Yet, she is quick to clarify that spirituality, at least in her case, has little to do with dogma. If anything, she views it as a way of moving through the world. “I think people hear me talk about spirituality and imagine I’m levitating on a mountain somewhere,” she revealed. “But it’s not like that. I think being an artist, full stop, means you’re operating in the world of the spirit.”
The irony, of course, is that she never considered herself creative growing up; quite the opposite in fact. One of her earliest experiences with art ended with classmates laughing at her attempt to draw a hand during an art lesson, an experience she admits put her off creative pursuits for years. It wasn’t until much later, while living in New York, that she found herself drawn back to creating. Painting led to graffiti, graffiti led to animation, animation led to producing beats, and beats eventually led to music. “I started making animations and putting music on top of them, then making beats for the animations,” she reminisced. “Then I got into music, became obsessed with it, started playing guitar and now, I’m here.”
If anything, the story reinforced a belief she had already alluded to earlier in our conversation: what made her feel different was rarely her background, but rather the things that captured her attention. “People have expectations of what a Black person is, what a girl is, what a Black British person is,” she confessed. “There are so many boxes with all these unspoken rules. I think that’s what made things difficult sometimes—to just be curious about stuff.”And for an artist whose work draws from everything from soul and electronic music to hip-hop, jazz, punk, and East African sounds, such rigidity feels entirely alien. “True artists don’t really see genre,” she continued. “When you’re in the studio, it’s not complicated. You just think, ‘Oh, this sounds good. This sounds nice. Put this here. Do that there.’ There’s no intellectualizing of it.”
Many moons later, the young girl who once abandoned art after being laughed out of a classroom has an acclaimed EP to her name, Panther in Mode, a memorable COLORS performance, runway appearances for the likes of DKNY, and a growing reputation as one of the most compelling multidisciplinary artists operating today. On June 26, she will add another milestone to that list with the release of her long-awaited debut album, ZERO.If Alewya’s story proves anything, it is that the things we are most drawn to have a habit of finding their way back to us. Whether you call it fate, destiny, or simply following your curiosity, the creative instincts she spent years ignoring eventually revealed themselves impossible to outrun. And if some things are indeed written as she believes, then this chapter was always going to find its way onto the page.Click here to pre-save the album.
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