Cleo Sol sat down with Apple Music's Zane Lowe to dive into the impact her music has had on listeners around the world. Throughout the conversation, Cleo reflects on the early days of her career and takes listeners on a journey through her last three album releases. She talks about her life-changing collaboration with Flo and how pregnancy impacted her creative process. To close out the conversation Cleo teases new music in over a year and gives Zane a sneak peek of her new song, "Fear When You Fly," which will be available for listeners to stream this Friday, November 1.
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about letting her music be a vessel of listener’s emotions
Cleo Sol: That's good to hear because that was the goal. That was honestly the goal. It was like you have your life and you have this gift. You don't know if it's something that people want to hear. You don't know if your stories are things that people want to hear, but you do it anyway, and people are listening and it's nice. People send me nice messages and sometimes I can't read them. It's so much, it can be quite heavy and I'm like, "Whoa, you listen to my music through that?" And I'm like, okay, that's what God has given me this gift for, and I just pray. Every day I wake up, I'm like, "I just pray you use me for the day." That's the most important thing.
Zane Lowe: Yeah, it's clear to me you understand the importance of letting go and allowing yourself to be a vessel.
Cleo Sol: Yeah. It's the most important thing. I've done, like go to studio, "Yeah, I know what I'm doing," and nothing comes out. And then you're like, "Oh wow, I'm really shit. Wow, what happened?" Yeah, I can sing. I know I can sing, but there's more to it than just having a nice voice. There's the stories, there's the intention, not overdoing it. I don't like the too perfect thing. I don't know what it is. I know it's God, so I try and keep my vessel clear and clean and try not to let too much distractions get in the way.
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about the early days of her career, temporarily stepping away from music, and what brought her back
Cleo Sol: I think I went from college, I was 15, 16, and I met a producer, Da Vinci, a great guy. He was doing grime at the time and we just started working straight away, and it was my foot in the door for the music industry. Not necessarily what I wanted to do in terms of the type of music, the sound, but I was like, look, I'm a singer. I can get my writing in. I've got a cool relationship with a producer.
Zane Lowe: Were you in a hurry?
Cleo Sol: I think I was scared that I was going to lose any opportunity that came my way, so I said yes to everything. And it was like I don't think I knew my worth. First of all, I didn't know why I was doing it. I just knew I had a nice voice, and if I was to speak to my younger self now, I'd be like, "Figure out what you want to say, how you want to say it. Maybe live a few years before you start writing." I think I was a slow developer in terms of you meet some 18, 19 year olds now and they are locked in, they are on point. My little brother and sister are like grown adults, but they're 21 and 16. But me, I was definitely like, "I'm in college, I like music," and I just took the opportunity, which I think is part of the plan because I think if I didn't, there are so many people that I met that it got to Flo through all of these relationships. But yeah, I would tell myself, "Find out what you want to talk about. Why do you want to do music? Why do you want to do music?"
Zane Lowe: The why is so crucial.
Cleo Sol: I'd say to every artist, I feel like a lot of artists have it figured out right now, because there's so much music.
Zane Lowe: I guess that moment when you realised that you needed to figure out your why and you decided to just not release music, I don't know if you were still creating. Probably, but maybe not, but you just walked away.
Cleo Sol: I was like, what am I doing? And I think building a relationship with God was the foundation to the why. So it's like you had this gift and it's a tiny quiet voice. Figure it out, write about what you're going through. I was in a bit of a dark space because I was like, this was supposed to be the thing, the lights, camera, action, and it wasn't, because I wasn't being true to myself. You've just got to be transparent, be your authentic self, and that's what I've created your path for, I think. I did end up getting... So Flo actually got me a computer and it had GarageBand on it, and that's when I was like, "Okay, let's have some fun." I made beats with my voice and layered it with my voice, and then first of all, it was just a bunch of melodies for a long time. And then it was like, "Let me start talking about stuff," and then yeah, the honesty came out. And that was quite hard because I didn't grow up with too much transparency with emotions, so it was just like, "Just get on with it. Stay strong, keep it pushing." So the conversations didn't really happen. There wasn't time. Do you know what I mean? My mom was a single mom, so it's like just get on with it. Do you know what I mean?
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about her partnership with Flo
So important, the most life-changing thing. I think we both had been through so much stuff when we met each other, we were just like, no one's backing us. No one was waiting for music. There was no nothing. I had one team member at the time who wasn't answering my emails, and I love her to this day, we still communicate, but at the time, it fades out and there's nothing going on and I wasn't really doing much. He had come back from America, it didn't work out there, and we met and the first thing he said, I was like, "I don't want auto-tune on my voice." We linked up through our managers who we don't have now, but that's why I'm saying it's a blessing in disguise. And he was like, "I don't use auto-tune." And I was like, "Whoa, this is great." He was like, "You don't need auto-tune." And I was like, "I know, but this is the thing I battle with with people."
