Solis…Dawn of Afrobeats shining star

When Solis started sprinting towards stardom, she was just a child. At age five, she had already begun writing music to express her feelings. Her biggest idol was Beyonce. And while she hoped to hit it big like the pop star someday, she chose to do so on her own terms. And this sentiment is the same thing that has shaped her career; from her days as an emerging RnB star to her latest evolution as a dreamy pop/rock star. 

Earlier this year, Solis — real name Kamma Zulu-Okafor — signed to Troniq Music, same home to Oxlade. While this move signaled the start of a wider appreciation for her artistry, it also began her uptempo pop/rock journey which manifests fully in her just-released EP, Ghost Town.

The six-tracker features her longtime collaborators Cruel Santino, Mowalola, and Dreamer Isioma, all of whom are renowned figures in the alternative or ‘alte’ music subculture in Afrobeats. And with Ghost Town, Solis stamps her identity as an iconic pop star ready for arenas, whether in Lagos or Los Angeles.  Her music, despite being very urban-focused and experimental, is a worthy muse for other younger Solises, who presently need a paradigm for bohemian expression, and also one of the most distinct discographies in Afrobeats’ libraries. 

In this week’s Guardian Music, we catch up with Solis, a leading voice in the latest class of Afrobeats’ entrants, as she takes us on a tour round her sonical Ghost Town; reminiscing on her come-up journey; and how her childlike wonder will continue to influence her radical ideas; and why she believes Nigerians are ready for experimental and border-less music. 

How does it feel dropping this project now?
I feel rejuvenated in my spirit in my craft and in belief in myself. It feels good to be signed to a record label now and have more of a structure in my music, you know, as opposed to like when I was independent, but even with the sound of the music, it all just feels like a newness. A newness of spirit. 

Tell us about your journey so far. 
So, for as long as I can remember my earliest memories of myself are of me singing. Let’s say from age five. I had already started singing everything I wanted to say. And then I wrote my very first song at seven years old. And I called it “Why can’t we be friends?” And I wrote it because my best friend and I, at the time, had our first fight. And it just had my world spinning. And I just wrote that as an outlet for me to deal with my emotions. And from then on, I would literally write songs about every single emotion I felt whether it was how I felt because I didn’t like playing sports, or how I hated math, or how I wanted to be a star. I just wrote about everything that I felt, and then from age 12, I started posting videos on the Internet of me singing on YouTube and literally any platform that popped up. I would just sign up and start making covers of songs and stuff like that. So I’ve been on the internet for a really long time. From about age 12, until age 17, I was dropping videos on various platforms on the Internet. And then, when I was 17, I started dropping videos on Instagram and Twitter. And then that’s where Odunsi, The Engine found one of my videos and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, I would love for you to be on my album, titled, Rare’, and that’s how I got my first official debut. From there you know the rest is history. You know that was really what put me into the limelight, because when I was dropping videos on the Internet, I kept wondering to myself when exactly I was going to make the pivot from being an Internet singer to an actual artiste. I’m so thankful to God for the ways in which it happened.

What influenced your sound, growing up? 
I listened to a lot of different types of music when I was growing up, because I’ve always just been super curious and super open to things but some of the artistes that were pivotal in my life while growing up include Beyonce. For me, I think listening to her from Destiny Child down to her solo career made me feel like she just embodied everything that I thought a star was. She was my first image of a star. And then there are other artistes like Sade Adu, Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Alicia Keys and Rihanna. There are a lot of different artistes that I got to witness growing up that just made me believe that I could be a star as well. They just opened my mind up to possibilities for my own self.

What’s the mystery behind your name?
The name Solis means ‘The Sun’ in Latin. And I chose that because all my life I’ve always sort of embodied this sort of sunshine personality. When I was younger, you would never catch me not smiling. You know how people have frowning faces? I have a resting smile on my face. And I’ve always just made it a point in my life to make sure that whoever I come in contact with, is left feeling a bit lighter or better. And so, I chose that as a symbol of the light that I try to put into the world. And also, as a reminder that, you know, even like on the dark days, the days that are not so great, like the sun will always come up in the morning. And I think that’s a really important message is that the darkness doesn’t last forever.

