ABOUT

Nyah Grace has raised her game. Five years since the Manchester via Oregon soul singer made her the ballad-heavy debut, she’s patented a bespoke brand of smoky, sassy confessional R&B that’s entirely her own. Co-written and produced with De’Jour Thomas (Chlöe, Fousheé, Monaleo) her new album Divinely Devoted doesn’t so much consolidate on her debut’s promise as spin it a whole new direction.

Intimate and concise at just 31 minutes, its songs came together in a burst of creativity, following an exploratory two-day studio session in Los Angeles last August. “I’d heard some of De’Jour’s other stuff before, but we went in pretty blind,” says Nyah. “We didn’t really know how we were gonna work together.”

The first song they co-wrote, ‘Only Mine’, proved foundational, De’Jour’s sparce production aesthetic allowing her sumptuous voice room to breathe. “We wrote, recorded and finished that in a day,” she recalls. “His friend Abi played guitar and we were just vibing in the studio. It was really fun.” Seamlessly multi-tracked over slinky pianos and a looping bassline, Nyah’s honeyed voice conveys the complexities of human experience with the gravitas of Sade or Mahalia.

That recording, and Nyah’s trust in the process, set the tone for what followed at subsequent sessions in London, the pair regularly completing a song from scratch each day. “It all happened super quick. He’s got such an ear, musically, and for some reason we both knew exactly what the album was supposed to sound like.”

That chemistry is more than evident amid the relatable relationship blues and swaggering gospel chorus of ‘Down’. “That’s probably my favourite song,” she enthuses. “When I first heard the demo, it was just like ‘Whoa! This could be something really, really cool’. What’s funny is some of those lines were just one-takes I’d written a minute before, thinking it was just going to be a demo. Afterwards he was like, ‘Okay, it’s done’. That song really captures the moment.”

Its chorus found the pair channelling their inner Phil Spector, using the studio to create a wall-of-sound choir. “De’Jour stood me in front of the mic, really close, and then a little bit further back. Then we did it together a couple of times. We did tons and tons of takes. We did a couple way in the back of the room, just screaming it. One time I sang it in my head voice. Then one just really loose and shouting.” 

Most of the album’s other tracks came together equally organically, as they established a working pattern that witnessed De’Jour tinker with “silly little ideas” in the studio each morning, before Nyah joined him at midday to react to the results.  

“I instantly connected with most of his ideas and would just write melodies and lyrics on the spot. I’m not usually like that, but it was just instantaneous. When we started writing we had an EP in mind. Then, all of a sudden, we were writing so much that we were just like, ‘Why don’t we just do an album?’”

That creative synergy can be heard across the Lauryn Hill-styled opener ‘Back Of The Cab’ as Nyah relates the tale of slightly tipsy, tearful female passenger “venting to the Uber driver about like the shitty night she’s just had. I’m really trying to jump out of my comfort zone lyrically.” It’s further lifted by subtle production touches – a heavy exhalation at the start, a subtle switch so the outro sounds like it’s playing on a car stereo, a slamming door – oozing the creative confidence that’s apparent throughout. 

That sense of innovation extends into ‘Fall Into You’, as a voicemail from Nyah’s mother comes through with some reassuring maternal advice. “I was going through something really, really bad at the time,” Nyah explains, “and I was just like having one of those moments calling my Mum every day, trying to like figure out what was going on. It’s funny because it sounds like it’s rehearsed or planned, but it wasn’t. My Mum always knows the right thing to say.”

Elsewhere, Nyah shows off her vocal chops over a spooky guitar figure on the slow-burn R&B of ‘I Know’ – “It’s nearly impossible for me to sing live. It’s the lowest that I can possibly go in my register and then it jumps three octaves!” – while emoting heavily amid the three sorrowful chords of ‘Seventeen’. “The goal was to do that in one-take, together in the room, which we pretty much did. It’s a ‘fake one-take’ as we supplemented a few little things later, but you can hear my voice breaking in there. It was super intimate.”