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about releasing her albums 'Heaven' and 'Gold' back-to-back
Cleo Sol: But the 'Gold' album, it was a long time coming, and it was one, it was like what are we doing this for? And it ended up being every song was the relationship with God and giving thanks, and the relationship that was built and is vulnerable. I didn't know if I ever wanted to release that album because it was so heart-opening.
Zane Lowe: It came out literally two weeks after 'Heaven.'
Cleo Sol: Yeah.
Zane Lowe: Was that part of the reason why it came out so quickly, was because you came to that conclusion within that two weeks to release the album?
Cleo Sol: To be fair, it was off the cuff. So it was like I wanted to put music out and 'Heaven' was a mix of stuff we had which I loved which we had compiled together, and then 'Gold' was a finished product. But I was like, we can't just leave 'Heaven.' Heaven's not to be left. Heaven's to be loved and given, because otherwise we call them hard drive classics. They just stay in the studio forever.
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about her emotional connection to her song "Lost Angel"
Zane Lowe: Is there a song that you've recorded in here that was particularly, I know they all are, or one or two that were really touching for you that you really felt, experience emotion in a different way?
Cleo Sol: I think the songs from 'Gold,' I think "Lost Angel," "In Your Own Home." It's about being safe, trusting. I feel like I'm going to have a little moment, but my cousin passed away last year and they played "Lost Angel," but I didn't end up going because I was doing the Sault gig. But for it to be used, he actually had messaged this to me before he passed away. He had messaged that was his favourite song off the album, so when I hear it, I think of him but in a beautiful way. I just know it's bigger than me and I think that's why I get emotional sometimes, because it's overwhelming. I know that it's like I'm just being used as a vessel.
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about creating her album ‘Mother’
Zane Lowe: And being a parent and creating an album like 'Mother,' when I listen to that now, it sounds to me like someone who's discovered motherhood but needs to acknowledge and address some of the failings or areas in life as a child that you experienced in order to be the best parent you can be. Is that what that album represents?
Cleo Sol: Yeah, definitely. And I think both my parents, we're all humans, so becoming a parent, my parents were 25, 26 when they became parents. You have to understand, they wanted to be musicians. They didn't know what they were doing. They were in love, it was fast love. They had a child. They didn't end up staying together, so yeah, it was up and down. I think when I had made that album, it was so fresh being a mother, and what I would do differently and what I feel like my dad should have done differently. Now, I've come to a state of, like I was saying earlier, grace and understanding, that I have an understanding how hard to be a parent is.
Zane Lowe : You have the experience.
Cleo Sol: I have the experience, so I want to give them love. If anything, I have so much love for parents because it's not easy, and just respect to everyone trying and just showing up in the way that they know. To be honest with you, like I was saying, there wasn't a lot of communication in my home in terms of what's going on. Parents going through things, my mom passed away, my mum's dad passed away, passing aways in the family, friends, the communication is just like, "That person's gone to heaven." There's not a conversation about death, about grieving. Just anything. Emotions, if you're having a bad day. Most of the time when a parent's going nuts at a child, it's usually not the child's fault. They're probably dealing with something, and having that understanding now, oh, they were just young people trying to figure it out, and feeling that album out through that.
Cleo Sol tells Apple Music about how her pregnancy impacted her creative process
Cleo Sol: I think the whole of the pregnancy, I was really feeling creative but not really actualizing it, always listening and making music but not creating something of substance sometimes. I think it's important to live life. As a creative, it's important to live life, feel life out. That's how I personally grow. So then when it came to 'Mother,' it was like, oh, I'm a whole different person now. Even one hour after I become a mom, I'm a whole different person now, because now it's not about me.
Zane Lowe: Did you feel when you began to sing the songs, did it feel different the way you were approaching your music as well?
Cleo Sol: Yeah, and I think what people don't tell you is when you become a parent, your relationships with every single other person changes as well, so that was overnight. My family, the relationships changed, my friends, and then you start to think time is so important, so why am I meeting you? I know that sounds mad, but I don't have time to spare because I have a child who needs me, so we have to give something to each other when we are meeting each other. And I had to set new boundaries in place. That was interesting, and it was a lot with family you have to set boundaries in place.
Cleo Sol debuts a new song, “Fear When You Fly,” for Apple Music
Zane Lowe: Are you making new music?
Cleo Sol: I am. I want to play you something too. Yeah, I am. I'm always making new music. To put it out, that's another story. This stuff I do want to put out, so building it, in the process of building it. So yeah, I don't know how we can play it to you.
Zane Lowe: Yeah.
Cleo Sol: Can we play it now?
Zane Lowe: Yeah.
Cleo Sol: Hey.
Zane Lowe: Amazing. Oh my God, this is epic.
Cleo Sol: It's called Fear When You Fly.
