In Conversation With Iyanah

Iyanah is a Kenyan born singer-songwriter, recording and performing artist currently based in Nairobi. She describes her style of writing as being as honest as her own journal entries and her sound as not being above the bounds of genre; but under the influence of the music around her, past and present.

Music has been a core element in her life for as long as she can remember and has actively been writing songs from a very young age; a process that culminated with purposefully recording and releasing her debut single 4U in April, 2021.

Fast forward to today, her latest hit single mr. sneaky link has established her as a rising, sparkling star in the still-uncharted Kenyan music space. She seems poised for even greater heights with eyes glitter with curiosity and calm and a demeanour that combines mystery and sincerity, a quality that diffuses into her music. I had the pleasure of catching up with her at the Santuri Salon.

(how many times do we say ‘like’ here, I feel like it’s a lot)

It’s a cliché, but I have to ask about your musical journey. How did you start out? Did you think it would get this far? When was the seed planted?

If we’re starting with like, when it was in me, then I feel like as a kid I just loved to sing along to things, like in the car on my way to school and a general interest in music: around the house, my friend’s houses, the radio. So, I loved to just be in the presence of music whether I was singing or listening. At the same time, I also loved to journal and that morphed into writing poems and then into songwriting. I’m generally a very musical person really; I’ll be humming to myself or coming up with silly jingles that I’d sing along to whatever mundane thing I’ll be doing around the house. Like a song about waking up or a jingle about making pancakes or whatever dumb shit comes to mind at the moment really. You know the way in Camp Rock the first thing the character does when they wake up is burst into song; that’s literally me (sometimes).

So, this is where I was at for a while. Music, journal-poetry and my cute little jingles. I was in a very unserious class in high school so often someone would be like: “We don’t want to read Iyanah, give us a number!” And so I’d give them a little something from time to time, it was really fun. I’d also write songs for like school presentations and all that.

So what was your inciting incident? What pushed you to action? What’s that been like?

In my teenage years, my music became a bit more serious as I grew into who I am as a person. I started learning how to write more personal things. And then yeah, in 2020 I decided that, “Fuck it! I’m going through a really hard time in life and you know what? We aren’t going to be sad about that and instead we’re going to pour all our energy into this one thing we’ve always wanted to do and see how it goes.” I curious to try, I was excited to try. And I knew close to nothing. Actually, I knew absolutely nothing about the realities of putting out music and everything that entails. I went into it blind and I’m glad I did because looking back on it it’s like “You really were dumb as fuck but you were really passionate and your heart was in the right place.” And I’m really thankful for that experience cause it gave me this mindset that’s always willing to learn. And even now when I make dumb mistakes it’s always with an attitude of “You dropped the ball there my babes but this is where we learn and we keep going.”

That’s some insightful philosopher shit right there! Did you have any artists you looked up to when you were younger? Which are the faces in your Mount Rushmore?

I feel like I’ve never had that much attachment to an artist. I’ve never really been a stan…

…but?

But there’s people who oh my gosh I would drop to my hands and knees for… So in that vein, I’d probably say Michael Jackson. That man was played in my household so much. So shout out to him, he’ll always be the King. I’d also add Whitney Houston. This is in large part because of my father. He believes that we will never ever… Even when he hears people singing or me singing. It’s a good voice or whatever, but no one will ever be Whitney Houston. Kool and The Gang was also a big influence on me because of my parents. Mariah Carey too, love her. Teenage me was angsty as hell though so I got into rock. Linkin Park and 21 Pilots. Oh gosh, 21 Pilots: if there’s ever anyone I’m stepping into stan culture for, it’s 21 Pilots.

Iyanah, by Picha_phactory

And back to your music. As I listen, it feels like you’re talking about your self and your experiences. Is there a separation between Iyanah the artist and Iyanah the person?

