Q&A: China Bowls Bares Her Soul in Sophomore EP ‘First Light’
RE-EMERGING AFTER A THREE YEAR HIATUS — alternative soul singer-songwriter China Bowls wants to fully open herself up to her audience with the release of her latest EP, First Light. Initially making waves with a playful voice, poetic lyricism, and a rich sound influenced by the likes of Lianne La Havas and Kae Tempest, China made her mark as a burgeoning face representing Bristol’s music scene. Following the release of her debut EP, Talk, on Saffron Records, she gave performances at Love Supreme Festival and The Jazz Cafe alongside contemporaries such as Oscar Jerome, Yazmin Lacey, and Ishmael Ensemble. However, like many others, the hardships of the COVID-19 pandemic altered her trajectory.
Faced with moments of solitude and an absence of the collaborations prevalent in her early career, with First Light, China breathes new life into her artistry with a stronger sense of intimacy. She braces herself for a path with introspection not previously felt, remarking, “I was thinking about what I want to say as a musician more holistically and pulling the things I care about into my writing more consciously than I have done before. I think this was after having so much time to reflect.”
Hopping into the studio with a reclaimed independence as an artist, China is set on introducing a truer version of herself in her new music. Collaborating with Upcycled Sounds as her producers, the new EP takes listeners into a conversational ride through narratives reflecting her deepest thoughts. Tackling issues such as female sexuality and gaslighting in “Holy” and the self-titled track, today’s version of China Bowls finds comfort in confronting the ugly truths in life.
Upon the release of First Light, Luna sat down with China Bowls to discuss her personal evolution, development of the new EP, and future musical goals. Read the interview below.
LUNA: It’s great to talk to you! How does it feel to open 2023 with such a personal project, First Light?
CHINA: Great to talk to you too! Overall, it just feels good to be sharing music again, especially something that feels very real. I still feel connected to the songs, even though they were written a while ago now. It can definitely feel daunting when I get asked to talk about them — that’s where I feel more aware of how personal they are. When writing them, you really have the time to craft the words and curate how you’re sharing anything personal; plus, your words are so supported by the music [that] it feels safe. I find that when I am explaining where a song came from it can feel more vulnerable somehow, as it’s like re-exploring the place that the song was written, which has also been an interesting way to start the year, looking back at those feelings from a while ago now.
LUNA: What are the biggest changes you’re proud of as an artist and as a person during your hiatus to fuel your newest work?
CHINA: I feel proud to have seen this project through and got the songs out into the world. I have to remind myself to do that alot, rather than just [being like,] “On to the next thing!” I definitely came back to songwriting in a more lyrically-driven way during the pandemic, which felt like coming back to my roots and was a change from how I had been writing before. I feel proud to have made something that feels more in tune with who I am now than anything I’ve put out before. I found it challenging to try and write about bigger subjects but also wanted to talk about the kinds of things I speak to my friends about all the time, and [I] was thinking about a lot [while] writing.
LUNA: Going back to the early days of the pandemic, how hard was it to keep your sense of confidence when making music by yourself?
CHINA: Oh my gosh, so hard. For the first six months all I really did was think — I felt very disconnected from music, but then as time passed I felt so grateful to have a form of expression in writing and an outlet for my feelings. As we all know, there was so much to process and so much space for introspection, so I felt lucky to have somewhere to put all those feelings.
Being able to work with other people again has been a big step in getting my confidence back after such a long time writing and working alone. I feel like I have been re-learning my role within different musical relationships and how to communicate what I think or how I want things to sound, which also changes depending on who you are working with.
LUNA: Working with Upcycled Sounds, was it easy to maintain your independence as a musician while collaborating again?
CHINA: It definitely always takes me a little while when working with anyone new to feel comfortable enough to say what I think, even if I really know it. Going into working with Jakes and Niko (Upcycled Sounds) I knew that they were great, as my good friend feeo had recommended them very highly. In the early stages, we were all getting to know each other and learning how to communicate with each other, whereas by the end of the process we were just friends, which makes it all feel a bit easier and means you sometimes get to the place where your ideas meet a bit faster.
It’s a fine balance when you’re working with others — you don’t want to be so steadfast in your idea of how something needs to be that you don’t allow space for anyone else's creativity, but you also want to remain true to the vision you had, and there is definitely that negotiation. There’s so many options when making a song about which path to take, but they are both very open to the fact that we might try something and then have to go back down another route, which always makes it feel easier and less pressured.
LUNA: I noticed that the first track, “Night Owl,” is dreamy, yet it contrasts with your experiences with insomnia. How has insomnia shaped your creative direction?
CHINA: Because it was more a phase of insomnia rather than something I have always experienced, I don’t know if it has shaped my creative direction in a general sense. When I couldn't sleep, it felt like a moment of suddenly being able to relate to this thing [that] a lot of my close friends experience. I feel like the dreaminess of the track could also be seen as that delirium you get when you aren’t sleeping, the feeling of not being able to distinguish between day and night. I think I was probably a bit less critical of ideas as they came out when writing this song because of the tiredness, so in that way insomnia informed the song by allowing it to be written in a less judgemental way because I didn’t have the capacity to judge it.
LUNA: I love that the track “Holy” has a relaxed vibe while also feeling uplifting! With that song, how important is it to emphasize the feeling of freedom in regard to sexuality during today’s age, when women are starting to share their perspectives on self-empowerment even more through social media?
CHINA: I definitely wanted it to feel uplifting and communicate freedom rather than just doom and gloom. When I was writing the lyrics I was trying to highlight the ridiculousness and contradiction in some of the ways women are made to feel about their sexuality, so I’m really glad that’s how you heard it. I was thinking about how all those damning voices were really loud and insidious when I was young, and how heavy that was even if I wasn’t aware of it at the time.
Today it feels like there are so many more open conversations around sex and sexuality happening, so I’d hope that it feels at least mildly different for anyone growing up now (I’m coming at this from the perspective of growing up in England and can’t speak to elsewhere) but obviously it’s not like the problem is fixed or there isn’t a lot more change that needs to happen. I think for those conversations to happen people do need to feel free of shame, and to do that we need to be able to understand where that shame comes from, so that was the message that I ultimately wanted the song to have.
LUNA: On First Light, did you have to dig deeper to a newer level of reflection you haven’t experienced before when speaking on the issues of relationship dysfunction? Almost as if you’re fully detaching from yourself when writing the song.
CHINA: Songwriting has always been a way of processing things for me, and often when the song relates to something that I’ve recently been going through, the words are easier to access because your brain is already turning over these thoughts all the time. The best way I can describe it is as a release to say them out loud — that’s how this song felt when I first wrote it. It did remain unfinished for a while, so coming back to finish the lyrics I had to try and get back into the headspace I wrote it from and remember the feeling in order to access something that felt truthful, which feels ironic given the song is all about revisiting memories of something now past.
LUNA: After First Light, where do you want to go next musically?
CHINA: I just want to keep writing and making things. I have a lot of demos of songs I’ve written in the last two years that I want to record, some that will feel closer to this EP sound-wise and some that I think would be cool to explore recording in a more stripped-back way, as that’s usually how I write these days. I also have a concept for a more narrative album that I am really excited about.
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