Laura Mvula On Why Women In Music Should Support Each Other

Cult English avant-soul artist Laura Mvula has long dreamt of visiting Australia. Now she's headlining Bluesfest 2017 behind an album symbolically entitled The Dreaming Room.

"I remember when I was maybe 16 or 17, my dad took a business trip to Australia," Mvula reminisces. "Nobody in my family had been before. We just waited with baited breath to hear about his adventures. He could not stop going on about how amazing it was when he came back. So since then I've always been like, 'I can't wait to experience it.'" Alas, that tale will have a poignant twist.

Mvula — who's twice performed at Glastonbury — is surely the boldest contemporary act on this year's Bluesfest roster, alongside Gallant. But, having magicked her own genre from gospel, symphonies and pastorals, Mvula is as likely to beguile fans of Jethro Tull as Mary J Blige. The singer, who idolises Nina Simone, has been adopted by the jazz fraternity. Nevertheless, she transcends any classification. Mvula is the most innovative and imaginative British female star since Kate Bush — with Shirley Bassey's vocal prowess.

Mvula is charming and witty. She's an easy interviewee, talking with few prompts — comparable, in fact, to that raconteur supreme Questlove. Her career has been serendipitous. Mvula grew up Laura Douglas in Birmingham — her Caribbean family devoutly Christian and musical (Mvula's siblings are in her band). She sang in church and learnt piano and violin. Mvula eventually studied composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire. She joined choirs, notably her aunt Carol Pemberton's renowned Black Voices. And she fronted a neo-soul outfit, Judyshouse. Mvula encountered her future husband Themba Mvula in college. He encouraged her to create music on a laptop as she gigged miserably as a relief teacher and receptionist. Mvula circulated demos, piquing the interest of Rumer's producer Steve Brown. In 2013, amid much buzz, she debuted on RCA with Sing To The Moon — which, bearing the serene psychedelia of Green Garden, cracked the UK Top 10. Nominated for her first Mercury Prize, Mvula lost to (fellow) post-dubstepper James Blake. However, she found a champion in Prince.

"[Destiny's Child singer] Michelle Williams has probably called me two or three times in a year, just to say, 'I understand'."

Mvula re-recorded Sing To The Moon with The Netherlands' Metropole Orkest at Abbey Road Studios. Between solo projects she consistently collaborated — even liaising with two other Bluesfest draws, Gregory Porter (whom Mvula calls "Uncle Gregory") and Snarky Puppy. She appeared on soundtracks, laying down a spare, piano-led rendition of Little Girl Blue for the John Legend-curated 12 Years A Slave.

In 2016 Mvula aired The Dreaming Room, a lavishly ambitious sequel to Sing To The Moon, assisted by new co-producer Troy Miller. "I realised that I still have that childlike adventurous spirit when it comes to making new music," Mvula says. "There are so many potentials and possibilities that I see in things." She utilised the London Symphony Orchestra and her emerging studio capability for a fuller sound. "Sing To The Moon felt like a really virgin studio experience for me," Mvula explains. "I didn't grow up in studios. I didn't work hard enough to sort myself out with studio equipment like a lot of my friends were doing and recording their own songs. When I did Sing To The Moon, that was new to me... So, when it got to the point where I actually had a full-size orchestra, it was a no-brainer. I just wanted to do all of the things I could possibly think of. And then with The Dreaming Room I wanted to do that, but harder."

Mvula introduced yet other sonic elements — funk, disco and breakbeat. Indeed, she sought to challenge those who would curtail her. "I got frustrated in the end with being put in a box with Sing To The Moon," Mvula divulges. "I remember a fan once said, 'Keep getting your heart broken so that you write these incredible songs.' At the time, I remember thinking, 'Oh gosh, am I just this artist that writes music to make people cry?' While I see value in that, I hope that's not just who I am. So with The Dreaming Room I wanted to widen the spectrum — for me."

Though Mvula considers Sing To The Moon "a song cycle", which she might play on piano, The Dreaming Room reveals more complex arrangements. There are even electric guitars. Coincidentally, Nile Rodgers tweeted Mvula, pleading for a collab — and he added his funky licks to the single Overcome. "It felt like [the guitar] took it into a new place that wasn't so singer/songwriter-y — which I don't have anything against but, as soon as someone goes, 'That's who Laura Mvula is, we've got it,' I get nervous. I wanna go somewhere else."

Surprisingly, the grime MC Wretch 32 brings his urgent street poetry to People - about the African Diaspora, racism and, ultimately, affirmation. Mvula decided that the song needed a male voice. "Now admittedly, at the beginning, I was like, 'Well, this is my chance to approach Idris Elba,'" she says playfully, "'cause I'm obsessed with him — and he unsuccessfully hides from me because I'm obsessed with him!" But Mvula's manager suggested Wretch, one of her closest industry friends. The rapper furnished his part in 36 hours. "He understood the song, he knows me, he understands where I'm at," Mvula observes.

Mvula is continually diversifying. She remade The Delfonics' Ready Or Not Here I Come (Can't Hide From Love) via the Fugees for a House Of Fraser Christmas campaign — huge news in the UK. Mvula's label subsequently repackaged The Dreaming Room — complete with her sublime BBC Live cover of Tame Impala's Same Ol' Mistakes, post-Rihanna. Lately, Mvula has composed music for the Royal Shakespeare Company's Antony & Cleopatra.

Still, Mvula has had her trials. She's disclosed a history of depression, anxiety and panic attacks. This was triggered by her parents' shock separation — Mvula penning the sorrowful Father, Father about the man who related his Antipodean adventures, only to become estranged. Mvula's struggle intensified with growing celebrity. Her own marriage ended amicably in 2015.

Today, musicians are opening up about mental illness — from Lady GaGa to Kid Cudi to Melody Pool. Mvula has received peer support, especially from the US side. "I think British artists are generally more reserved, because we have unfortunately that part of our culture that doesn't permit us to [talk about depression] — it's the age-old 'keep calm and carry on' thing," she says. "Everybody kinda shuts up and gets on with it... [Destiny's Child singer] Michelle Williams has probably called me two or three times in a year, just to say, 'I understand' — 'cause she's been very outspoken about her depression. We've never actually met in the flesh, but she felt so moved by what she'd read and listened of my music... For artists overseas I've definitely noticed a different kind of attitude when it comes to solidarity and coming together and being supportive of one another and just being a listening ear. Eric Benet more recently has been that for me. I think we're getting there. Emeli Sande and I have talked quite a bit. Lianne La Havas. I think as women, as young black women, in music, in our country, that it's important for us and for others that we're seen to be supporting one another and for it to be authentic — which it is."