You may remember South London’s Sasha Keable from our #GirlsOnTop cover in July last year. At the time she was fresh off signing a management deal with Tinie Tempah’s Disturbing London, and had contributed her vocals to Disclosure’s Voices and Zinc’s Only For Tonight. It was her first photo shoot, and an introduction of sorts to the scene, and she’s come on a long way since.
Catching up with us to talk about her freshly released Lemongrass and Limeleaves, her second EP, Sasha seems a lot more focused. She has been in the studio crafting her sound and the four tracks on L&L give us an idea of what to expect from her debut album, set to drop early next year, which is the first of five she has signed to release with Polydor.
What caused the transition from the chilled hip-hop vibe of Black Book to the more 80s inspired sound on Lemongrass and Limeleaves?
I was listening to a lot of 80s music, and I think that because I was having quite a bad year in terms of my home life and stuff, it just felt natural for me to do some more upbeat stuff. I think it was quite a nice escape to do some more upbeat, danceable stuff. And also I was listening to a lot of 80s music and it really inspired me to step outside of my comfort zone, because I hadn’t tried anything like that before. I was so used to writing chilled vibes that I felt like I maybe needed to do something different.
Do you usually listen to a lot of 80s music?
I’ve always listened to 80s music, whatever it is to me. That’s Marvin Gaye to Stevie Wonder. Rose Royce was the main person that inspired me to write the majority of the EP in the way that I did. I was in a taxi, and they always have on Magic or Heart, and that Rose Royce tune Love Don’t Live Here Anymore came on. And I was like “Rah! This is such a cool tune.” I knew it from before, and I went home and listened to it loads and I was like, “I need to make something like this.”