Tayá: The Teen R&B Sensation Scoring Big Name Collaborations

The Liverpool native on her slow jam single Deeper, all things 90s and why scousers are the best people in the world

Oh my god, I love this!” It’s 9am on our shoot day with Tayá and she’s plucked a lilac Bobby Abley sweater from the stylist’s hoard, its oversized sleeves Disneyfied with grinning Genie heads. Her policy, she later tells me, is “always go for the whackiest thing on the rail. I love anything a bit out there or in a weird material. PVC, sequins, shiny things, a bit quirky – I’ll try anything once.”

Despite her weakness for a limelight-snatching hero piece, the 18-year-old Liverpudlian singer, whose soulful brand of R&B has already won her collaborations with the likes of Snakehips and Diztortion, is “actually quite shy when it comes to music. I’d like to be better at talking about myself – I’m proud of what I do, but I don’t like to shout it from the rooftops or big myself up.”

It’s hard to explain, but if you combined elements of all the other songs on the EP, they’d make up Deeper, it’s definitely the track that explains me the most

Luckily, with a voice that pure, there’s no need for posturing. Tayá’s slow jam single Deeper, out now on Atlantic Records, layers her honey-smooth vocals over textural, feathery electronics. There are glimmers of her predilection for the 90s and 2000s R&B sound that she grew up on, but the final product is more nuanced and contemporary, with a raw vulnerability in the lyrics. “There’s no pain like the way it hurts / I think you’re pulling away,” she croons.

As the words suggest, Deeper is a personal track, and paves the way for an upcoming EP, out later this year. “It’s hard to explain, but if you combined elements of all the other songs on the EP, they’d make up Deeper, it’s definitely the track that explains me the most,” says Tayá. “I wrote it about someone I was seeing at the time. He was a typical lad in that sense of not giving anything away – all that not wanting to talk about feelings and acting hard in front of mates stuff. So that track was about showing me something more. Is this worth carrying on? I think every girl can relate to that situation.”

Top, URBAN OUTFITTERS
Trousers, ANDREW MAJTENYI
Watch, ICE WATCH 

The conspiratorial, girls’ girl attitude underlining Tayá’s material mirrors that of the 90s postergirls she worshipped at school – Ciara, Ashanti, JoJo – but in today’s landscape she aligns herself with the female artists making “that moodier R&B sound: Jhené Aiko, Kehlani, and Tinashe’s earlier bits, too.” She takes her songwriting craft seriously, preferring to draw from real life situations. “Every song that I write starts with a story: things that have happened to me or my friends and family. I’ll write down a few lines and ideas while I’m on the way to the studio. Personally, I like to start with the melody, as that gives me a bit of a shape and a guideline, and I build the words from there.”

Though raised on a diet of Motown (“I was obsessed with Diana Ross and The Supremes, everything about that era”) Tayá remains the musical black sheep of her family. “It’s a bit of a mad one. Everyone’s like, ‘where has this voice come from?’ My grandad was in a jazz band and played the piano and the sax, but that was well before I was born.” Her parents, younger brother and cousins are, she tells me more than once during our interview, her biggest support network, with super-mum Mary on-hand to liaise with her management and oversee shoots. “She’s the funniest person, the biggest protector and the biggest drama queen. My label love her, I think they’d rather talk to her than me.” 

Every song that I write starts with a story… I’ll write down a few lines and ideas while I’m on my way to the studio. The melody gives me a bit of a shape and a guideline, and I build the words from there

Hoodie, COUP DE COEUR 
Necklace, TAYA’S OWN 

Weekends off are spent with her close-knit friendship group back in native Liverpool. “I’m probably the chatty, weird, loyal one. The only time I get angry is when I stick up for someone.” Have there been challenges, I ask, in adjusting to the life of a signed artist while friends leave college for pastures new? “I’m the odd one out, everyone’s going to Uni and doing serious jobs. At first my dad was a bit iffy because it’s such a hard industry to break through and he wanted me to have a bit more stability and structure, but now that he can see it’s going well he’s completely on board. I’m really lucky.” 

That feeling of putting something out there and seeing the reaction, that’s the biggest thing for me. Everyone wants to be successful and everyone wants to be Rihanna, but for me the most important thing is being proud of my music

Man of the moment Chance the Rapper ranks among Tayá’s fantasy collaborations (“I feel like he always has something a bit different to say”), as does Disclosure, but she’s most animated when we get chatting about the logistics of an all-female supergroup. “It’d be cool to do a girl power thing! I love Arianna Grande. Kehlani would have to be in there too. Who else? FKA Twigs – isn’t she just the coolest thing you’ve ever seen?!” For now though, the 18-year-old is still getting her head around the response to her music. “There’ve been loads of surreal moments. I go to certain parties and think ‘why have I been invited?’ Being played on the radio… Even the comments I get on YouTube and Twitter, that feeling of putting something out there and seeing the reaction, that’s the biggest thing for me. Obviously everyone wants to be successful and everyone wants to be Rihanna, but for me the most important thing is being proud of my music.”

Jumper, MADS NORGAARD 
Earrings, DAISY JEWELLERY 
Bracelet, AZZA FAHMY at WOLF & BADGER 

She’d like to curb her stage fright, too. “It happens every. single. time! Anyone who knows me will tell you that I shake head to toe and get so nervous. I worry a lot and want everything to be perfect. I can’t even be there when other people listen to my music, I put it on my phone and then go out of the room, otherwise I scrutinise and analyse everything.”

It’s almost time to wrap up; London Fashion Week is calling and Tayá’s off to get her fill of high-shine quirkdom at Fyodor Golan’s AW17 show. Cue fashun jokes, including an uncanny impression of Gigi Hadid’s walk and big praise for a few of the industry’s key players (“don’t you just think that Anna Dello Russo is life?!”)

Post-shows, the singer will return north to Liverpool. What does she miss most about her hometown while away? “The fact that it’s so small and you can get anywhere in twenty minutes. And the people – it’s honestly just the friendliest city, no one takes themselves too seriously.” Who knows, perhaps one day this scouser will have her ultimate homecoming at the Echo Arena.

Make-up Megumi Matsuno using MAC
Hair Charlie McEwen
Nails Jessica Thompson @ Frank Agency