Sasha Keable

Sasha Keable doesn’t pull any punches. As one of the most exciting young vocalists in the UK at the moment, she doesn’t pull any punches, calling our whoever and whatever needs vocalising with her signature ethereal melodies.

“My boyfriend didn’t wanna have sex with me for a week, and I was just like ‘you’re a prick’, so I wrote a song about it,” says Sasha Keable playfully as she sips on a cup of tea in a tiny kitchen in North Greenwich. “I think people like how honest I am. I don’t really hold back what I think. I always spill too much information about myself, and it’s no different in my songs as well.”

The 25-year-old singer/songwriter is speaking about her latest single “Treat Me Like I’m All Yours”, the second release from her new EP: “MAN”. Sarcastically singing “cause I heard you say my attitude was getting kinda stiff / And I replied at least something in this fucking house is,” her lyrics impishly recount her relationship with lust and long-term love. “I just thought it was a funny thing to write about,” she says. Equally wry in its humour, her first release, “That’s The Shit “, documents boys popping bottles at clubs with money they don’t have, as girls hang around waiting for their free sip of champagne. “I always used to get into fights with the girls because I’d be like ‘fuck off man I’m trying to dance, just move. You’re jarring!’” 

Keable’s frank tracks discard the artificiality of pop in favour of the grit and candour of R&B and soul. She sounds like the lovechild of Amy Winehouse and Lauryn Hill, with warbling husky vocals tinged by a South London lilt and a jazzy cadence. This is no exaggeration of her vocal ability, which she recalls discovering at the age of 7: “I went to our local pub and they put on this talent show that was pretty jokes. I sang Kylie Minogue to a bunch of local geezers. That was kind of when I was first like ‘I’m actually really good at this’.” 

“My boyfriend didn’t wanna have sex with me for a week, and I was just like ‘you’re a prick’, so I wrote a song about it,” 

Signing a 5-album record deal with Tinie Tempah’s label Disturbing London at the tender age of 17 is proof enough of her inimitable vocal capability. But the Columbian British artist quit music for the last four years to escape the mechanisms of record labels trying to systemically churn out another manufactured pop star. “I was just misdirected by a lot of people. Now I just don’t really take any shit. I’m just like no this is what I’m doing. I feel like I went around the houses to get to where I am now but I’m really grateful for it because it’s made me, not to sound like a fucking dickhead, so much stronger.” She continues, “I was never into it to make pop music but that was what they tried to push me towards. If I’m not making music that makes me happy, I would rather be doing a normal job. And now I’ve got that so fucking clear in my head.” 

Her authentic sound reflects her decision to turn her back on the domineering musical moguls of a male driven industry. Her mother’s dining room in South London is now her studio, where she sits and writes lyrics with her two pianist friends’ day to day. Eventually, voice noting the new tracks on her phone and recording them with a live band. For Keable, writing is a cathartic experience and one that was polluted by the pressure of producers pushing her into 2 to 3 studios a week to proliferate ideas at an anxiety-inducing rate. “It did nothing for my brain,” she says. But turning her house into a lyrical haven, as is becoming more commonplace with the rising prices of studios, has provided her with a safe space for unbridled creativity. “It’s just a bit more like if I wanna fucking cry I don’t feel any kind of way about bawling my eyes out and writing a song. And if I wanna get drunk whose stopping me really.”

It is her music’s unapologetic self-assurance and unfiltered vulnerability that she delivers with a savvy-wit that makes Keable’s music stand out. “I’m not deluded. I know my voice is sick, I know that I make good music without it being like ‘I’m so great.’ People don’t necessarily have to conform to pop stuff to make money, to be able to tour, to be able to live their dream. You can just do what you wanna do.” Sasha Keable has taken back control of her destiny, with two fingers up to anyone that stands in her way.

Fashion Phoebe Butterworth

Photography Meara Kalllista Morse

Words Ella Bardsley

Grooming Sogol Razi