For Corinne, she just happened to be driven to that song and then after she recorded it, I was like “wow”, but it still needed more. But it’s also about who wants to work with you. Sometimes you’re emotionally attached to beats.
I just had a song with DRAM release that I made five years ago, and he just put Summer Walker on it. Finding the right artist can also take a little time. Beautifully put.Īs a producer, creating the beat is only half of the process. You are all of the things and you are capable of overcoming those things”. So, you see an insurmountable object like a mountain but it’s also seeing yourself as that mountain. You are red-riding hood, the woodcutter, and the wolf. “At the time, I was deep into the union of philosophy. While Smoko created the canvas, Rae paints the connection between oneself and nature. “You Are” is the personification of the surrealness of nature for the artist. “It’s such a creative place and an important Black city in terms of history and the movement of people through Chicago”, she explained. Finding musical solace in the creativity and are that oozes out of Chicago, she found the perfect atmosphere to lay everything on the track. “It reminds me of the Isley Brothers and their use of distorted guitar riffs”, she continues. Her passion for Black music that intersects with psychedelics and rock brings another connection to “You Are” for the singer/songwriter. There is something about the distorted guitar that late 60s, early 70s type of feel”, she describes the genre-bending production. “When I met with Smoko, we had plenty of ideas that we wanted to work on, but this song really stood out and I knew that I wanted to write for this one. The recluse artist has stepped in and out of the shadows for more than a decade, with her last musical appearance dating back to 2019. There’s something special about a song that can bring Corinne Bailey Rae out of hiding. Super excited to collab with a childhood fav, UMI didn’t hesitate to hop on the song with Rae.
Although Rae penned a few verses for the song, it was still missing something – UMI. Raeactually came into town a month later and I played it for her”, he says. We didn’t really know that it would be “You Are”, I just knew it was going to be special. Creating the beat for “You Are” alongside Daniel Caesar two years ago, it would take him a few more months to find the perfect artists for the song. Smoko Ono believes in quality over quantity. To celebrate his latest single, Smoko and Rae teamed up to dish about the new single. The laidback R&B cut features electric guitar riffs performed by Canadian singer, Daniel Caesar, and moody instrumentation, creating the perfect canvas for Rae and UMI to float over. Gearing up for his late-summer album, Smoko Ono has brought out Corinne Bailey Rae and LA-based neo-soul artist, UMI for his new single “You Are”. Outside of his hometown, he’s collaborated with YBN Cordae, Denzel Curry, Meg Thee Stallion, and many more. The Chicago native is responsible for music from some of the Windy City’s notable artists including Chance the Rapper, Vic Mensa, and Joey Purp. "Closer" recalls Earth, Wind & Fire with its opening riff, while the bouncy "Paris Nights, New York Mornings" is a standout.If you’ve never listened to a Smoko Ono track, you may want to reconsider. Most of what you'll hear is fully fleshed-out music, with big string arrangements that bring to mind an Al Green record. Rae wrote all the songs and reunited with the same production team that so successfully crafted her debut.
The opening track, "Are You Here," includes a tribute to Jason Rae: "He's a real live wire, he's the best of his kind he'll kiss you and make you feel 16." It's a solid opening track, and it serves to liberate her for the rest of The Sea, which plays like an honest singer-songwriter record, full of hooks and soulful production. You might expect the new songs to be sad, but they're not they just run a little deeper than the ones on her debut. Two years of mourning later, Corinne Bailey Rae has released a new album called The Sea - available for streaming in its entirety here until its release on Jan. Success offers no guarantees, though, and the next time she was in the news, it was because of her musician husband Jason Rae's accidental death. charts with "Put Your Records On," and suddenly she was everywhere. Four years ago, glamorous neo-soul singer Corinne Bailey Rae broke through from the U.K.