On the Rise
Aziya

“This is a man’s world, but it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman or a girl”, wrote James Brown and Betty Jean Newsome back in 1966, and it’s a statement that still rings true, half a century later. While their male counterparts who are given most of the credit as trailblazers in modern rock music, it’s a well-known fact that women have always been the blueprint. Newsome had to file a court case in order to receive royalties and credit for her part in writing one of Brown’s biggest hits, and she’s not the only woman to almost be erased from history. Sister Rosetta Tharpe was a queer black woman and devout Christian, who pioneered rock and roll with her mastery on the electric guitar in the forties, but became overshadowed by the likes of Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix.

Fanny, the American quartet who put all-female rock bands on the map in the early seventies, became the first of their kind to achieve commercial success with two Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 – all before The Runaways were even a twinkle in Kim Fowley’s eye.

It’s this immutable and archaic presence of male dominance in the music industry which drives the desire for so many up-and-coming musicians, not just to level the playing field, but to eradicate it completely. For 21-year-old Londoner Aziya Aldridge-Moore, it’s not enough to simply be on par with her contemporaries. She has a desire to become a polymath in her craft, emulating the likes of Prince and Jimi Hendrix, and becoming the representation she never saw as a young mixed-race female.

Born into a family of music lovers who always embraced the multifarious, and never felt confined to any genre, Aziya fell into her love of guitar bands after growing up on a diet of System of a Down, Green Day, and No Doubt. This, of course, lead to an emo phase when she was in primary school, and where some parents might’ve shuddered at such a bold experimentation, she distinctly remembers being encouraged to express her personality and individuality. In fact, her mum was instrumental in supporting her choice to pursue a career in music – encouraging her to take guitar lessons, and even introducing her to the music of strong personalities such as Prince and Stevie Nicks, who would eventually become principal figures of inspiration, a few years later.

As Aziya recounts her journey into becoming a multi-instrumentalist and a producer, there’s a single phrase that circles around my mind: “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. Whilst she had a few guitar lessons, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she could learn the specifics that she wanted to express in her own song writing with the help of YouTube. As her skills progressed, she decided to move onto piano so that she could explore new sonic territory and experiment with instrumentation. “I started producing as a means to not just have a recording of me on the guitar or piano,” she tells me. “I was getting into bands and I wanted to show people what I wanted them to do on the bass or on the drums. I guess it all came from guitar and wanting that ability to be able to create in whatever capacity, so shout out to mum for getting me onto guitar!”

Despite there being a plethora of well-known musicians such as St Vincent, Grimes and H.E.R - Aziya cites them all as influences on her work - who also double up as producers, there is a shocking lack of representation and acceptance of female producers in the industry. A five-year study showed that women make up just two percent of producers on the Billboard Hot 100, and these are the kind of statistics that, whilst she finds shocking, only stokes the fire to promote progressive attitudes. “I just want to get better so that people can’t deny [my talent] if I’m a female or not,” she says with fervour. “That’s what is so important to me – I don’t think it should matter – I just want to change the norm in all those capacities.”

Over the past year or so, Aziya has taken to posting covers on her Instagram page, as well as hosting a series livestreams – Osmo-Sis where she talks to her followers and plays both covers and some of her original songs, and Across The Tracks, where she has interviewed and performed with the likes of Yonaka, Fred Macpherson of Spector, and Master Peace. Her cover of Grimes’ “Oblivion” currently sits at almost 170,000 views and was even shared by the artist herself, but perhaps the most shocking feat for Aziya, off the back of her Instagram covers, was to be invited onto a livestream with American musician/producer H.E.R, where she got to play to 300,000 people – including Missy Elliott and Shawn Mendes – despite not having any music out at the time.

Throughout our conversation it becomes increasingly evident that Aziya knows exactly what she is doing by the matter-of-fact ease in which she speaks about music and her creativity. Whilst she might’ve been playing guitar and writing songs for over a decade, it is no mere accident as to why she has taken the time to cultivate a sound that is uniquely hers, before releasing any music.

A two-year stint at The BRIT School helped hone in the prominence and permanence of music, and also inspired Aziya to solidify who she wanted to be as an artist. “I actually went to the open day in year six – which was four years premature – but it was because I knew that this is what I wanted to do,” she reveals. Describing the place as a “hub of creative energy”, Aziya credits The Brit School for allowing her to develop her sound without being boxed in to any specific genre, and providing her with the knowledge to decide on her own journey as opposed to following a career path that has already been worn out by others.

In just over a month since its release, Aziya’s debut single “Slip” has reached almost 50,000 streams. While its simplistic gritty riffs and hat-heavy drums are hard hitting and offer insight into the musician’s long line of influences, it’s her powerhouse vocals that do all of the talking and keep you hooked. On her debut EP We Speak of Tides - released this week - Aziya taps into a fluidity which sees her work with a sonic palette that contains hues of indie, grunge and psychedelic rock; drawing influence from the likes of Alanis Morissette, Wolf Alice, PVRIS and The Kills.

Aziya notes that We Speak of Tides was written at a pivotal time where she was working out the various relationships in her lives – whether they be familial or romantic. Holing up in her home studio, she used song writing as an outlet for these feelings and says, “as a result, the EP ended up as this chronological archive of dynamics in personal relationships but also talking about others”. Because of its personal nature, Aziya likens the EP to a diary and feels quite glad that she was able to record it at home because it meant that she could experiment with her favourite plug-ins and iron out all imperfections at her own pace, which, as a method of working, is quite the modern luxury.

“I just love the seventies and the tenacity of recording on tape and not being able to re-record. It was very much, ‘this is the tape, let’s get it right and put as much emotion into it as possible,’” Aziya tells me, of the music-making era that inspires her most. “A lot of equipment was being created and discovered; amazing sounds like the Mellotron and the Wall of Sound. All of these different experimental methods were happening in the seventies and it seems like people were definitely very keen to explore and work things out.”

Discovering unconventional means of working, and overcoming creative challenges, is something that harkens back to Aziya’s natural inclination to do things her own way – especially in a creative capacity. As well as her Osmo – Sis livestream series, Aziya has a Spotify playlist which exists to highlight artists who share the same kind of ethos as she does: “The songs on there are by artists and musicians who are doing something against the norm and bringing that into a mainstream environment,” she explains. “It was a reflection of the emotions I felt when I think about the process of osmosis, and I wanted to hyphenate it and have ‘sis’ at the end as a kind of pun for females.”

Aziya hopes to eventually make Osmo – Sis an entity that stands for more than just a playlist; whether it be a mini label or a platform to sell merchandise, and even though she may not have even released her debut EP yet, she has her sights set on being a trailblazer. Her motto for getting there? “Live against the grain, work against the grain, and never settle for boxes that people put you in.”