Words by Aneesa Ahmed
Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’ is blaring, and Sherelle has gleefully obliged. In a rage room in south London, the producer and DJ is wielding a giant hammer with confidence and purpose. It’s all shattering on set at her NME Cover shoot – plates, cups, home decor and more miscellaneous junk – and anger flashes across Sherelle’s face as she pulls different expressions at the photographer’s command. But the overarching mood is bemused joy, Sherelle smiling between poses and giggling at the ridiculousness of the situation.
“I actually think rage rooms are a really healthy thing, and we should have more of them,” she muses as we leave the venue. “People need to take time to reflect on how they feel. People have a right to be angry about things. There should be more spaces where its purpose is to just let it all out because, in the world that we live in, we’re not given enough space for release.”
Sherelle Thomas knows about the importance of letting it all out. The 31-year-old’s music has always been full of emotion and life, from her euphoric debut EP ‘160 Down The A406’ – which bottled her love of listening to pacy tracks on road trips with her sister – to the non-stop energy surge of 2023 single ‘Henry’s Revenge’. Earlier this month she surprise-released her debut album ‘With A Vengeance’, a punchy record packed with jungle and footwork that serves as a space for release for darker feelings of anger and betrayal.
Sherelle initially started working towards an album in 2021, but the timing wasn’t right then: she needed more time to grow and figure out what she wanted to say. “I’m in a good place now. I have peace and serenity,” she tells NME, tucking into some vegan Asian-inspired small plates miles away from the madness of the photoshoot. “To be able to unlock some of the sounds and themes in ‘With A Vengeance’, I had to really tap into some of my emotions and memories of things that had happened.” The anger that’s bottled in the album, in particular, took some time for her to learn how to process. “There was a lot of time where I felt like I didn’t have a lot of control and couldn’t be completely free to feel the things I needed to feel.”
Although this is her debut album, Sherelle is no newcomer. The London native started out in the dance music scene in the early-2010s by DJing at local club nights in the city, later landing a show on community radio station Reprezent and a day job at Mixmag. In 2019, her now-iconic Boiler Room set and its high-octane blend of jungle, footwork and bass music went viral and introduced her to the masses. She quit her day job and became a full-time DJ, playing everywhere from Glastonbury to Dekmantel.
“Clubbing is becoming a luxury, which it shouldn’t have to be”
From the outside, this seemed like a jubilant ascent, but she describes 2021 to 2024 as “complete chaos”. “In 2022, I did over 90 gigs – I was actually meant to do over 100, but I had to cancel a few because I was having panic attacks and mental health dips, and I was going out and drinking lots.”
The always-on-the-go nature of her career preventing her from producing an album. “I actually have something to say now,” she explains. “Before, I never sat down [long] enough with my emotions to be able to actually translate them into something.”
‘With A Vengeance’ maintains the same pulse and pace as much of Sherelle’s earlier work, but this time, she’s more intentional about the styles of production she brings to the table. Her sound is hard, fast and strong, but its speed doesn’t distract from its emotive energy, combining jumpy jungle drums, acid house 303 bassline patterns and juke sonics. “In terms of a signature Sherelle style, I felt like I needed to hone in on that,” she explains. “I don’t want to make just an atypical jungle tune. I didn’t want to just use breaks for breaks’ sake.”
Enlisting her friends and collaborators to work with her on the record helped Sherelle achieve her goal. The single ‘Freaky (Just My Type)’, which combines 808 kick drums with a pop music flow, was made in a studio session with featured vocalist George Riley, who sings about raunchy desires, and producer Loraine James. “We were talking, laughing and cackling, especially with what the song is about,” Sherelle recalls with a smile. Despite the fun studio atmosphere, though, she was apprehensive about the direction of the track, struggling at first to believe in the original instrumental. But, 15 minutes after Riley added her vocals, she changed her mind and describes it now as “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had with production”.