I mean, I feel like, just for the safeguarding of any artist’s heart there is a level of them as a person that is withheld from their music. Because if I told you every single thing about me, that could bring around people who are like entitled to who you are and what you do. But again, like you said, I do write from a very honest and journal like point of view. So, it’s not that I write my whole life but it is inspired by my life. There is an essence of me in it. You’ll never really know what though. I’ve said before and I really like saying that I write my songs in a very Jordan Peele way. Like you know the way people theorize that all his movies are connected into each other through this detail or this timeline and all that. So, that’s what my music is like. There’ll be a song… the songs that I’ve written are going to come out much later but the songs I wrote years ago are connected to the songs I’m writing today. And it almost feels like by the time, if ever (if an artist can ever like finish their music) you’ll be like “Ah! This right here is kind of like what she was talking about in that song from this album and it ties in to this… and so on.” If anyone has the energy for that-

So, it’s like, calling all conspiracy theorists, can you come and-

If you like conspiracy theories, if you like things like that. My music is where you should be at. I gatchu! It’s little bits and pieces but they are there.

I’ve gone through your discography and I see a lot of collaborations so I’m curious: how would you describe the collaborative process of making art? Tell me about what it’s like for you to work on a song together with someone

I mean it is fun to create alone, cause you know what you’re working with already and you know your strengths, your weaknesses and how you wanna go into it. But I really love collaborating because for me it’s like, I know I don’t know so much. And I would like to learn and to test out. Cause there’s probably things that I’ve not though that I can do. But now through getting into it with someone else, I’m pushed to like picking up the skill. Or I can learn something that I though was difficult or find a new way of approaching it.

I also think that like creativity is one shared mind but you don’t know everything at once. So you just have to try to tap into the different perspectives to get better ideas. I think that it’s healthy too.

Whoa, that’s a really philosophical answer. Like you really ate that. Someone should really be following you around and recording what you say

I mean, that’s what you’re doing.

(laughs)

What do you think the future holds? A little bird told me that there’s something you have for us in the works. Something that’s coming soon. Tell us a little about that and where you see Iyanah in three months or six or a year

Well first of all, I’m hoping that she’s done with school cause that’s what’s pissing her off at the moment.

(laughs)

That’s real as hell cause same

But I also know that I’m coming to Santuri, after singing its praises for so long. I think I’ll be coming in to do my beginners and advanced production courses because that’s always been the end goal for me. Producing music. Once that’s happening, I hope I’ll be basking in the post-release glow from the EP.

Oh really?

Yeah! I am planning on dropping an EP. There’s been a bit of a delay in the production process because of one thing or another. So it’s definitely coming but I like to keep you breathless with anticipation, so you aren’t getting any more details out of me. But yeah, as you’ve said, I’ve only had singles and collaborations out so far so I’d like to finally have a full body of work out there. And trust, you know the album has also started being written!

Oh REALLY?

Yeah! Releasing music is a really addictive feeling. To someone who’s been writing it for so long and keeping it to herself and in her head saying one day people will hear it, maybe one day. And fast forward to now, people are hearing it and actually connecting to it. And I love that they are loving it. I feel like I love doing this and I would love to keep doing it for the rest of my life.

And for your audience, what would you like to experience from them? What would they be called? The Iyanah’s?

(laughs)

I really don’t know what they would be called. But they’re smart people, they’ll figure it out. Um- I’ve already said I have a soft spot for the conspiracy theorists.

(laughs) I’ll definitely let them know

But really, I would just like them to be people who enjoy music, and people who accept their feelings. I feel like people are usually scared of their feelings because they’re worried that their feelings will like control them but I’m like no no no no… Feeling a feeling, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s like what do you do with the feelings? And should you do something with the feeling? Or do you just feel it? But I don’t really want them to be any specific way. Like, come on anyone. Cause you see the thing is you might not like all my songs, but there might be one song and you’re like AH! Hapo aligonga ndipo. And right there, they’ll just have to give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.

I think I can just welcome everyone cause hey man, I’m not a perfect person so I don’t expect perfect people. So just, if you like music, and I’m trying to keep getting better at that so stick around. I just wanna sing for you.

As we come to an end, let’s do a fun one. Tell us about in ‘mr. sneaky link.’ Is there a titular mr. link in real life?

It’s inspired by someone yes. But there is no particular mr. sneaky link. I’m really good at telling a story. Although I wish.

Maybe mr. sneaky link is the friends we made along the way?

Maybe he’s out there.