A Glimpse Into the Electro-Soul of Geneva

Hamilton is a hard working, blue-collar town, and it's also the birthplace of songstress Geneva. She grew up in the steel city, before eventually taking her talents to Vancouver and then Toronto, where she currently resides. Far from ordinary, her personal style and musical guides are as diverse and eclectic as Don Cherry’s wardrobe. Her influences are far-flung, ranging from Bill Withers’ soulful vocals, to the late great Whitney Houston, to superstar producer Timbaland, and everything in between.

From her humble beginnings as a singer in a choir at the age of 8, she is onto major strides as a vocalist in Toronto. On her mixtape, LoveSick, she collaborated with the likes of Moka Only and Chin Injeti. With her new well-received single “Got a Man”, she continues to work with other artists, including rapper DL Incognito on the track “Mysterious Ways.” Geneva describes her current sound as “electro-soul” — her music blends different genres, with a strong focus on neo-R&B and soul. Geneva continues to evolve as an artist, as she carves a niche for herself in the fickle musical landscape of Canada, where it’s hard to earn a living. We spoke to Geneva when she was at her apartment in Toronto about musical influences, electro-soul and the pitfalls of being a music artist in Canada.

Noisey: When did you first start making music?
Geneva: Well, I was actually in the Hamilton Children’s Choir, when I was eight. And before that, I probably started taking piano when I was five or six. None of my family played music or anything, so I don’t really know why they even decided to put me in piano, but they did.

Which genres did you gravitate towards the most while you were growing up?
My dad always had the radio station K-Lite FM on. They played yesterday’s hits and today’s classics. Kind of almost like adult contemporary, but Whitney Houston fell into that category. They would play kind of like soul artists and stuff too, cause it’s kind of considered easy listening for adults. You know what I mean? I ended up hearing that a lot growing up, and then when I actually started developing an interest in music, probably around middle school, and in a more serious way, like actually buying it, and looking for things. Initially I was into indie music, so bands like Tripping Daisy, Echobelly, Salt. Interestingly enough, the lead singer from Salt ended up going on to be, what was the group she was in? She ended up making electronic music later on, but she started off in this really dope band called Salt. And I also happened to get the Kids soundtrack, in grade seven. And I also got Trainspotting soundtrack. Those were really formative for me, and Hackers. So I guess I kind of almost got exposed to electronic music from those films and soundtracks. It sounds kind of silly now, but when you’re in grade seven how are you gonna hear techno music, you know? I guess I kind of found out about this whole subculture, and by grade eight I knew I wanted to go to a rave, and by grade nine I made it happen. I got really into electronic music, obviously once I started going to parties.

Which artists heavily influence the music you currently make?
Well, to be honest, I’m just such a fan of Bill Withers. My worst fear is that he’s gonna pass away before I ever have the opportunity to see him live. That almost brought tears to my eyes. I just love him, I love that his music is so simple, and yet so profound. Writing lyrics is such an art form, and sometimes with pop music it’s really easy to forget that. There’s such poetry behind good song writing, and he really embodies that for me. And I also really love Shuggie Otis. I’ve got to see him actually, he came to Toronto a couple years ago, and he’s just awesome. I love Sade, I grew up with her on the radio as well. So on some level I’m sure she must’ve influenced me quite a bit. I really love all that soul-drenched music.

You describe your sound as “electro-soul”. Why do you classify it as that?
Rigid definitions like, “R&B is this, and soul is this, and electronic music is this.” And to be fair electronic music has a pretty long love affair with soulful vocals. Like anybody who’s listening to old house, or even old jungle music, and back in the day jungle music was mining R&B songs for samples. Now I’ll hear a certain song, I’m like, “Holy shit, like that’s the original song. I knew about that song from a jungle track.” I was growing up with that music and that’s how I was being exposed to stuff. I feel like as time’s gone on, the genres have sort of been merging. Electro-soul to me, the production is gonna be a little more on the futuristic/R&B/soul side, versus stuff that you could technically play in the café. Without people being like, “Oh my god, what’s this racket?” It’s a little more acceptable for a larger group of people, versus being very niche for electronic music. If you throw on techno at a grocery store or something, probably not gonna go over so well, right?

