YolaIts music has always been hard to pin down genre-wise, but that's just the way he likes it — and his new EP, my waynot different

"I've been planning this for 100 percent of the year," the 41-year-old singer-songwriter exclusively said. our weekly His new project, which drops Friday, January 17. So I'm getting time back from that part of my life."

"That part" refers to the years when he worked as a vocalist in the London music scene, contributing his powerful pipes to artists such as Massive Attack and Bugs in the Attic. When he later established a solo career, however, many US listeners (and critics) mistakenly believed that his main influence was Americana, thanks to the country-themed vibes on his first album, Walk Through Fire. The truth is that he is always immersed in everything - and my way allowing him to tap into the broken beats and trip hop sounds he was exploring a decade before he knew his name.

"I was definitely boxed in, which I think helped me get booked, so I wouldn't fight too hard," he explained. “You get into scenes even though you don't necessarily fit into those scenes. … I had country associations and I definitely had people in the country scene who traveled for me. So my associations brought me into that space, but they weren't my source at all, musically."

Yola's second full-length album, stand up for meIt felt more true to him, but the Americana label stuck even as his audience expanded.

"It all came closer to my story and this process of being able to narrate what my exposure to music was and was," he said. our. “When I was a published author and I was writing for people that would be in the folksy kind of space, I definitely had projects that were in that kind of space. But the ones that were most successful were closer to the soul space. My role has always been in some variation of soul music, whether it's on dance music, in this broken beat scene, in jazz. My approach has always been proximity to the soul and so that is my aim. I think I started that stand up for meAnd I might be taking it to its furthest extreme on this EP."

Fans who have seen Yola preview some of her new songs at live shows over the past year know that my way It doesn't sound like anything that's been released before. "Future Enemy" begins with a throbbing electronic beat before building to a soaring, arena-ready chorus, while "Ready" is directly inspired by the broken beat scene Yola came up with during his years in the UK.

If those fans were paying close attention, though, they could have guessed where he was headed, as he sprinkled soul covers throughout his set. "I told you exactly the plan!" he quipped.

Yola's recapitulation of narratives is extended my way The cover art, which shows her wearing a crown and reclining between two extremely muscular (and shirtless) men.

“I was talking to people about a photo shoot I did that was so embarrassing. … I was like, 'Why are we lighting me up like this?'” he recalled. “And so I created this folder on Pinterest, which was about how to light me up and how not to light me up. I put all my bad, ash-ass photos in one and then a handful of juicy-looking, lovely photos - and one had too many and the other not enough."

The idea was inspired by her Ghanaian and Bajan heritage as well as her own skin tone, which she says brightened when she moved from gloomy London to relatively sunny Tennessee and later New York City.

“I was really like, 'I really need to be in my equinox bag.' I really have to give moisturized, give melanated, give African, give Caribbean, give my bloodline, give my body where it wants to be,” she said. “When you see that picture, you think, 'Black people have to be involved,' because it feels different. It feels equatorial, it's conceived in a way that's able to understand and see my beauty without trying to bleach it, without trying to burn it with freaking highlighter to make my skin tone look lighter, without wanting to straighten my nose."

The result is an image that is instantly iconic, fitting for a woman who made her Broadway debut last year as Persephone. Headstown And Pioneer of physical rock Sister Rosetta Tharp on the big screen In 2022 Elvis.

“I am the main character. I am being served,” Yola added. “The way I love is through service. I am not serving that world, that expectation is the bulk of people's expectations from me. I'm placing a bet with that vampire's heart and it's dying. Everything about making this record flew in the face of everything the world expected from someone who looked like me."

Yoler my way The EP is out now. his Sovereign Spirit The tour kicks off in Denver on May 10. Tickets go on sale Friday, January 24, with fan presales up front. Details are available here.