Gizelle Smith - 10 Questions

Gizelle Smith has always been regarded as a funk and soul artist. She even gained
the nickname 'The Golden Girl of Funk' after extensive touring across Europe, off the back of her first album 'This Is Gizelle Smith and the Mighty Mocambos', a selection of gritty deep-funk tracks with the Hamburg funk outfit. Joni Mitchell, Hendrix and Zappa have all featured highly in her list of influences, but none higher than her queen, Kate Bush.

Gizelle sat down with Wordplay Magazine to answer our infamous 10 Questions:

1. So tell me, how did it all begin? What sparked your love for music?

It began long ago, when I was a few months old and my mother first took me to see my dad who was in Europe on tour with The Four Tops. He was their guitarist for many years. Then I guess as I got older, my own conscious interest started when I began exploring my mother's record collection. There was a lot of Motown and soul, ABBA, a ridiculous amount of Country and Western and some musicals, amongst other things, haha.

2. Who are some artists that influence you and that you want to work with in the future?

I'm not a fan of the word 'influence'. I certainly have sources of inspiration, which usually starts with their attitude towards making music and not particularly how their music sounds or what genre they happen to be in. In fact most of those artists don't claim a genre. They are the poets and storytellers in music. Kate Bush has been my muse since my early teens. Her songs are epic fairy tales and musically, they conjure such imagery in my head. They have that child-like innocence about them, you know - where you haven't learnt fear yet. She taught me that all musical elements need to serve a purpose. All the vocals should be part of the story. She takes nothing for granted and fears no judgement about her music - at least that's how she seems to me. Joni Mitchell is a very important teacher for me also. Every song is like opening a box of love-letters and trinkets. She lays everything bare in her magical way of marrying lyrics to melody as only she does. She never compromises on lyrical content. I don't have any desire to work with any of my muses. They don't belong with me on this worldly plane, it's purely spiritual. I would love to have worked with MF Doom. It hit so hard when he passed - such a talented, entertaining artist. I felt at home in his vision. In his chaotic music. I'd also love to collaborate with artists who aren't musicians. I love stop-motion animation and would love to write a score for a Quay Brothers animation or provide the soundscape to an art installation by Olafur Eliasson or write the music for an Ebinum Brothers dance piece. Thinking about it now, the way in which those brothers move really reminds me of how the Brothers Quay animate their characters... funny. I'd even like to curate a playlist for my favourite steak house in London, ha.

3. What are some of the problems you have faced making and releasing the music during the corona virus pandemic?

Aside from the government being incredibly disrespectful towards hard-working, talented people by suggesting they retrain to become some random 9 to 5-er, luckily for us, everything was finished and ready for mastering when the first lock-down hit, so there was no stress of dealing with the logistics of socially distanced recording. I quite liked the idea of taking advantage of the forced drastic change in social circumstances by releasing the album at a time that's usually unfavourable i.e. Dec/Jan, since there was this global breakdown of habits and trends but my label weren't keen. The trouble comes now, with the album release coming up because I need and WANT to tour the album which is gonna be difficult and weird enough with social distancing and if another lock-down is put in place, that won't happen at all. And can we talk about the debacle that is Brexit!? Jeez! What a shit, disheartening time to be a musician - especially in the UK. I just want to reach out to my music followers in the purest way and I can't.

4. How would you describe your sound?

Unconventional funk, ha. I don't know really. Its roots are in late 60's funk and soul but with each album, I found myself moving further away from being categorised as such. The music has become a lot more expansive, cinematic, dramatic. It had to. I've made huge steps as a song writer over the years and the music has to follow to allow for my growing intensity of expression. I don't care for genre boxes because they are the opposite of creative. My sound has elements of all styles of music because I guess what goes in, will find its way out and I have a very eclectic taste in music.

5. What's your proudest moment to date so far as an artist?

I can't say I have feelings of pride for one particular thing. Building a career out of something I love fills me with gratitude. Every time I write a song, I thank my ancestors for the gift of being able to communicate in this way. When people express how much they like my music, I thank the universe for bringing them to where they needed to be to hear it. The industry is tough, nobody owes you anything and nothing is promised - not even your own moments of inspiration or creativity are promised. You've gotta be thankful for all your milestones.

6. Do you have any advice for our readers who may be trying to play the mad game of music?

Re-train in banking? Jk. STOP DOING GIGS FOR FREE. Respect your craft and consider it a business like all other professions. If we all hold fast together, we can obliterate the notion of playing for 'exposure', whatever the platform. Such an archaic, bull crap excuse for not paying or offering very disrespectful fees, that musicians themselves stupidly perpetuate.

7. Are there any artists on your radar at the moment that we should check out?

Oh so many. I made a 10-hour long Spotify playlist called 'REVEALING: Across The Genres of Cool' and a huge proportion of tracks are by brilliant artists I'm only just discovering. I'm usually pretty late to these parties. Off the top of my head: Big Joanie, Brittany Howard, The Gripsweats, Lijadu Sisters. Arjuna Oakes. Salami Rose Joe Louis, Kassa Overall... You probably already know them.

8. What albums are on heavy rotation on your Spotify playlist currently?

Songhoy Blues - Music In Exile, RHCP - Stadium Arcadium, Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends, Silversun Pickups - Neck of The Woods, Danny Elfman - Alice Through The Looking Glass (OMPS) + Dumbo (OMPS), Tinariwen - Emmaar, Kassa Overall - I Think I'm Good.

9. What do you like to do when you're not making music?

I'm blessed to be a mama now and my vivacious 5 month old daughter dictates how we spend all of our beautiful days. In between, I'm making plans to start curating small art exhibitions by upcoming black Artists and getting involved in some creative writing. I really hoped to make a start on writing a musical during lock-down... I didn't and I'm very disappointed with myself. So I have to ft that in somewhere too.

10. Name Three things you can't live without when in the studio?

Errrm... I suppose a nice cup of tea, hot water bottle and the note book I wrote the lyrics in. I also want to give a special mention to the pen I wrote the lyrics with. I also need that. Each album has its own dedicated pen, which spookily runs out soon after I finish recording all the vocals. I didn't plan to only use one pen per album... it just ended up being the case and now I'm a bit obsessive about it. I know, weird.

Photo Credit: Nico Pancorvo