GET 2 KNOW: SAY SHE SHE

Artist/band name:

Say She She – Piya Malik, Sabrina Cunningham & Nya Parker Gazelle 

Location:

NYC/London

How would you describe your sound?

Discodelic soul 

 Could you tell us a bit about when and how you got started?

PM: Say She She got started in a classic New York tale of friends finding each other in the energy of the city. Sabrina and I lived downtown directly above and below each other and would hear each other singing through the floorboards of our Lower East Side old tenement apartment building.  

SC: We knew we had to meet and after a few tongue in cheek impromptu late night writing sessions and years of singing in other people's projects we were ready to start our own band. We wrote nearly 20 songs in three months and started playing out with friends in the city to get the live show going and flushed out a lot of the band songs pretty quickly haha!   

PM: Nya and I were close friends since I moved to the city and met at a rooftop party in Harlem.  We also sang in a couple of other bands together including backgrounds for Chicano Batman and she eventually joined forces with us a couple of years later and the songs, melodies and harmonies started flowing.  

Our first ever show was on Valentine’s day at Barbes in Brooklyn in 2018. Nya wasn’t in the band at that point but she was in the audience supporting us as friends and then like a crazy omen ROBERT LANT WALKED IN and stood right next to Nya in that tiny little club watching us!!!  He was totally there to see the band after us but we felt pretty cool about it anyway haha! 

First music that inspired you all:

PM: I grew up listening to a lot of old Bollywood records in the house from the 50’s and 60’s and endless amounts of Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar, Mukes… That definitely allowed me to connect with my roots and the freedom to sing in a different way to what was considered “cool” at school, where I sometimes veered towards a contrived imitation of a voice that really didn't belong to me. But also — we played endless amounts of Jazz in the house too — from Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Mingus, to Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn and Billie Holiday — and my brother and I would learn all the old jazz standards and perform them for the family with me singing and and him accompanying me on the piano.

NB: The moments I most remember are the road trips my mom and I used to take. My mom would turn to her radio station, or play her tapes and CDs, exposing me to artists, such as Aretha Franklin (her favorite), Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Teddy Pendergrass, The Four Tops, Patsy Cline, Hall & Oates, DeBarge, The Pointer Sisters, Chaka Khan, Minnie Riperton, Phyllis Hyman, Roberta Flack... She'd put on her oldies and become a different person — singing, dancing, and carrying on in her seat! I think it was in those moments that I came to understand the power of music and its ability to make people feel good. On my own, I'd also listen to artists, such as Whitney, Mariah, Janet, Prince, Sade, Deniece Williams, Atlantic Starr... 

SC: My initial exposure to music was via my parents and the records that they’d play at home growing up. The earliest and most impactful artists that I can remember listening to were The Beatles, Sade, Carole King, and Linda Ronstadt, to name a few. As my sister and I got a little older and had more responsibilities as kids (like cleaning the kitchen after dinner) we’d blast tunes by Madonna and Whitney and make up full dance routines as part of our cleaning ritual. There was a big sliding glass door near the kitchen sink that served as our mirror (!) That’s definitely where my love for dance and music developed. 

What are some tracks from the past year that you all find yourself returning to?

SAULT – all of the SAULT albums have been included in the rotation repeatedly over the last couple years. Collectively we love this project and was definitely the soundtrack to some of the direct action and protest momentum in New York City over the pandemic. would be dope to collab with Inflo one day.  We also loved his latest instrumental release – super cinematic and shows he isn’t being confined to one genre and willing to think and create outside the box. 

Eddie Chacon “Pleasure, Joy and Happiness”  the title track and pretty much all the tracks off that record produced by John Carroll Kirby - we had the pleasure of opening for Eddie and John last year at LPR in NYC and hearing it live is just as mesmerizing as the recording. 

We all love Rotary Connection “Turn Me On” and “Lady Lane” - digging into their catalog from the late 60s and 70s you cant help but be transported through the plethora of sounds and the psychedelic screams of Minnie Riperton sprinkled throughout their music.

Surprise Chef “All News is Good News” and “Deadlines” - We’ve all been traveling in Europe for the last month and have really enjoyed the soothing instrumentals of Surprise Chef on trains and planes:) Then we got to hang with them at Giles Peterson’s We Out Here Festival.  Turns out the humans behind the tracks are just as chill and dope! 

The one tune you’ve got on repeat right now is…?

We picked three we listened to on repeat together… since there are three of us and we thought we would be a bit cheeky and push it! 

Gabriels ‘Love and Hate in a Different Time’

Jalen Ngonda's ‘Just Like You Used To’

Thee Sacred Souls ‘Will I See You Again?’

Given the times we’re currently in, what keeps you all inspired and motivated?

SC: Visiting new art exhibitions and meeting visual artists has been a major source of inspiration. We are so lucky to live in NYC and I often hit up the galleries in Chelsea or LES on weekends when we’re not in the studio.  

I spent some time in Berlin before our debut London show a couple weeks ago and was fortunate enough to catch an incredible show at Haus der Kulturen der Welt called “No Master Territories”  which has stayed with me since. I still feel so inspired by the work of all the feminist filmmakers in this show and generally love to dive into cinema and other creative mediums for inspiration. 

PM: I'm inspired by the work that many of the women campaigners around the world are doing.  I sit on the board of Crossing Point Arts - an organisation that helps deliver programs to survivors of human trafficking and the work that the teaching artists are doing on the ground at grassroots level is so incredible to me. They continue to fight despite limited resources and support - to make other women’s lives better and that definitely motivates me to keep using my voice in a concerted way to raise awareness about women's rights which are essentially human rights. 

NB: Whenever I hear good music, I'm inspired. Performing and connecting with amazing and receptive audiences definitely gives me what I need to keep going.  

One piece of advice you’d give to budding musicians / creatives:

Be a ‘yes’ person! Don’t say ‘no’ when things become challenging or appear impossible – there is always a way.

Lastly, any new projects you’re currently working on that we can look forward to this year?

Our debut LP Prism is out on 7th October. Following that we are releasing a 45 on Colemine Records and have a surprise feature on Stones Throw. We also are releasing a couple of new music videos for our next single from the album ‘Fortune Teller’ and for our song ‘Trouble’ which we shot in the Hollywood hills at the home of our friend Peter Hastings – the creator of Pinky and The Brain. 

Finally we are excited to be featured as part of the Apogee Series for KCRW which was recorded at Bob Clearmountain’s Studio in Santa Monica.  We hope people log online and check it out!  We will be publishing it on our YouTube channel in October the same week that the LP drops!