On the Rise: Tora-i

When people use the word ‘alternative’ to define a genre, it’s easy enough to nod your head and assume the artists cocooned within it are trying their very best to be unexplainably ‘cool’. Without wanting to sound middle-aged, what does alternative really mean anyway?

London born Tora-i explains that her multi-dimensional sound stems from an entirely honest place. “I think sometimes we get really focused on thinking, ‘I want to be authentic’ and about being authentic rather than just being.” Using Cardi B as a prime example, we agree that it’s about being your genuine self. “I feel we have to believe you. I want to believe in you as an artist and believe in your truth.”

Signed with AWAL in June 2021, Tora-i’s sound is reminiscent of early 2000s R&B, yet is Frank Ocean-experimental, with synthesised beats sliding across soulful echoes. It’s a sound Tora-i describes as “a modern interpretation of soul music… so yeah, quite vague. But if you listen to it, maybe you'll get what I mean.”

With last year giving residence to her debut EP, Cavalier, and the production of four music videos in no more than four months, it seems that the stillness of lockdown gave vibrancy to Tora-i’s creative productivity. Her nature appears shy and comfortably subdued: “I've been out of the house once today and that was more than enough.” There is a slower pace to Tora-i’s words and space to think in her pauses, that hint towards either perfectionism or a dislike of talking about herself. Her motivation to write is what she describes as a necessary outlet for creativity.

“I think it’s the need ... it's quite a cathartic process for me and an expression for me. I think I've always been quite arty, even since I was little.” We both realise we have a mutual love of the children’s TV show Art Attack. “I used to love Art Attack! I had to do every challenge. I’ve always been that way inclined to some degree and singing was just my preferred avenue for that.”

Amongst the cartoon characters, the macaroni frames and the paper mache hats of her childhood, Tora-i’s inspiration was altogether more adult. When the ten-year-old’s voice was heard singing along to Whitney Houston, her Grandad thought it was coming from the radio. As the first in her family to go down the performing route, Tora-i mentions that her little brother could now be the one to watch. “I was walking home with him the other day and he was making me rate his voice and sing things on repeat to him. My parents recently got him electric drums so I think he might pursue it.” And what was his rating? “He can actually sing. He can actually hold a note, and he enjoys it, which is the main part.”

At seven Tora-i wrote her first song - called "Flower Power" - on women’s empowerment. It’s evident that she’s a deep thinker, not only through her lyricism but in conversation.

“I think a reminder that I've been trying to gel into my head was something my Dad said to me. He just said to do things through feeling not through theory, to really be in the moment and not just go through the motions. I'm trying to be present.” Her creative process? “I often find that I write quite well on the train because it's time to just think. Then in pandemic life, it's been harder because I don't like writing in my room.” It’s this unapologetic honesty that Tora-i says can often affect her creative spirit. “I'm finding that I do write, but out of how I'm feeling. If I have no emotion or nothing to say then that is what you're going to get from me on that day, which is annoying to other people ... but it is what it is.”

Her latest single “PBFF,” evokes that feeling of daydreaming out of a train window. The lyrics consist of the kind of conversation you only have in your head, with all the things that weren’t said and that you wish you had said on repeat. “PBFF is [the sound of me] realising the effects that a person had on me ... how I'm going to manoeuvre through that and if I'm going to take these things with me. Do you know what I mean? And not even in baggage or weight, it's just that naturally, we all affect each other.” How does one come to this realisation? “Like I was saying, the way I write can be quite cathartic. I'll just say lots of things and then I'm like, ‘this is how you feel and it's in writing’ - you're hearing yourself say it back.”

In this, Tora-i has shades of a modern-day Virginia Woolf, as she unpicks the meaning from her own stream of consciousness. But she insists that singing came before writing and that is where the freedom lies. “That's how I initially fell into music. Whatever I did, singing was the only thing that was a release, like when you're really in it, not when you're just thinking about things.”

Is the music industry accepting of her unapologetic nature? “It depends on what your personality is. If you're loud and outgoing, sure, you're supported because that's more accessible to people.” And is Tora-i loud and outgoing? She laughs through a big fat No - “I wouldn't say I was like, super loud and outgoing, but then you have artists like Summer Walker who can still navigate through it, so it is possible.”

Tora-i sees growth as the ultimate success an artist can have. “Not to put pressure on myself, but in anything that I do, I want to make sure that I keep evolving and keep challenging myself to master my craft.” And what does this growth look like? “I want to say global but not just America. I'd love to go to Japan, if I can get there at that point. That's always been like a random goal of mine to have my music quite well known out there. And then I just want to make the best EP that I can.”