Kelela on Boundaries, Collaboration, and Her Latest Album, ‘New Avatar‘

You wrote “outta time” with A.K. Paul 10 years ago. What was it like to hold onto that song for that long?

I would say that it feels stamina-building. I feel like my patience is strong.  I just feel a lot more comfortable about taking my time. And there is a really good time for something.  I love that I waited till now because it does feel like the right record for it to live on, and it also feels like the right time.  For me as an artist, the groundwork that I have laid up to this point, I think that there’s some way that it’s landing differently than maybe it would’ve landed before.  But then I think the other aspect of that is that people externally are more primed for that song as well in certain ways.

That song references some things that happened a long, long time ago.  It’s very true that there is so much more music right now that feels like it wants to go there, maybe more than it did 10 years ago.

In addition to A.K. Paul, you have some fun features on this album. I was thrilled to see you collaborate with PinkPantheress again, and it was great to see Fousheé. What was it like working together?

With PinkPantheress and Fousheé, I’m trying to choose people I respect and trust as a starting point—their lens, their vision for themselves, their scope. I trust their taste.  I played Fousheé a couple other songs, more guitar-forward songs. And I was thinking, like, maybe she would want this. And I also played her the song that she’s on, which is more dance-y. She’s like, “Oh, I wanna get on this.”  And I was like, “Oh, I love that you chose that.” And then she slid in like 20 minutes.

I peeped a sneaky La Chat sample in “idea 1,” which made me curious: Is there any other “ear candy” on the album that you want to share with fans?

The clue is: “You know what?”

What were you listening to in preparation to make the album?

I was revisiting a lot of music that I had listened to in a more formative time for me.  I made a playlist called “White Bag,” because I was like, I’m about to get in my white bag.  And it’s not about all guitar being a white thing, but socially, there’s an implication. There’s just a way that white people also rate you more when you pick up a guitar.  Like Metric, Morning View by Incubus, this band called Buke and Gase , and the Fiery Furnaces that I used to be really obsessed with. Laura Marling was on there. It’s an important playlist. As soon as I told my friends, they were like, “Um, excuse me, Kelela. I’m making my own ‘white bag’ playlist.”

I want to talk about fashion quickly. With this album reflecting a sonic shift, will that also show up in what you’re wearing on stage?