7 minute read
JOY CROOKES
After months of solitude, the machine is finally restarting for Joy Crookes. When she was initially nominated as a BRITs Rising Star in 2019, she asked her manager “are you sure it’s me?”. Fast forward to now, and she has outgrown the ‘one to watch’ label and is ready to become an established artist.
Joy requested we meet in her ends, which happen to be Elephant and Castle. “My mum went to university there”, she said pointing to the London College of Communication.
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Despite growing up in the multi-cultural South London borough, Joy still stands out from the crowd. She came dressed in all black, and her fingers and ears were decorated with plenty of traditional South Asian gold jewellery. It is a look that has become somewhat signature for her over time.
I watched her pose for a series of quick press shots, and she darted around the rugged backstreets, guiding the photographer as she dropped into various poses. “Make sure you don’t get the gentrified newbuilds in the background”, she added. Like many others, Crookes is saddened to have watched the place she knows well slowly morph into a gentrified stranger. To finish, she runs up the steps of a Baptist church and stands tall for one final image. A woman popped her head out of the window and told Joy off for trespassing, but that doesn’t phase her.“God gave me permission”, she replied with a cheeky smile.
Joy invited me into her new apartment to chat more about her journey. “I have lived alone since I was 17”, she tells me.
As we walk through the front door, she greets her neighbour with a friendly ‘Salam’. They conversed for a bit, and he jokingly told her that she’s caught a tan and that she should try to stay out of the sun from now on. “I’m used to comments like that. My mum has dark skin”, she tells me. Crookes is half Bangladeshi and half Irish. Her nonchalant reaction tells me she’s experienced her fair share of colourism from the South Asian community.
Although Crookes is used to being alone, the pandemic wasn’t particularly easy for her. “In the height of lockdown I would just be sitting at home with my cat and my ex. It gave me time to sit with my emotions, and I also become a woman”.
Like all of us, she spent a great deal of time on social media. This ignited a slight anger, as Joy began to see the numerous false narratives that filled her timeline. “I wanted to see people be honest in this time. So that's why I did”. “I remember in March last year, I felt really, really shit, and I had this like, existential crises. I was like oh, my goodness, what's next? I guess everyone had the feeling of oblivion, but it felt so overnight at that point. I remember just putting up an Instagram post being really honest about it. I looked like shit, and I felt like shit, and I was really honest about it. I was like, I'm going to interact with you as a human being and not pretend that my life is dandy and rosy, because no one else’s is right now.” Thankfully she managed to keep herself busy with music, and that quickly turned into an opportunity to connect with others through the world of new social media platforms and live streaming. The 22-year-old is no stranger to the world of internet fame. She gained attention covering songs on Youtube so It’s no surprise that she was quick to invite a new crowd of international fans when she started creating content on Tik Tok.
Joy took a deep dive back into the artists that first inspired her to play music, and she treated her new followers to covers, casual jams and stripped back versions of her own songs. In a cyclical turn of events, she even stumbled across others covering her music. “I got back into Kate Nash, Laura Marling and Lily Allen. People often talk about how there weren’t any South Asians in the music industry at that time which is true, but I feel like listening to those women be brutally honest was a representation in itself.” Her lockdown single Feet Don’t Fail Me Now went on to be an instant anthem and it was written during the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement. “I didn't have any answers, but I felt like it was important as an artist to use my voice in such a crucial time.” Crookes noticed resistance from people when it came to the topic of race and
she wanted to highlight the performative nature of people using social media around the time of the movement. “Put my name on petitions, but I won't change my mind/I'm keeping up appearances/ The dark side of my privilege”, she sings in the first verse of the song. A common theme in Joy’s music is a powerful narrative. With this attitude in mind combined with her soulful voice, she’s is constantly getting compared to Amy Winehouse by fans and critics alike.
“I think I can speak for a lot of young women that are around my age. I think we all love Amy. It's that same thing with the brutal conversational honesty and unforgiving nature. I think that I naturally gravitate towards writers like that so the comparison is really complimentary for me”. On the flip side, Crookes wants to remind people where the true root of her jazz inspiration comes from, and give credit to the founders who inspired newer singers such as Amy Winehouse.
“When I was at school, I was in this jazz band. My piano teacher would be like, you need to go home and learn Ella Fitzgerald and study Nina Simone. It was all strong black female artists, and I think that it's obvious that Amy has very similar influences as well, but for me, it was watching from a political angle and from a brown-skinned angle, watching these black women be unforgiving and unapologetic, in a time when they weren't even allowed to walk into some of the bars that they sang To top it off, if you listen to the music, Crookes is not bound to one single genre. “My sound isn’t just jazz. I experiment with a lot of electronic stuff and even some desi rhythms. I think because of the way I sing people tend to make those comparisons”.
Having taught herself the guitar and written her own songs, Crookes is careful to nurture her songs into the wider creative process. Despite the industry moving forward, it has still taken advantage of many talented young women, causing them to lose control over their own work, Taylor Swift being a prime example. “I'm involved in everything, and I have full creative ownership because it's my narrative. Everyone that works with me knows that I go through the entire process, to the point where I go into the mixing room and into mastering. Even if I don't know what I'm necessarily talking about, I have the ability to explain myself with confidence, and then provide a solution.” It turns out, this is another self-taught skill of Joy’s. “Unfortunately, I shouldn't have to learn how to be overly polite, but I think that this was born out of me being in a very maledominated industry, and needing to take ownership. I shouldn't have had to go through the process I went through to get there, but I'm really proud.” This is an important time for South Asian musicians across the globe, and Crookes is privileged enough to bring her talent and rich culture to a mainstream audience with the support from a major label. She talks excitedly about future ideas, and shares the excitement of the current South Asian music scene listing off Raveena, Priya Ragu, Nayana Iz, Jai Paul and many more as her favourites. She also name drops some huge artists and hints that she’s open to musical collaborations later down the line.
There’s never been a better time to jump on the Joy wagon, as the singer is bubbling with eclectic ideas after being released from the constraints of lockdown.
Her debut album, which is due to release at some point this year, is forecasted to blow her up into an established musician, but until then, she’ll be settling into her new flat, practising her cooking and chilling with her cat Diego.