That initial lack of conviction, she says, stemmed from past experiences of feeling underestimated. “Annoyingly, there’s been a lot of people with a lack of belief in me,” she explains. “People have wanted to keep me in a very specific space, and I’ve never been given the chance to grow. I’ve grown more confident and this is why I’ve been able to put the album out.”
‘Freaky (Just My Type)’ was partially recorded at the Beautiful music studio, a free London studio for Black and queer artists that Sherelle opened in 2023. Inspired by her time at Reprezent, the space is part of the wider Beautiful initiative, which hosts workshops and offers mentorship opportunities and chances to release music to Black and queer DJs and producers.
“My ex-station manager, Adrian, he put blood, sweat and tears into myself and others and essentially birthed emerging talent,” she says, looking emotional. “He didn’t want a thank you. He took in a bunch of kids and talked to them, and nurtured them. That’s the kind of legacy I want to carry on. I now check in with local DJs, and with Beautiful, I make extra time to help the people on the programmes, as I would have needed it when I was younger.”
Sherelle’s growing legacy doesn’t stop at lifting up budding talent. She’s also on a mission to make dance music more accessible for everyone with her national event series, Sherelleland, where all tickets cost just £10. The most recent edition on April 11 took over London’s Roundhouse, where she celebrated the release of her debut album.
“I don’t want to make just an atypical jungle tune. I didn’t want to just use breaks for breaks’ sake”
“Clubbing is becoming a luxury, which it shouldn’t have to be,” Sherelle says. “People just can’t afford to go out anymore. But [with Sherelleland], you can tell a lot of people feel relieved that they had a really good night out.”
Sherelle’s wallet-friendly club nights are something she sees the scene needing much more of, urging her fellow DJs and artists to invest more in their fans. “People need to get their finger out their arses and start creating some more [nights like this],” she says. “There’s a lot of people who could maybe take a hit or two – I take a hit and maybe don’t get paid for a certain amount of time, but it’s for the people.”
There’s more to Sherelleland than just making a night on the dancefloor more affordable – it also provides that space for vital catharsis. Casting her mind back to the rage room of earlier, she draws a parallel with nightclubs: “Clubs are spaces of release, you can let yourself go and enjoy a drink, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, with your friends. In this world, where is our respite? We need to do more to look after ourselves.”
For the producer and DJ, clubbing has a “healing” element – feeling the music in your gut as it pumps out of a big soundsystem – and experiencing that made her fall in love with it in her late teens. “You know when you can feel it in your belly, and it’s like, ‘Ohhhh’?” she asks, clutching her abdomen. “I love how expansive music can sound in a space like a club, and how collectively everyone reacts to that track. More people should get to feel it.”
At the same time, Sherelle has also had to learn to slow down and balance the constant social demands of a job that revolves around going out. “As a DJ or performing artist, you find yourself in a constant cycle of manufactured happiness, with an expectation to be social and outgoing all the time,” she explains, noting that these are often heightened by the normalisation of partying and drinking culture in the industry.
She points to her Dekmantel set – which she considers the best set of her life – as an example of when she was sleep-deprived, had barely eaten and went on a “massive piss-up” the night before. “You have to always be switched on and be smiling and happy – you’re playing, you’re dancing,” she says earnestly. “At [some] point, it becomes too much and it catches up to you. Something has to give.”
Back in the rage room, as the shoot came to a close, Sherelle lay on the ground among the broken clutter for overhead shots. Between each snap, she stayed in place and made herself comfortable within the mayhem around her. “I’m never comfortable with the way things are because I know at some point everything will change,” she reasons. “But over time, I’ve learned to roll with changes and to just embrace it.” Stillness can be found in the storm, and that’s something Sherelle has learnt on her journey through the chaos.
Sherelle’s ‘With A Vengeance’ is out now via Method 808.
Listen to Sherelle’s exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify or on Apple Music here.
Words: Aneesa Ahmed
Photography: Sarah Louise Bennett
Clothing: Nicholas Daley
Styling Assistance: Ella Vinell for studio inside out
Label: Method 808
Location: Smash It Rage Rooms