Who are some big name artists right now that are classified as electro-soul?
Well, I think it’s such a new term. I’m not sure if people are just applying that label to themselves just yet, but that artist Mapei, I feel like her sound is electronicky/soul. She actually just had a new song drop today. I haven’t heard it yet. That just reminded me, I really have to go check that out. And I know that The Precious Lo’s music was coming up under that hashtag. And I’m like, “Cool, they’re from Toronto.” I guess you could apply different terms to it, but essentially for me the defining characteristics are: having more electronic sounding production, and then the vocals are gonna be a little more R&B, soulful. You’re not gonna hear really clean, pop, Katy Perry-type of vocal, right? I think the vocals should have a lot more emotion, and preferably substance behind them.

Do you think electro-soul will start to gain significant traction and eventually become a mainstream sub-genre?
I feel like it's kind of an evolution of neo-soul/electronic and hip-hop fusion. So it's just another transformation in the evolving musical landscape. I think traditional R&B needed to stretch and keep growing, so inevitably electronic music and soul were going to cross paths and this is their fun cousin.

You released LoveSick last year. What inspired you to make it?
I released a few singles. Speaking of electronic music, I released a single with the producer Ron Allen, who’s a pretty well-known electronic producer, based in Toronto. I had some of the songs where I was like, “Okay, you know, I have the tracking from the producer.” And then other stuff that was just one-off beats someone had randomly sent you, that you liked and wrote a song to, but you’re like, “I can’t put this out, as a real, proper, finished product.” I kinda thought to myself a mixtape seemed like the way to go. And then you have Kendrick Lamar releasing a mixtape that’s so polished. Mine’s a little more rough around the edges and true to the mixtape format. I mean it’s still mixed and mastered, but each track individually has more personality, I guess you could say. If you listen to it, it’s obviously very relationship-based. Discussing different parts, you know, being in love with someone, breaking up with that person, messing around with a new person, maybe messing around with two people. Just kind of exploring those great vibes of yourself.

How did you get in contact with some of the artists that you collaborated with on the mixtape?
Well, Ron Allen and I actually met through a mutual friend, basically at a party. And then we started working together. Moka Only I knew from Vancouver. Pretty much anyone who’s a hip-hop head in Vancouver has probably seen him around, skateboarding or randomly has thought of him. Even though he’s infamously a bit of a recluse. He’s working all the time. I really love this duo, Jarrel and Waqaas. They work out of, I think it’s Dream House Studios, pretty much like right beside where the Manifesto building is. How did I even meet those guys? I had a manager at the time, and we kinda stumbled across them, and we were like, “Who are these guys?” We saw that Promise had them in a song with Jhene Aiko, and we’re like, “Cool, who are these cats?” So we looked into them and stuff. Chin Injeti, another Vancouver contact. It was amazing, the beat he produced for that was so fast. I literally went in the studio and he just totally vibes out. I love that, when a producer can read your energy and just throw down. Riddlore, from Project Blowed, he’s from Los Angeles, from C.V.E. So, Chillin Villain Empire, Project Blowed crew. That involved Aceyalone and 2Mex, and a bunch of underground Los Angeles rappers. So it was pretty cool having him, he produced “Party Girl,” and rapped on it as well.

