was where I started, working my way up from that,” Sasha recalls. “Then I got a band together and just recorded stuff live. I hadn’t worked that way ever, I had to go back to basics.”
During this process she found her real voice too, which fans can expect more of on her forthcoming EP: live instrumentation continues the stripped back sound while Sasha retains her wry humour, still throwing shade at those who deserve it. “I thought I can either be really angry about this and write horrible stuff,” she laughs, reflecting on her newly found candid lyrical style, “or I can do what I do in everyday life: take the piss. And it’s really good fun!”
This feel-good vibe runs deep: Sasha makes music as a form of self-care (“It helps my mental health, it’s proper therapy to me”) and she plans to keep it that way, even with a new EP and a tour with Raleigh Ritchie on the horizon.
“I’m so happy that now it really is me calling all the shots, it’s completely my own thing,” she concludes, positively. “I’m very conscious of how things make me feel. And at the minute I’ve found a lot of happiness in myself.”
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Words: Emma Finamore
Photography: Vicky Grout
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