Yola has dismissed her former producer and label boss Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys as “cookie-cutter bullshit”.
The Bristol-born genre-bending singer released her first two albums, 2019’s ‘Walk Through Fire’ and 2021’s ‘Stand For Myself’, on Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label, but in a new interview, she has criticised her former collaborator’s artistic process.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, she has said: “It’s cookie-cutter bullshit, is all it is. It’s what they did in the old days: people have no agency. That was something that was celebrated, so I can see how people hold that up as a way to operate. But it’s also a waste of my skill.”
Yola has recently released her new EP ‘My Way’ on S-Curve Records, the title track of which she has described as a “diss track”.
“This song is about when you’re trapped and you can’t just evaporate because you have to be in this space,” she said, without explicitly stating who the track is aimed at. “It’s about the levels of which I had to go through, mind gaming, after someone tried to mind game me.”
“This song is really about how I really tried with someone: ‘I’m interested in you as a person and how you operate. Let’s be collaborative. But you just can’t seem to not want to invoke the mammy paradigm, which is the plus-size Black woman who serves you at the sacrificing of herself.’”
In addition to her own solo records, which have earned her six Grammy nominations, Yola has toured as a member of Massive Attack and written songs for Chase & Status and Katy Perry. She also played trailblazing singer-guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis in 2022.
Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound is based in Nashville and has seen the musician produce records for artists such as Dr. John, Lana Del Rey, Cage The Elephant and CeeLo Green.
The Black Keys, meanwhile, released their 12th studio album ‘Ohio Players’ in April last year. The band have also recently announced a UK and European tour for this summer, which will feature support from Miles Kane. See the full list of dates here and find any remaining tickets here.
The news of the 2025 tour comes as the band shared a new single with Beck, titled ‘I’m With The Band’, in late 2024, a follow-up to recent collaborations ‘Beautiful People (Stay High)’ and ‘Paper Crown’.