I've always had this commitment to not being in one thing. Kelela More Quotes by Kelela More Quotes From Kelela When I started making songs, some of them read as mixtape-y, and some of them read as album-y. Kelela songsmakingstartedsome Fog and one blue light is all I need in life at the club. Just a dark room and loud music. I'm into that. Kelela musiclightbluelife I am not carefree. I'm just not. I experience an immense amount of joy, a crazy amount of joy through sadness and so much struggle. There's something problematic about 'carefree black girl.' Kelela i-amexperienceblackgirl Self-care is a requirement. Kelela requirement When I called 'Cut 4 Me' a mixtape, I was thinking about a few elements: One is used instrumentals. The project is more centered around introducing you to an artist; it's not meant to be seminal. It's 'Hi,' 'Hello,' a thing that you first hear. Kelela meyouartistthinking As much as we like to pretend we're just getting on stage and whatever, it's like, no, I practiced in front of the mirror my whole life. Kelela pretendmirrorstagelife I don't want you to feel defeated, like, 'Oh boy, why do you do this to me?' We have too many of those songs. Kelela boyfeelmeyou To me, the best writing points to something literal or common but is also nuanced: The moment when somebody is telling you they love you while simultaneously disappointing you. Everybody's experienced that. Kelela bestmemomentlove I don't write lyrics. I hear the track and sing in gibberish over it, then I try and fit words into the phrasing and melody that I already have set. Everything is left to chance. Kelela wordseverythingtrychance I've grown up feeling very American but being constantly bothered by people - there's internalized racism and feeling weird about being second-generation. Kelela weirdfeelingracismpeople Popular music was this abstraction - an abstraction that I was relating to immensely but was ultimately far away. Kelela farawayfar-awaymusic I'm just trying to soundtrack your real life. I'm just trying to give you a place to feel safe in all the parts of your experience. Kelela feelyouexperiencelife Anyone who understands anti-racist work, a white person specifically, understands that it is not black people's responsibility, or any person of color's responsibility, to dismantle the structures that keep white people in positions of power. We do our job to thrive, to survive. To protect ourselves, to sit together and feel better and to heal. Kelela powertogetherworkpeople I'm just tryna be honest about all the things that I dig in my music. It's not just this over here, it's also that over there. Kelela herejustthingsmusic It's been hard for me to nail visual language and personal style because I like so many different things. Kelela personalmestylelanguage 'Seat at the Table' has expressed real adversity, struggle, and also triumph and joy. Kelela adversityrealstrugglejoy As it pertains to my black womanhood, there's just a lot of ground to cover. There's a lot of stuff to say. Kelela groundsayjustblack It's such a challenging time, and in my small way, I will make it so that other younger women, and maybe older women, will be able to do the things they want to do, and accept themselves and their experience. Kelela womenexperiencetimeway I like to try out different methods to get to good songs. Kelela trygoodlikedifferent I would say Tracy Chapman was the first time I obsessed over an entire record. I knew every song; I knew the exact amount of seconds between each song. That's the level of obsession that I had. Kelela sayfirst-timetimesong