What are some negative and positive aspects of the music industry that you’ve experienced since you’ve been making music?
Well, I don’t wanna sound like a big whiny bitch or anything, but sometimes because Canada is not huge, rather than people being allies and supporting each other and actually forming a really strong community, people are more competitive. So it’s like, instead of me giving you a hand and boosting you up, I’m gonna maybe kick your foot off that rung, so you can’t climb up to the next one. You know what I mean? And I think that in a city like Toronto, it’s literally crawling with talent, it’s insane. You can throw a rock and you’ll hit an artist. It’s so concentrated. But at the same time, instead of actually looking at these people around you as competition, this is a community and we’re all gonna thrive if we come together and have a movement. And I feel like Drake blowing up, whether you like his music or not, it’s brought worldwide attention to Toronto. Then you have The Weeknd, and even Melanie Fiona, right? We have these exports right now that are doing really well internationally, and sometimes even to the point where people in Canada aren’t even giving them attention. There’s only three major cities, right? If an urban/R&B/electronic-soul-type of artist is gonna go on tour, it’s like, “Am I gonna have an audience in Thunder Bay? Am I gonna have an audience in Moose Jaw?” Probably not. I’ve always kinda thought to myself, I will definitely have a bigger fan base in the States and Europe, to be totally honest. I don’t wanna say I don’t have too much faith in Canada, cause that doesn’t sound positive. It’s more just like, are they gonna support the type of music that I’m making. I don’t know if that’s a positive or a negative, it’s more like a contextualization for my work. But I definitely feel like sometimes I’m a black sheep, because I have so many ideas and so many things that I wanna do, and then just having that foundation to really do that can be difficult. As much as people wanna help you and do stuff for you for free, unless there’s money on the table it doesn’t get done. Any artist knows that if they want something done properly you gotta pay for it, if you want it to sound good, or at least have some kind of future promise of remuneration for the work. Cause it is work, right? The demographics of Canada for touring, screw that. What are you gonna do, drive? And I know a lot of people have brought that up before, and that’s challenging cause then Canada complains about, “Oh you know, artists don’t stay and they leave.” Well, why do you think that is? It’s hard to make a living here, you know? Even artists who seem successful, are they clearing 60k a year? Are they really, do we know that? The whole quote unquote “industry” is changing so rapidly. Labels are struggling to keep up with the way technology’s impacting the industry, and how they make money. I think right now it’s kind of like the Wild West in a lot of ways. You can reach more people than ever before, you can start getting your audience from scratch, but you’re also dealing with how many times the competition? Because anyone on the Internet can start a SoundCloud, start a Twitter account, start recording music on their home studio setup. How do you find the people who are gonna really pop off and be the quote unquote “legends” of our generation. There’s just so many people making amazing music.

Have you ever been with an indie label, or have you always made music on your own?
I’ve released singles that have come out on labels, but I haven’t put out a project of my own, like solo material on a label, which would be pretty amazing. For the EP I think the idea is to be shopping that before the release to see if there would be a fit. Oh yeah, and going back to female artists that are popping off. Jessy Lanza, who I went to high school with, she co-produced the record with the guy from Junior Boys. And she’s touring Europe and stuff now. Her project came out on Hyperdub. That’s the thing, you could be making the dopest music in the world, but if no one knows how to find your music, you might as well be sailing up a creek without a paddle. How are people gonna find you? So having that co-sign, in terms of having the bigger entity behind you, pushing that out to the major music blogs. I think a lot of people, through Noisey and other music blogs, that’s how they’re discovering music. They’re like, “This is a reliable source that I respect. I’ll have a listen to this person I’ve never heard of. I’ve got two minutes on my lunch break.” You know what I mean? To answer your question, yes, I would love to do that. I released “Secret” on Offering Recordings, with Boddhi Satva. I released a couple of songs on Strobe Records, which is Ron Allen’s label.

What advice would you give to a female singer who’s thinking about pursuing a music career in Canada?
Don’t ever be afraid to take vocal lessons. Really great singers do it. You can always be improving your technique and your breath control, and exploring your voice. It’s like a muscle, right? Don’t just warm up before shows, have a routine, make sure you’re warming up before you even rehearse. I should take my own advice. I think one of the biggest things is when you’re good at something you do have to practice and work at it. You have to set aside time to pursue your craft, because life gets busy. You probably have to work to pay your bills. You’ll have other commitments. I struggle with that now. The one thing I would urge a younger singer to do is get into those habits young. You know what I mean? Figure out what your best peak time is to be creative. Don’t let external circumstances veer you off course. You’re not gonna be able to go to every party, you’re not gonna be able to attend every birthday. You do have to kind of know how to say no to things and pursue your art, cause there’s a million other things to do at any given moment.

Ian McBride is a writer living in Waterloo, Ontario. He's on Twitter.