Mysie cried when she learnt about her grandfather’s past. Until a few years ago, the genre-melding indie-soul singer had been unaware of Israel Magembe’s work. How wonderful it must have been, then, to discover that he is credited with introducing Congolese jazz and blues to Uganda’s music scene in the Fifties. “It was magical,” she says, sitting in her dressing room at London’s Royal Festival Hall, post-soundcheck for her performance supporting Corinne Bailey Rae. “I cried because it was the final affirmation that this is what I was meant to be doing. This is the legacy.”
The 26-year-old has inherited her grandfather’s knack for weaving together a panoply of international influences. Born Lizbet Sempa, in south London, Mysie was raised by her parents to the strains of Alicia Keys, Chaka Khan and Sade. In her own work, sultry pop hooks mingle with guitar strums; sun-drenched Latin rhythms flirt with jubilant Afropop. She first released music under her real name. But she soon felt trapped by her industry’s pigeonholing of Black female artists, and started afresh with a moniker borrowed from her middle name, Margaery.
Her breakthrough 2019 single, “Rocking Chair”, a magnificent composition of sombre piano notes and dramatic flurries of violin, put Mysie in the public eye. Then, last year, she received the inaugural Ivor Novello Rising Star Award, which assigned British producer Fraser T Smith (known for his work with Stormzy, Adele, and Dave) to her as a mentor. “We clicked instantaneously,” Mysie recalls.
She’s since signed to Smith’s label, 70Hz, and Smith executive-produced her second EP, 2021’s enigmatic Undertones, along with her forthcoming project, Joyride. On early collaborations such as “In My Mind”, fans will hear echoes of Radiohead, as well as nods to the trembling, devotional hymns of serpentwithfeet. What consistently stands out is Mysie’s voice, which can swoop from a lilting falsetto down to a deep, velvety croon.
Joyride was recorded at Smith’s state-of-the-art studio in Henley-on-Thames, where he encouraged Mysie to dig deep into her feelings about the final throes of a long-term relationship. “I was in complete denial and I really didn’t want to access that subject, because it really hurt – the thought of the relationship ending,” she says. She explored the more impulsive side of her romantic nature in Undertones single “Seven Nights”, in which she sings of flying to Italy to be with her lover. “I always knew this moment was a fantasy/ South of the river’s where I’m supposed to be...”.
It was a tumultuous period in her life. “I was jumping into a relationship because that was what I really wanted,” she says. “I love love, I love lust, all those feelings. It’s like, ‘I want you to be mine.’” But it’s easy to forget the reality. “You dream about a future with that person, about things that aren’t in front of you,” she agrees. “The ideal. So now I’m really trying to stay here, in the reality of what’s happening now.”
The Joyride EP is a vignette of the relationship over its five-year timeline. It opens on the title track with a rich thrum of bass, as Mysie tries to resist the “fatal affair” she knows lies in wait: “I don’t wanna fall for you/ Unless I can have you.” On “Birthstones”, her tone grows deeper, more serious, over flamenco palmas (hand claps) that she says were inspired by Spanish artist Rosalía. It was written during the early stages of the pandemic, when Mysie’s then partner chose to fly home to be with his family. “It was very hurtful,” she says. “[In the song] I’m saying, ‘I will fight for it... but you’ve got to fight for it with me as well.’”
There’s a heady tension that swirls on “Gin and Juice”, in the Fleetwood Mac-indebted bass riff and luscious twangs of electric guitar. “It’s definitely the naughty song on the EP,” she says with a grin. “It’s about having a wandering eye during a long-term relationship – seeing someone at a party and fancying them. And not even wanting something to happen, just wanting the attention, and the fun of that.”
Although her relationship began before the pandemic, she wonders if lockdowns in the UK prompted others to jump into similar situations. “While I was writing the EP, all my friends’ relationships were imploding,” she says. “It was an intense time.” She’s a classic romantic: “I’m always yearning.” And she learnt a lot from that one serious relationship. “I do know that I would nip something in the bud if I saw certain behaviours,” she says. And after the storm, there’s hope, as she sings on the EP’s closer, “After the Storm”. It was inspired by a lyric from “Me, Myself and I”, Beyoncé’s 2003 single: “There’s something about it that expresses pain...”.
Mysie says she’s reaching the conclusion that we all need to deal with some bad eggs in order to figure out who we want to be with – what we want for ourselves. “I’m still coming to terms with it,” she says. “It’s a journey.”
‘Joyride’ is out on 13 May
