Sonic messages in sonatas

With her long discography, kultur’s protagonist this time is known for her sharpness through her rhymes, acrobatic vocals and also her evocative lyrics. She is always attached to faith, awareness and even fun. From “freedom” to “The lord’s truth in every sonata.” Something that then brought her into her spiritual cosmos, she explained:

“Making people happy, entertaining people, and also motivating people through music with the instruments of God (in our bodies) is something I discovered when I was young. Is it a calling for me? I think so, I believe it.”

She started her musical journey at a very young age. Sense of art’s flows from her parents and ancestors, who were poets from India. She decided to have a career after being inspired by her older brother who had already made music. From Glasgow to her journey into reggae, being involved in collaboration with many fellow Glaswegian musicians such as Mungo’s Hi-Fi became the beginning of her musical manifestation. Now she is a respected singer, rapper and MC. Many media give the label “Raggamuffin Queen” as an identity and appreciation for her. To this end, Soom T humbly answered our questions about how she defines her career with this title:

“There are many more raggamuffins out there who deserve it more than I do. Personally, for me, flattery can be a dangerous thing. But this could be  a moment to thank God who gave all of this”

Social messages and awareness are the motor for Soom T’s repertoire. This goes hand in hand with her activities outside of music. In her youth, she was part of the “Y Network,” a political and youth organisation in Glasgow. She amplifies these two things through reggae and dub, she argues:

“Reggae and dub are the best platforms and vehicles for conveying social awareness”

Reggae-dub-social-awareness and the spiritual journey she walked is a contemplation medium for her to share through militant and influential lyrics of her day-to-day journey. She shared with us that she is currently studying more deeply to find guidance, spiritual ones, through the books of Ellen G White. She added:

“If there is anything I can share with all of my friends here, there and everywhere, those books by Sister Ellen G White are my recommendations.”

 

Sonical Proverbial

After releasing 3 singles since last January, Soom T seems to give a sneak-a peek of how stunning her 5th studio album is. These three upbeat singles are the introduction to the entire Glasgow singer/MC album “Good”

“The first song I worked on was ‘The realm’ and ‘fathers name’s both of which never made the final cut. The one that made it onto Good LP was ‘One real friend’ which I began writing around 8 years ago”

Enthusiastically, she started talking about her new album to us. She tells a lot of things she experienced through the making of an album that she produced herself for her Renegade Masters label. Starting from the solid musical interactions with many wonderful musicians she learnt a lot from the interactions with the lovely production team.

For 54 minutes and 21 seconds, the album “Good” indeed becomes her new presentation. It no longer includes a fiery repertoire such as “Puff Dat Weed” or an efficacious calling through her dance mantra in “Light It”. In this album, Soom T ushers in a diverse organic collective spirit. In the song “World we live in” the result of his collaboration with The Stone Monks and Xavier Waks (which according to Soom T, brings stunning results!) This song is about an anthemic refrain in an optimistic guitar upstroke, the message about collectivity in music is really strong. In this regard she underlines that:

“I believe it (collectivity/collaboration), is a way to develop, there are many things that can be learned from it”

It seems that Soom T has indeed poured out a lot of what she has gained during his 20 years doing concerts, singing and rapping to working for this LP. In this “Good” album, she brings a quite dominant digital-reggae infusion as we can enjoy through the songs “Born free” and “My Struggle” which are the result of her collaboration with Kiko, one of the powerful producers from France. This collaboration brings perfect harmony that goes hand in hand with Soom T’s vocal strength, a solid yet melodious track!

“Right now I really enjoy writing with ideas that come from the elements, structure and chord progressions of the ‘roots, old-school style rockers’ era, as well as Gregory Isaacs and John Holt“

That’s what she added about other wonderful things she experienced in this “Good” LP. In addition, one of Soom T’s powerful move can be also enjoyed through her wise call in “Amazing Graces.” An optimism in a fancy and fabulous rhythm section set.

Another highlight of this album is her exploration to bring a touch of swing jazz in “One Real Friend,” a collaboration she did with Alex Dupuis. The track is about a bit of hunky-punky brass who blend nicely with Soom T’s adult and soulful singing style. Next, a charming collaboration with an Italian dub legend who now lives in London, Gaudi. A reunion for the two of them after collaborating in 2016.

“Yes, working with many of the above musicians is the highlight of this album. Working with Gaudi is also another thing. Nice experience, we did a live dub production! in London”

Produced by Soom T herself, and also backed by the support from Xavier Waks (31DB studio, Paris) and Simon Capony (Basalte Studios) as mixing and mastering engineers, as well as a touch of French 3D artist, Nikita. About this production team, Soom T explained:

“It took about 4 months for mixing, about a month for mastering by Xavier and Simon, also about a month for artwork from initial discussions and concepts from Nikita. Xavier & Simon did finish to the high standard you can now enjoy, and Nikita delivered a piece of art that exceeded our expectations”

Soom T also underlined the role of X-Ray Production in distributing the album, one of which was by curating the singles released as a curtain raiser for her 5th full album. And also distributed it through various digital music channels, as well as in a physical format that is already available via pre-order here.
To end our video call session with Soom T, she shared that the album, “Good” is:

“About the ray of hope in the darkness around us, ‘Good’ is good life and good living, good food, good acts, good prayers, good faith and good belief, about goodness behind the neglected realities, about a call to do good around us”

(Sam)