Artists To Watch: Cosmic R&B Singer/Songwriter HURU
London-based, Jamaican-Kenyan singer HURU is a cosmic force, drawing you in with her positive aura and soothing vocals. Pulling inspiration from the likes of Jhené Aiko, India Arie, Tracy Chapman, Fatoumata Diomara, Thunder Cat and Jill Scott, HURU’s honest, poetic lyrics both challenge and heal. Dubbing her sound as "Cosmic RnB", the singer/songwriter has taken her sound worldwide, collaborating with artists from East and Southern Africa, the United States, South East Asia and Europe.
Since beginning her artist journey during the final year of her songwriting degree, the singer/songwriter has released 3 singles, respectively co-produced by Scott Colcombe, Hurricane Music and Njuguna. Her newest release, entitled ‘Elsewhere’, portrays a “moment of clarity, a feeling of oneness with self and gratitude for the present moment.”
HURU talks to me about the beauty of collaboration, her latest single and her upcoming project.
When did you first get into music?
I probably started getting into music when I was about 8 years old. Both parents were quite musical. My dad was a percussionist and would play African drums. And then my mom was classically trained. She was a violinist for about 12 years and a vocalist as well so that was kind of my early introduction to music. Both my parents are from very different cultures. My mom's a British born Jamaican and my dad's Kenyan so we always had an eclectic mix of music in the household.
When is it that you felt like you wanted to be an artist yourself?
I would say probably when I was about 13. I started playing guitar and that's when I discovered Tracy Chapman. She was like my idol for a very long time. Lyrically, the storytelling and the emotion behind all of her songs just evoke something in me. And so I started writing my own songs. And it was my guitar teacher that was like oh, you should perform. So I did a few gigs at school.
That's when I was like yeah, I want to take this seriously. This is something I thoroughly enjoy, I enjoy connecting with people.
And so what's the first song that you wrote that you were confident to put out into the world?
It was when I connected with Indie Arie. Basically, right now, she's my go to in terms of the person I want to be as an artist. Her lyrics are so empowering spiritually, you know she's just on a whole other level lyrically.
And the message that she portrays in all of her songs really resonates with me. So connecting with her music inspired me to write music in a similar way. I want to write songs that are sharing a positive message, are sharing something that will inspire or motivate. The first song I put out officially was in 2017 and that was ‘Flowers’ and I was working on that song for a while during uni. It was actually a poem I just wrote on my phone.
I had this beat that I was producing and I thought okay cool let me try it and see how it sounds. And then a few months later I was like okay let me debut this as my first release.
You have done lots of collaboration with lots of people around the world which is amazing. Is that something that you intentionally wanted your sound to be, encompassing of a lot of global sounds or is that something that happened randomly?
I would say it was more of a random thing actually. I'm very grateful for all of these opportunities to work with different people because I feel so inspired. I love connecting with people. If someone likes what I do and resonates with it and wants to work with me, that's just amazing an opportunity but it always happens to be a vary random occurrence. It's definitely opened my mind and my perspective towards music and sounds and I think when you go to uni and you study something, you get into a very narrow mind of what something should be like. And so when you collaborate with other musicians, it pushes the boundaries a little bit more.
With your latest single, ‘Elsewhere’, you worked with creatives in Malaysia. What was that experience like and is ‘Elsewhere’ part of an upcoming project?
Malaysia holds a huge place in my heart. The scene in there is flourishing. Being in London, there's a lot of competition but in Malaysia you can be free. There are different initiatives and groups of people who are pushing underground music to the surface and encouraging artists. For me as a musician, going was refreshing. I felt like I had a safe space to explore and just do what I love. Elsewhere I'd actually worked on as part of a project in uni, and I down didn't work on it for some time and then I was gigging around Malayisia and collaborating with a few underground indie artists there. I played it to the crowd and I was like yeah, cool, this would could work well as a single release.
It is part of a bigger project which I plan to release in the spring of next year. The project’s called Euphoria, It'll be my first collection of work. I'm very excited about that and I'm just working on putting all the tracks together and finalizing the project.
What’s this upcoming project going to be about? What are the themes and overall message?
Well the name of it is Euphoria, and the whole idea behind that was based on the idea of darkness and light and how for me personally the existence of both of those in harmony creates a euphoric moment. Spiritually, I'm a Nichiren Buddhist and so a lot of my songs have that kind of spiritual perspective. All the songs center around this idea of darkness and light.
Cool, I'm excited for it to come out.
And so if you were to sum yourself up as an artist, if someone was to ask you who is Huru and what does your music stand for, what would you say?
I would say that Huru is a cosmic being, we’re all cosmic beings we transcend this earth and this universe and I would say my music is transcendent, it's progressive and I want to be able to allow people the opportunity to express themselves and feel confident in themselves and empowered.
Where do you want to be like in five years?
I would love to be part of a collective. To just meet like-minded people that have the same vision and to have a group people that can work on projects together and each have our own individual thing going on but, you know, to have that camaraderie. After releasing my project next year, I’d like to have more projects lined up and I’d like to be able to tour. And to be back in Kenya in general, and be a part of the scene there.
What are your dream collaborations? Firstly with an artist from Africa and then globally.
Globally would be Oshun and in Africa. . .that’s hard because there are lots of people that I’d love to work with but I love Karun. It would be amazing to work with her. Also Muthoni the Drummer Queen and Ciano.
Follow HURU on:
Check out more of her music here: