Croydon born Keshia Adele has proved she’s more than just another South London girl. With her debut EP ‘The EPithany’ being released in April and her single ‘Can’t’ being released soon; she’s a star on the verge.

Keshia Adele (born Keshia Aneksi Adele Melbourne-Baynes) was born into a music family with her father, a bodyguard to the stars, her mother a backing vocalist and her external family; an array of Dancers, sound engineers, songwriters and DJ’s.

I spoke to her about her affiliation to music, her process and her musical influences.

So the anticipation for your music is building up, what can we expect from the EP?

This EP allows me to be very naked and allows people to see something different to what people know of me, my music is much more vulnerable and raw and I just hope it shows my love for music. It’s basically my story and that’s just how I’m putting it out there. In person I’m very guarded so this allows me to show that defenceless side to me.

Let’s start of at the beginning, when did your affiliation for music and performing start?

My affiliation for music and performing started years and years ago. I’ve been performing since I was about seven, gigging since I was about seven, seven and a half. So I’ve been gigging and performing for quite a while but I think I’ve took my performing to the next level since I performed in The Wiz in 2014. I really began to realise how important it is to bring a story to the audience and how important not only singing the story and telling the story in such a way is important but actually how performing it is really important, so I watched a lot of Janet Jackson gigs and stuff like that in preparation. I also love how art is expressed in all different ways so obviously as a singer I’m a story teller and I sing from experience and through other people’s stories.

How would you describe your musical style?

How would I describe my musical style?, in terms of my musical style I’m influenced a lot by R&B and new jack swing anyone who knows me knows Janet Jackson is definitely a huge influence and when I’m talking about R&B I’m talking about 2000’s and 90’s, Aaliyah is definitely a big influence. I love dancing so although this EP doesn’t really show the performing side to me, it is more vulnerable and exposed but there are definitely more songs to come that are more dancey. My musical style also has an Erykah Badu vibe. I love mixing R&B, soul, new jack swing and Neo-soul to make this thing called me you know?

So with that in mind who would you say are your greatest musical influences?

Obviously as I mentioned earlier I’m heavily influenced by Janet Jackson, Aaliyah and Erykah Badu but there are other people like Michael Jackson, I have a huge thing for prince as well so you can find a bit of him in there.

What was the process like?

The process was very long, I’ve been writing this EP for about 9 years now and over them 9 years; It was a lot of hard work and a lot of working through them feelings that I felt when I originally wrote the songs, A lot of changing artwork and developing my sound.

Who did you work with on the EP?

I have written the EP all on my own so yeah me, I would like to say a younger me and an older me. In terms of producers my friend Demi-Leigh (she’s also an artist) she’s produced two of the songs and then we have Tom; my band leader and Ben Becontoy who also helped produce so yeah that was it.

What do you what people to take away from your EP?

I want people to Hold on to the EP. It has an embedded message in it really, it’s for people who are going through a certain heartbreak and it’s really for them to take away and understand there not the only ones who are going through this and also for people who haven’t gone through it to know that hey if you do go through it you’re not the only one who has been through it, yeah that’s really what I want people to take away from it.

‘Can’t’ is this single so this leaves the questions on everybody’s mind, When can we expect the Single and EP?

You can expect a single very soon there will be a single coming out in March and possibly one closer to Valentine’s Day and I’m releasing the music videos soon thereafter and the EP will be released closer to April.

You can find it on my website, Reverb Nation and Bands in Town and you can follow me on instagram @misskeshiaadele or on Snapchat.

http://keshiaadelemusic.wixsite.com/keshiaadelemusic