And while ‘Seventeen’ typifies the album’s stripped-down, sultry sound, it was also a turning point in the sessions, captured just before Nyah fell seriously ill. “It was like a full blown, really bad flu. It was the illest I’ve ever been in my life. I could barely keep my eyes open.” 

Understandably disheartened at the time, Nyah has come to see it as a blessing in disguise. “It probably happened for a reason. Otherwise, I would have spent hours and hours just ruminating over every little line, forcing myself to do songs over and over again. I’m such a perfectionist. I wouldn’t have realised that we already had it.”

As well as revealing a newfound maturity in Nyah’s writing, Divinely Devoted is also the most personal set of songs Nyah has released. “I don’t like drawing inspiration from my life, so in the past I would story-tell a lot. I’m not the kind of person that when something happens, I’m like, ‘Oh, I need to write a song about it’ – I just write what feels good. But I’ve brought more of my personal life to the table here.”  

Nyah is right to be amped with the results. De’Jour’s stripped-down productions accentuate the purity of her sensuous delivery, helping Divinely Devoted stand proud alongside defining releases from neo soul greats such as Erykah Badu, India.Arie and Jill Scott.

Raised in a small farm town in Oregon, Nyah was a “big Disney Channel kid” who set her heart on a singing career aged six, but it was learning an instrument that proved the gamechanger. “My second singing teacher said, ‘You should really start to accompany yourself’. So, she taught me ‘Count On Me’ by Bruno Mars on piano and I sang it in a talent show a couple months later.” Soon she was writing her own songs, drawing inspiration from soul greats including Billie Holiday, Estelle and Alicia Keys.

Nyah was so serious about her craft that at 14 she enrolled on a collaborative, month-long songwriting camp. “It was the best. One day I wrote a song called ‘Don’t Wake Me’ and the teacher loved it. He was like ‘You need to record this. This is amazing.’” True to his word, he put Nyah in touch with a producer friend with a studio in McMinnville, a 40-minute drive from her home, where all three recorded it. That demo eventually filtered down to veteran British music manager John Campbell (Shakespears Sister, Wyclef Jean, Robin Gibb), who instantly flew to Oregon to sign Nyah to his Palawan Productions imprint.

At his insistence Nyah subsequently moved to Manchester, following an initial visit aged 15. “I absolutely fell in love with it. I fell in love with the culture, fell in love with the fact that I could just gig anywhere, and that people were really receptive. To me it’s always felt like home. I’ve always felt British in my heart.

To prove it Nyah moved permanently to the UK in 2018, finishing her formal schooling and completing her debut at the same time. Cooked up alongside producers Steve Chrisanthou and Michael Graves, 2020’s Honey-Coloured peaked with whip-smart Corinne Bailey Rae duet ‘My Sista Told Me’ and racked up over 12-million streams. Last year’s single ‘More’, recorded with Jay Mooncie and Dayyon, was the first hint of her current direction, gaining support from Radio 1, Radio 2, BBC Introducing, Mi-Soul, Jazz FM, Smooth FM and many more. 

“I’m more mature,” says Nyah of the yawning chasm between albums. “When I think back to the first album, I just can’t believe how young I was. I was 16/17 when I started writing it, and 18 when it was released. It genuinely feels like a lifetime ago. I’ve been able to find my footing since and find out what I really love.”

Nyah’s writing process has also changed. She’s no longer pushes herself to record an idea a day (as the 5,000 voice memos still on her phone attest) and she’s desperate to take Divinely Devoted’s songs on the road, as soon as she completes her finals at the Royal Northern College of Music. “Being able to play them live would be amazing. I’ve started translating them into a live setting with my band.” 

Although Nyah describes herself as “really sensitive, empathetic and caring” she also confesses to being an arch overthinker, a trait far from evident in Divinely Devoted’s beautifully sparse grooves. “I’ve never written songs that I feel so connected to,” she concludes. “I’m not really worried about numbers or, you know, being mega-famous or anything, I just really hope the feeling we put into this is felt. I have so much belief in these songs.”