A short hair cut on a black woman, they say, is redolent of her strength, natural beauty and confidence. Such an appearance, to some, is indicative of anything but placidness.Like most stereotypes, however, this flawed judgment is fallacious. Akosua’s music effortlessly moves one into a place of serenity, something most artists have attempted but failed to accomplish. The pacifying rhythms of this San Francisco-based Ghanaian/American are representative of a fresh kind of tone.
With her debut album in the works, Akosua has been working with producers and engineers of the industry in the Bay area to bring it to life and hopes to start recording this September.
“It’s going to be amazing, of course,” she laughs as she speaks of her album. “I’m really excited just because I’m gonna be collaborating with a lot of musicians.” This time her work will be managed by well-experienced industry experts.
As a young girl Akosua nurtured her voice and talent by singing in her school choir and church; the last four years have witnessed an aggressive pursuit of her professional music career.
“I just really feel like it was a gift that I was put on this earth to do cos ever since I was a kid I loved music, you know,” she says of her talent.
While piano lessons may have aided in the experimental stages of her interest, they did little to appease her musical spirit. By age 13, Akosua had developed a keen interest in guitar playing. “I got my first guitar when I was 14, and after that I knew that I was in love with music and that’s what I wanted to do,” she recalls. “I really wanted to do it and I just had to kind of jump in there.”
Like most ardent students of the Arts, she encountered some objections from family at the nascent phases of her passion.
“You know, my parents, they wanted me to study study study, and so they weren’t really interested in getting me guitar lessons although they did buy me a guitar for Christmas. I don’t think they realized how serious I was because I just decided that I was going to teach myself and anytime I saw someone with a guitar I would be like, ‘ok show me this!’ and I would go online and try to find all the songs that I love and try to learn them,” she elaborates.
Her music style, she asserts, has been inspired by various sources. “I know that my identity as a Ghanaian woman is essential to the style of music that I play. And maybe even being more so a first generation Ghanaian, just because of all the different identities that I have, and I think that those really speak to my songwriting.
“I was influenced early on by all of the women with guitars that were around when I was growing up, which weren’t many,” she says, with Tracy Chapman being one of her greatest influences, Akosua admits to having been impacted by her passion for writing, specifically poetry.
“At first my songs were really driven by lyrics. And then in terms of the musical inspiration, it comes from so many different things. It comes from being raised on high life; it comes from my interest in folk music, in jazz, Nina Simone, Lauren Hill and then Fiona Apple,” says the artistic soft-spoken singer.
“I really believe that music is a healing art, not that I focus so much on that when I’m writing songs but that’s kind of what happens when I start writing. I write songs that help me to reflect on things that are going on in my life and then when I sing them to other people, it helps them reflect on things that are going on in their life or things that are going on in the world,” she says when asked about specific messages communicated in her music.
“I really enjoy hearing that from people,” she says of the healing effect of her songs.
Akosua’s music has more jazzy tones to it than any other rhythm and she attributes it to her interest in the genre. “You know what I think actually happened?” she attempts to explain.
“Because I had never been formally taught on the guitar and so about 2 years ago when I decided to go back to school for music [at Mills College], I became really interested in Afro-Cuban music and jazz and West African jazz and Fela Kuti and all of those guys. And I also became interested in Brazilian Bossa Nova, and so when I would hear it, there was jazz incorporated which of course has roots in African music and I was just completely completely mesmerized and I was like, ‘I have to learn that, if there’s anything I had to learn, it would be that,’” she says.
Her undergraduate years were spent studying Psychology, the “much secured” course her parents encouraged her to undertake. Although it was an interest of hers, she says, her affinity toward psychology paled in comparison to her passion for music.
During her exploratory years Akosua performed at Cafés but still remained passive about pursuing music, though she was inching closer to the peak.
“At that point I was so young I didn’t understand the importance of honoring the gift I was given, which is what really hit me when I graduated and I saw my life ahead of me and I said, ‘oh my God, how can I not honor this gift that I’ve been given, I have to, I have to do it right now, and that’s part of the reason why I left and came to California,” she admits.
For now Akosua mainly performs in the Bay area and a few other parts of the country. “Once my album’s done I’ll be all over a lot more. I’m looking forward to that,” she says.
She has also performed in Ghana and says of the experience: “Oh it was great! It was really well received, I was really excited to be able to hear my music at an international level, of course in my country and I want to do more of that. I’ll be traveling to Ghana in August and hopefully we’ll be doing some radio interviews and more performing, so I’m definitely really looking forward to that.”