Akilah Etienne recently won the Social Distancing Tour, a platform for upcoming artists and creatives put together by Evo Agency and the Head of Mor. Bookings Agency, Scott Morris. She’s a 24-year-old artist with a lot of passion for music and the arts; she graduated from Brooklyn College with a Bachelor’s degree in music with a concentration in voice performance.
Now running her very own independent label, SavgzWorldwide, along with her husband, ChaosMr718, Akilah is about to take the world by storm. She recently even sang the National anthem at Bernie Sander’s Campaign rally at her alma mater, Brooklyn College. We had the opportunity to sit down with the artist and talk about her work.
How did you feel after winning the social distancing tour this year?
It felt really good, I hadn’t been able to perform for the past couple of months. That was upsetting because I perform all the time. It was a great opportunity to show some skills and it felt good to be rewarded for that.
Give some background on how you got into music?
I’ve always been into music, I got into it really young. I started playing the violin, piano, and I’ve studied music throughout my life. Then I eventually started singing and I got into the musical theater but, I didn’t get into songwriting until I was about 10. From there I got into poetry and started turning it into song. I didn’t start releasing music until I was in college. Since I studied some opera in college, I love all types of music and you can really see that in my music —I use a lot of different styles.
Your new album ‘Dark Angel’ dropped May 15th so congrats to you! Talk a little bit more about your style, you use jazzy and alternative sounds. Where did that stem from?
I listen to a lot of alternative R&B like Ari Lennox and Solange — people who are just different with what they do. The jazzy style comes from other artists like Amy Winehouse and Nina Simone. I love listening to older musicians because you can hear the soul they put behind (their music.)
While the pandemic has caused us to miss out on many things this year, a lot of artists and creatives are using coronavirus as an opportunity to grow as artists. How do you think you’ll come out of the pandemic?
I looked at this as a chance to grow myself. Having a young baby, he’s 10-months-old so, I look at it as a blessing. I was already quarantined before the quarantine; being home all the time, being home actually allowed me to really work on ‘Dark Angel.’ I made most of the album in my son’s first couple of months. So it allowed me to transform how I do things. I have started doing live performances on Instagram and other apps to grow online. By the time we come out of the pandemic, I hope to gain a nice following.
With your baby being with you at home, is he getting into music as well?
He actually is, I play a lot of music. You can even hear him on one of my songs, while recording he happened to yell at the end and it actually sounded perfect. My husband raps and I sing so he picks up on a lot of that.
Since you run a label with your husband, are you tempted to make more music with him?
Yeah, I have a song out we did together called, ‘Sex, Pills, and Oatmeal.’ We say that’s the song that got us pregnant because it’s such a good vibe and has a sensual feeling. A couple of months after we dropped that we found out we were having a baby!
What do you want your audience to take away from your music?
At the end of the day, my music is for you to think. It’s for you to reflect on your own life. Often I talk about personal experiences a lot—love life and the deeper aspects of love and existing. I have a song called, ‘Existential,’ and it really touches on depression and I don’t think people really would attribute to a Black girl to depression. My album really is open about the dark side that’s why I called my album, ‘Dark Angel’ because some may say I have an angelic voice but, there is a dark side. I don’t shy away from it, I want people to know it’s okay to have complex feelings. I just want people to be able to think about their lives in a complex way and also relax.
What’s next for you?
I have some dope singles on the way. I’m working on releasing a cross over Spanish track, I sing in a couple of different languages. It’s called, ‘Kiki Going Loca,’ the release date has not been announced yet but, it might be the end of July or August. It’s a really fun summer track, I’m excited about it. I also have a merch line coming, ‘Dark Angel’ merch— you can definitely expect that.
You can find more information about Akilah on her Instagram page and ‘Dark Angel’ is now available on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidel, and other platforms.
