Interview: What's Up With Selah Sue?

About a month ago I blogged about a girl from Belgium named Selah Sue who many referred to as the ‘white girl who rhymes like a Jamaican’. Since then I’ve really begin to wonder about who this girl is; why is she deeply into reggae and hip hop and how is it that with such a dope voice is she’s only blowing up overseas.

Whether you’re feeling her music or not is simply a matter of opinion and of course comparisons to Nneka and Lauryn Hill are gonna come often - but  you can’t deny the fact that her voice is  ear catching. Her recent performance of Bill Withers’ ‘Aint No Sunshine’ at a Haiti relief benefit was (in my opinion) superbly excellent. That raspy/soulful voice just doesn’t seem like it would be coming out of her.

Although barley 21 and somewhat of a newbie to the game, Selah has quite an impressive resume: besides cleverly utilizing the tools available  on the internet and social networking sites to get her music out ,  she’s also provided lead vocals for indie electronica band Addicted Kru Sound ( Leuven, Belgium) and has performed live alongside established artists like Moby and Simply Red. If you peep her on Youtube you will notice that she has performed numerous times on Belgium television - at times in front of substantially large audiences.

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to ask Selah a few of the burning questions I’ve been wondering since hearing her music. Who is Selah Sue and what can we expect from her in 2010?:

YTravillian: Tell us what the music scene is like in Belgium and how this impacts your style of music today?

Selah Sue: There are a lot of bands -  good bands in Belgium.. But we also still always have the real commercial artists, and I think it’s the same in every county.  They still have the biggest market. In my environment Dubstep is really big now. Beside SelahSue I sing in a live dubstep/drum n bass group called Addicted Kru Sound. I love it, and at the moment I listen to it the most. My influences of soul are certainly Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu, some ragga artists like Damian Marley, some hiphop, electronic music. I love it all

YTravillian: Who are some of your musical influences?

Selah Sue: Influences: Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, Nneka, Meshel Ndegeocello, The Fugees,...

YTravillian: Explain why you decided to call your album Black Part Love ?

Selah Sue: It’s not an album, it’s a little EP I sold after the shows. But never in stores or anything. It’s just a little 'preview' of the album. But for me, the album is gonna be three times better. I took my time to think about how I wanted it to sound. ‘Black Part Love’ is also a song of mine. It means love your weak parts, your black parts. It's actually the message of my album. Almost every song is about self acceptance

YTravillian: When can your fans expect to hear some new music from you?

Selah Sue: Yeah I'm busy recording my first album now so... in this year it will be there!

YTravillian: What kind of sounds can we expect to hear from Selah Sue off of this new album?

Selah Sue: Mmmm… my album is gonna be a mixture of many styles; Soul, Hip Hop, Dubstep, Ragga.

YTravillian: Do you have any plans to tour in the US sometime this year?

Selah Sue: No idea. We haven’t even decided on a date to drop the album.. So actually I don’t know because I’m not my own booker.

Check out Selah's music at www.myspace.com/selahsuemusic

Selah Sue w/ Addicted Kru Sounds

Selah Sue Live 2008