"We Did The Damn Thing": A Conversation with NAYA ALI

Interview by Imani Dominique Busby

Photography by Cherif Tall and Jean-Francois Sauvé

In this insightful conversation, Naya Ali opens up about her journey as an artist and her latest album We Did The Damn Thing. The interview delves into her creative process, influences, and the personal significance behind her work. Naya reflects on the power of collective achievement, the importance of embracing her roots, and how her growth as a musician has led to greater ownership over her art. This open conversation is a celebration of community and a reminder to live in the present.

Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself, and why you started making music?

I was born in Ethiopia. I moved to Montreal when I was two, so I grew up in Montreal. I started doing poetry as a teen. And I dabbled a little bit in the early hip-hop stuff, going to community shows, a lot of those. But I never thought I could make a living off of music. I focused on my studies - the usual pressures of an immigrant child.

For sure. What did you study?

I studied Public Policy. I also studied Public Relations.

Oh, that's awesome. That's very cool. How do you feel about making the jump and the transition to music ?

Yeah. I mean, how do I feel? It feels good. It feels good to... Well, I made the decision six years ago, almost. It was mostly a decision to have ownership over my life and where it's going. Just having ownership of what I create as well because I felt... Because I was working in marketing, too, and I felt like all my ideas and passion were just getting used, and I didn't see anything for it.
Diving into music was mostly like, I want to invest in myself and my ideas and have ownership over my life and let's see where this goes. I'm still in a state of, “Hey, let's still see where it is going.” I'm happy to wake up and be able to create every day.

That's beautiful. It's an incredible story. “We Did the Damn Thing” has been described as a celebration of collective achievements. Can you tell us more about what that message means to you and what you hope people take away from this album?

It encompasses a lot of things. I think it's a celebration of how far we've come as a culture, as a people. A lot of the things that unify us, the sweat that trickled on our braids for generations, from Ethiopia to Jamaica. There's that unity that the strides that we make are shared. I think it's just a celebration and a recognition of that, of giving flowers to those that came before us that allow us to do what we do.

It's kind of like a cocky way to be like, “Yeah, we did the damn thing. Let's give each other our flowers. Let's take that moment to recognize.” But it also encompasses the “I”. So the we is also included.

I'm also talking to myself. I found myself getting blinded by ambition for the last couple of years. It's always onto the next thing. Where it's like, a few years ago, the position that I'm in or the things that I'm doing were prayers. You know what I mean? Not the reality. So it's like, I can't lose sight of the blessings that I also have and to also give myself grace, to also give myself flowers.

It's also roots, cultures, being a child of an immigrant mother in Canada and Quebec, and what that means and the sacrifices she made for me to be doing what I'm doing, too. “We did the Damn Thing” is very wide net, but I think there's a lot of shared experiences within that.

Oh, that's beautiful- it's very empowering. I feel like when you hear that phrase, it makes you reflect on yourself or on your community. So thank you for everything that you shared.

What was your creative process for this project, and how did it differ from your past work?

My creative process for this record. It’s pretty much the same as the last record, but with an evolution, I'd say. More confidence into having more implication production-wise. So I did a lot of, not necessarily production with the instruments or the programs, but more like, I call it a Rick Rubin-style production, where you have the overarching idea and direction, and you're putting the pieces of the puzzle together, as well as saying, “Hey, this sounds like this needs a live violin. How is that going to sound like?”

I also led a small choir for the first time. So on the record, it's like there’s a small choir, and I led that for the first time. I've never done that before, but I felt like I could. So I tried that. And I think with this album, I tried a lot of things that excited me. I always wanted to work with vocalists. Let's try it. How does that sound? And I don't think there was any inhibition with this album.

In the process of working with the choir, was there anything that you learned organizing and coordinating that group?

Definitely. Well, it was my first time. I definitely learned a lot of things and just even melodies and how we want to stack them or what's going to Should we have them come here? What is that going to sound like? Just the work of vocal production, basically.

This album features a wide range of influences, from punk and trap to gospel and afro beats. How did your approach blending these different genres, and when did you decide to pull from so many different influences?

I think it goes back to, let's have fun. Let's try these things. I was listening to a lot of Afrobeats before I was making the album or even during. It was a vibe that I had that I was in, but it was also what that would sound like if I incorporated that sound. I'm not trying to, “Hey, this is the sound of now. Let me see if I can hop on that.” It still has to stay within my universe. But there's an openness to, “Hey, let's try this. Also, with this album, I never want to create the same music over and over again. How do I make a better album?”

It's been mentioned that you embraced your versatility as an artist on this album, specifically through singing instead of rapping on life. What was that for you, that experience? Do you think it'll change how you approach the way that you make music going forward?

