Beckah Amani welcomes you to her garden
The Burundian-Australian indie folk artist comes into bloom on her debut album, ‘This Is How I Remember It.’ – and embraces the fact that “we’re never just one thing”
Words by Sosefina Fuamoli
Loading more...
Words by Sosefina Fuamoli
Beckah Amani realised: she wanted her music to be a garden.
It was 2023 and the singer-songwriter was on the Gold Coast of Australia, participating in a songwriting camp with like-minded creatives. Being an artist, they understood, meant allowing yourself to be open to a variety of influences and creative direction. That resonated with Amani, who had been writing music that was multifaceted: “There [were] going to be a few different sides to the record, as there are different sides to me as a person.”
With their encouragement, Amani began sowing the seeds for her debut album, ‘This Is How I Remember It.’ Its flower bed is one she’s carefully and mindfully tended, nurturing its plants and shoots into flora of all sorts, representing the different shades of the woman she is today. Amani “leaned” into the process of growth, she tells NME today from her home, where images of her artistic influences – Frank Ocean, Tems, recent tourmate Jorja Smith – adorn the wall. “I felt comfortable working with people, knowing that what I would write one day would be a bit different to what I’d write when I got back home.”
Amani’s musical world is one that comes layered in warm tones, built on a foundation of soulful reflection and poignant observations on the life unfolding around her. Her indie folk-pop is coloured in honey-golds, delicate mauves and vibrant greens, while her vocals – buoyant and uplifting – evoke Arlo Parks and Celeste, but retain an intimacy all her own.
Her evolving viewpoint weaves through ‘This Is How I Remember It.’ Amani observes the pressures of being a musician in an industry that expects you to sound a particular way; maintaining close connections with family in different parts of the globe; existing in a timeline where war, social ills and a general lack of humanity threaten innocence and kindness. Yet, she was able to find sanctuary for herself and her thoughts within this album. In tending to her garden, Amani has found stability.
“The biggest strengths of this garden are the stories that exist within the creative process of it,” she says. “I can see how I’ve grown so much in that process. There is a lot that has happened in the world; there is a lot that has happened to me personally, just growing as a young adult and Black woman in the music industry. For me, the ideas of memory and the growth that I’ve gone through in the time span of working on the record are the biggest things I take away.”
Born in Tanzania to Burundian parents, Amani moved to Australia with her family when she was eight, finding a new home in Yugambeh country on the Gold Coast. Amani has flitted around the world since – she has spent time in London, and also recorded some of the album in Los Angeles – but remains grounded in Australia, especially her family’s farm on Tamborine Mountain – a place of natural beauty and solace.
“That heart, that feeling of home? I don’t think I felt that anywhere else outside of Australia,” she says. “I love Australia. I love being around my family and friends. That sense of home, I feel that when I’m in Australia. I try to spend at least six months of the year being very rooted here. I spend a lot of time [on the family farm] just away from noise and being focused on being on land and being with my family.”
It’s grounding Amani has needed as her music career has burgeoned. The 25-year-old made her debut in 2020 with ‘Standards’, which began as a poem she wrote during the reignition of the Black Lives Matter movement during the pandemic. Following singles ‘Stranger’ and ‘Lebeka Leka’ showcased a promising artist with a knack for affecting songwriting. After releasing her 2022 debut EP ‘April’, she was named to the NME 100 for 2023 as a rising talent to watch; she’s also earned Australian industry accolades, most recently a nomination for Emerging Songwriter of the Year at the APRA Music Awards. Just this past weekend, she joined Coldplay on stage in Melbourne, singing a verse of her own on the pop giants’ single ‘We Pray’.
“That heart, that feeling of home? I don’t think I felt that anywhere else outside of Australia”
At the end of the month, Beckah Amani makes her full-length debut album ‘This Is How I Remember It.’ It’s presented as a conversation between two former lovers, but Amani uses the relationship breakdown as a concept to consider broader themes: of self-love, growth and a rediscovery of meaningful connections – whether they are romantic, platonic or familial. ‘Grow With You’ is a beautiful ode to her parents, while on album highlight ‘Sober’ (featuring Ezra Collective drummer Femi Koleoso), Amani sings almost mournfully about the current state of the world: “Let’s talk about repression and fighting for freedom, ’cause something has to change.”
‘April’ bore traces of the West African music she listened to as a child, as well as her own heritage; the EP track ‘Waiting For You’ was influenced by Burundian drumming. The exploration continues on ‘This Is How I Remember It.’ – hear the Afropop single ‘Superstar’ and the album opener ‘Try For Me’. Amani says working on the latter track, as well as ‘Kubona’, a striking interlude that features her mother, has made her crave more knowledge of the music that has come before her, and her familial and cultural roots.
“I think that strength, the rhythm and the way I phrase things… a lot of it is from home. It made me excited to dive in deeper,” she says. “Perhaps on my second album, I will experiment more with how I can actually bring home into the pop space, into the mainstream. Music can be such a special way to not only know yourself, but propel the past into the now!”
Reflecting on how she’s evolved as a musician, Amani notes that it hasn’t been a smooth process of discovery. “Growing up, I had so much noise in my head,” she explains. “You really do wonder, ‘Is it worth being who I am and being strong in that, or should [I] dim myself down?’ I’m in a position where I can be who I am and express myself in something I love and believe is a gift.”
Knowing the importance of feeling seen and embraced as a person of colour, especially as a Black woman in the music industry, Amani is intentional with how she presents herself and her music. She’s keenly aware of the significance of representation, finding strength as she refuses to “rob somebody else of seeing themselves”.
“I would have loved to have seen someone like me being very strong in what they do, being upfront and not editing themselves or giving in to it,” she says. “You’re already getting so much pressure not to [and] to be streamlined and very digestible. The social media space has made it very easy to go, ‘There is a way for me to really give myself the way I really want to be… regardless of what anyone else thinks.’ I think of it as a superpower. We’re not just one thing – we’re never just one thing. I’m leaning into that.”
“I’m in a position where I can be who I am and express myself in something I love and believe is a gift”
Though Australia has her heart, Amani acknowledges that broadening her horizons has allowed her more creative freedom, and the space to explore. “In Australia, sometimes for people who look like us… if you do a certain thing, it’s still going to be streamlined to that one thing you’re known for,” she says. “London gave me clarity and confidence. If I wanted to make an Afro-R&B track, that would be totally fine. If I wanted to make something a bit more soulful and a bit more piano-centric, that would be OK, too. People would be supportive of it, and I wouldn’t have to explain myself to anyone.”
She continues, “It is beautiful when people who look like us will say, ‘I really love that you are diverse, that you show so many facets of yourself because I am like that as well’. It’s sad when you don’t see that. I want you to be fully yourself! It is encouraging to know that people are looking for themselves in the art that we make.”
As dedicated listeners find themselves in Amani’s music, she too continues to discover herself through her art – to keep her garden always growing and blossoming with new life.
“Music is the gateway for me getting to know more of my identity and who I am as a person,” Amani says, a smile spreading across her face. “It changes my life and the way I go about things. It’s been a revealing process, and I want to know more.”
Beckah Amani’s album ‘This Is How I Remember It.’ is out on November 29
Listen to Beckah Amani’s exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover on Spotify below and on Apple Music here
Words: Sosefina Fuamoli
Photography: Danny Draxx
Styling: Laura Mazikana
Makeup: Holly Rayner
Label: The Orchard