Your new album, Ghost Town, is a very different experience from RnB. Can you tell us about why you chose this direction?
I think with this new era that we’re in, RnB sort of takes a backseat because I think I’ve always known that I’m what you would call a pop star. And that doesn’t necessarily limit the music. I made it to have a pop feel to it, but I also think that’s the energy I’ve embodied. And so with this project I am properly introducing you guys to who that pop star is. And so with Ghost Town,  you see a lot of more uptempo arrangements and things like that, and I’m definitely the loudest I’ve ever been. I think a lot of my old music is very soft and dreamy, so I’m definitely pretty loud in this. But it’s also because the emotion that the EP carries requires me to almost be shouting. It’s a lot of heavy emotions that are explored and goes down. It’s a lot of deep and like volatile emotions that are explored in ways that I wanted the music to resonate with what those emotions felt like through the lyrics, the instrumentation and the arrangement. I wanted people to feel like they’re on an emotional journey, with their peaks and their valleys. And the whole shebang. Yes, so, the direction is very pop and it also has a lot of rock elements, but it still possesses that dreamy Solis a bit. 

Tell us about your creative process. 
Imagine being someone who lives in Lagos, Nigeria, with chaotic settings but every type of music you make is very western focused and relaxed. For me, I live inside a very vibrant world. The one inside my head. I’ve often my whole life been met with comments like, ‘You don’t look like you’re from here. You don’t act like you’re from here. You don’t talk like you’re from here. And I can never really knock anyone for it because I understand. Despite being a product of my environment in a lot of ways that you’ll see if you’re closer to me, I’ve always just lived in a huge world inside my head. And that world is what I explored in my debut album. I have always lived inside this really limitless world in my head where possibilities are endless.  And so my music creation process always starts from my head first, and the world that I have there, and it’s a vast world filled with so many different sounds, it’s a whole utopia in itself. It actually is a form of escapism for me. When I was younger and whenever I’d go through stuff, I would just retreat into the world in my head. So that world has served as a safe space in my life for a really long time. So when I’m creating music, I just tap into the energies of the world that I’ve created, and then let it pour from there. And it was a bit of a struggle for sure when I first started making music just because I didn’t even realise how different I was until I started releasing music, but I have a lot of confidence in the things that I create, because it’s real and because it’s good work. And I firmly believe that music is such a universal language in that you don’t even have to understand what a person is saying to vibe with it or to be moved by it. I listen to songs in Spanish and Korean and all sorts of languages. For me, I truly believe that if someone has a good song, whether or not it’s something that they’re used to, they’ll vibe with it. And I’m also thankful for this globalized world that we live in.

Are there people you would like to collaborate with? 
I would love to collaborate with the likes of Willow Smith, Don Toliver, Travis Scott, OSHA. There are so many artistes I can name a million artists that I’d love to work with. In Nigeria, I would love to work with Tems, Ayra Starr, Burna Boy, Taves and some others. 

Any favourite songs in the album?
I love all these songs so much. I’m really proud of them. I think currently, my favourite song on the tape is ‘Global Strike.’ And it’s my favourite for so many reasons. I think the most important one is the message and the significance that it holds. It is a song where I explored the state of the world and how it’s falling apart and how love is the only answer to saving the world and how its messages are as simple as loving your neighbor as yourself and, and you know, looking out for the children and things like that. I believe they are most important and that is what is going to keep us as humanity. So, the message is something that I hold really dear to my heart and also just the arrangement of the song. I just think it’s so heavenly. 

Are we seeing you onstage this year?
That is definitely part of the plan. I mean, we’re trying to take this on a global level. So, we’re trying to do festivals. We’re trying to do tour openings, you know, like we’re really trying to push me as far as possible because on stage is where I shine. I feel like if you can’t feel me through just listening to my music, if you watch me perform, you will completely get converted into the Solis ministry. Yeah, there’s definitely the plan of, you know, performances throughout the year. I’m also trying to do my own show before the year runs out. There is a lot in the works. 

Finally, what is your vision for your career? 
Ultimately, I just want people’s hearts to be touched. That is my main goal in all of this and all of this is to touch as many hearts as possible to make people feel things whether it’s feeling heard or seen or they feel not alone. My music just serves as a safe space for them if life is getting hard, if they need to dance a little, or if they need a little pick me up, they can go to their Spotify or Apple music or whatever and listen to my song and then they feel lighter. Their day feels a little better. I think for me, I’m just trying to do that on a global scale. I want people to hear me and feel especially in a world where everything is becoming so cold and everyone is becoming so selfish. Everyone is so driven by such negative intentions. I just want my music to serve as something good in the world.