Jamila Woods Photo: Photo Credit: Elizabeth De La Piedra
Jamila Woods is a soul singer, songwriter and poet from Chicago who has collaborated with Chance the Rapper, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
Her inventive and deeply personal, new album Water Made Us is hard to fit into a box. Spanning from R & B, to dream pop, folk and spoken word. Jamila Woods uses her literary and musical heroes as inspiration.
The title Water Made Us was inspired by a quote from the late black American novelist Toni Morrison. Wood’s second album Legacy Legacy was an ode to famous black figures like Earth Kitt, James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston.
“When I think about my three solo albums I really think about myself as writing about love in different modes and different contexts .Self love, love of community and love of history. I think on Legacy it was a lot about writing through literary and musical heroes. Zora has so many quotes about her multitudes. Legacy really built me up to be vulnerable in a different way for Water Made Us” Jamila Wood’s new song Tiny Garden acts as a beautiful descriptor for the kind of person that quietly nurtures another in a relationship.
“The way I express my love was quieter and smaller ....It's nice to have a language to express that”.
The album explores spoken word poetry blending Jamila Wood's musical and poetic interests very closely. Particularly with songs like Bugs and then Let the Cards Fall. Which are a series of voice notes exploring whether or not to stay in a relationship if it's not working. Here’s Jamila Wood’s speaking to Maggie Tweedie about her new music, love of Chicago and gospel singing.
Jamila Woods: Water Made Us Album Art Photo: Supplied