Well, I always like to have melodies and sing. “Life” is not the first record that I sing on. But I think there's something with “Life”, the catchiness and the messaging and how it connected with people. There's something there and I'm definitely wanting to explore that avenue because for me, of course, the foundation is rap, but I'm a hip hop artist. It's way more than just bars and just rapping because I think a lot of people can rap and a lot of people have bars, but the messaging for me is really important, especially with this record. “We did the Damn Thing” , like “Turning Tables”. The messaging life is about how life can be very short and unpredictable. A record like “Life”, I'm just like, again, “My mom is getting older. I'm just chasing being focused on music and all this. But life is here. Life doesn't wait for your goals- It's right here.”

You've chosen to collaborate with other artists on this album. What do these collaborations and collaborators mean to you, and how did they help shape the final sound of the album or the songs that they're on?

Definitely. It was very calculated to have them. It was thought through. I love to collaborate with artists, but I feel like it has to be organic. It's not like, “Hey, I want you on my record. Send me your verse.” I don't feel like, that’s not really creating something together. You know what I mean? So Kim Richardson, which is one of the artists, is the opener of the album. She's been in the game for, I think, 20 plus years. She's phenomenal vocalist and Black Woman, in Montreal. I feel like she's been on a lot of different music from people and they have our shows and stuff. But I don't feel like we hear her name enough. I feel like we need to give her more flowers. So that was one of my goals. I was just like, “Hey, Kim, you want to just come by to the studio? I have an idea, but do you vibe with this?” And she's like, She's so sweet. She's like, “Yeah, absolutely.”

I think it's such a powerful way to start the album, “Break Down the walls of Jericho” with her voice to really feel the breaking of walls. Dominique Fils-Aimé, which is another vocalist from Montreal, the Black woman jazz singer. I'm having her close the album. But again, it's just giving her flowers and it making sense within the messaging and within the album.
She came to the studio, “I'm like, Hey, I want to just play you my demos.” She resonated with the last song. It's not like a regular song, it’s literally like an experimental outro. She resonated with that. In her lyrics, she wrote “Freedom Creepin”. I loved it so much that I put it as a title of the song because it's like that feeling where it's like, you don't realize you've healed until something happens and it doesn't bother you as much. Or certain things in your life don't bother you as much anymore.
And freedom just creeped up on you.

In your artist bio, you mentioned that perfection isn't necessarily your end goal. How does that mindset shape your approach to making music and/or living your life?

Yeah. Well, to start with music, I think it's, again, “Let’s try things, let's see what sticks.” I think there's a lot of ego in perfection. When we're creating together music, I don't want ego. My team, we don't have ego. We're just like, “Hey, what sounds right? What's best for the record? What makes sense sonically?” Where are we're trying to go with this?” Ego is intertwined of perfection. It's always, let's try and make it better because I believe I can make it better, but it's never ending. It's a cycle. You can end up even ruining the work.

That is true. I guess finding that moment where you know that, Okay, this is good, because you can just be editing , editing, endlessly, endlessly, endlessly.

Absolutely. But it's also taking space that allows you to have a perspective over it. Because for example, “Freedom Creeping”, that was one of the longest records for me and my team to put together sonically. It just felt like something was missing. I was like, “Oh, let's try this. Oh my God, that's not sounding right.” But we just did it over and over again where it's like, you lose sight. I don't even hear it anymore. So I had to take a space and like, “Hey, I'll come back to this in a month or something.” Just taking that space gives you perspective and cleanses your ears. Even life-wise, taking space and perspective can allow you to see things more clearly. Chasing perfection is impossible, so you're just chasing the impossible. That just leaves room for disappointment and self doubt. No one's perfect.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a good way to live life and approach things for sure.

But I think there's a lot of letting go. There's I think balance is a constant thing. It's not like you find balance and you're like, Okay, I'm good. It's a constant thing.

It's like you evolve as a person. You're wants and needs out of life and your standards for things are going to shift. Then you're always just trying to get back to that place of, "Okay, I feel home. I feel good. I feel safe. "

Exactly. What makes you feel good? What makes you feel home? It's just remembering those things, too.

You are celebrating your album’s release with shows in Montreal, Quebec City, and Gatineau. What are you most looking forward to in terms of performing the new songs live for your fans?

Oh, yeah. I'm excited to share the album in a live setting because for me, it's one thing to listen to the album in your car, in your headset. But it's another thing also to feel that music come to life on stage. I have a live band, musicians. Because we also created the album with the live shows in mind. There's a lot of live instruments within it, there’s guitar, live guitar, violin. There's drums and stuff like that. When I go to a show, I don't want to hear the same. I don't want to hear what I hear on the album. It's more like creating an experience. The album is about community culture, and one of our spaces of community and culture is the hair shop and barbershop. Where it's like community culture and just a space of conversation.

I wish I could come. That sounds so cool.

Hopefully, we could bring in Toronto, actually.

I'll be there.

BACK

Your cart is empty

Your cart

Estimated total