FEATURE:
Spotlight: Revisited
Jalen Ngonda
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BACK in 2023…
was the first time that I featured the terrific Jalen Ngonda. I included him in my Spotlight feature in 2023. The U.S.-born, U.K.-based artist is someone I have been a fan of for a while now. One of the most sensational voices out there. Reminiscent of some of the Soul greats, his music instantly leaves an impression. Even though there has not been that many singles put out in the past year, this is a period where Ngonda is putting out new stuff and this is his next phase. In the middle of a tour right now, go and see him perform live if you can. I am not sure whether there is a new album coming this year. His 2023 debut, Come Around and Love Me, won acclaim and showcased this brilliant young talent who is going to be around for years to come. I want to start out with a 2024 interview from The Independent, where we get an introduction to an artist who already has played Glastonbury and released a debut album that has seen him compared to some true greats:
“A gorgeous collection of sepia-toned soul, R&B, rock and doo-wop, it’s the perfect vehicle for his extraordinary vocals. Reminiscent of Marvin Gaye or Smokey Robinson, it’s smooth and supple, sliding across buttery melodies and lifting to a mellifluous falsetto. Songs such as “If You Don’t Want My Love” are backed by jangly guitars and shuffling percussion; “What a Difference She Made” – a romantic ode to “a girl with curly hair… and rainbow flares” – pairs celestial harmonies with sunshine-bright piano notes.
Born and raised in the Washington, DC suburb of Wheaton, Ngonda relocated to Liverpool in 2014 to study at the Institute for Performing Arts and has lived there since. The move was something of a culture shock initially, but it wasn’t long before he was calling the city home. “I love the people, I love the Scouse-ness… it’s also the perfect-sized city, where you don’t feel too trapped but it’s not overwhelming, either,” he says. Its thriving music scene and rich history (think The Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, and The La’s) are obvious draws: “Liverpool is the ideal place for me and has been for the past 10 years.”
When we speak, though, he’s back in Maryland visiting family, in the same neighbourhood where he went to school and jumped fences to get to a friend’s house. He describes it as an “average American” suburb, albeit one of the more diverse parts of Maryland. “There’s a big Latino population, African Americans, Jewish… there are lots of different cultures, music, food,” he says. “I felt lucky growing up here.”
It was there that he discovered his love of Motown, aged 11, listening to his father’s record collection. From the moment Ngonda heard the opening guitar licks and strolling bass of “My Girl” by The Temptations, he was hooked. “It revamped my mind, and I became an instant nerd,” he says now, adding with a laugh, “Well, I was already a nerd, but a bigger nerd.” Ngonda would beg his parents to take him to the mall to buy more Motown CDs. They scrimped and saved for his first guitar, a Fender Squier, and he taught himself how to play while singing along to his favourite tunes.
Still, Ngonda didn’t think of himself as a singer. “I wouldn’t dare to sing with someone in the house because I just felt too embarrassed,” he says. It’s not hard to believe – Ngonda is far from a showy performer and veers into self-deprecation when talking about his own music.
“When I sang, it was because I loved the song, or if I was in the choir at church,” he says. Ngonda played the drums at church when he was 15; a year later, he was playing the organ in different churches around town. It was only after his mum caught him singing to The Supremes that he entered a school talent show where he belted Stevie Wonder’s triumphant “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” and “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” by The Temptations. He danced, he sang, he did the splits.
“I shocked everybody,” he recalls, laughing at the memory. “Including my classmates, who had no idea I was even musical.” Newly confident, he joined a few bands in high school and started to write his music; he’s now working on the follow-up to Come Around and Love Me.
Ngonda arrived at his parents’ house from New York, where he was working on yet more songwriting. I wonder if being back in the US has heightened his awareness of the looming election; Ngonda says you can see Capitol Hill from certain buildings in his hometown.
“There’s always an atmosphere in America,” he says, with an air of resignation. “Whatever happens [in the election], America is going to be America. I think you have to go to a deeper place if you really want to change things – you’ve got to start in your own town.” I tell him his comments echo those made by pop singer Chappell Roan, who instead of endorsing a presidential candidate encouraged fans to use their “critical thinking skills” and “vote small, vote for what’s going on in your city”.
“People are so focused on what’s going on in DC, but they’re not worried about what’s going on in their local community. It starts there,” Ngonda says before stopping himself, “– but that’s a whole other conversation.”
To date, his songs have steered clear of politics, in keeping with the era of music he emulates. “[Most of the] songs from that time were love songs,” he says. “It’s the most human thing to talk about.” This is not to say he’ll only ever write love songs: “That’s just where I’m at, and I don’t want to force myself to write something I can’t feel”.
I am going to get to a more recent chat with Jalen Ngonda soon. First, if you have not heard his latest single, Just As Long as We’re Together, then give it a listen. One of his best records to date. I know we will hear more from Ngonda as the year goes on. Before getting back to another interview, DIY spotlighted the newest release from the fabulous Jalen Ngonda:
“Modern soul powerhouse Jalen Ngonda has shared new single ‘Just As Long As We’re Together’ - a smooth, heartfelt number that was brought to life when he took a trip back to his hometown of Wheaton, Maryland, to visit his family.
Setting his striking, Motown-esque vocals against a backdrop of sumptuous, sunny instrumentation, ‘Just As Long As We’re Together’ acts as a follow up to Jalen’s 2023 debut album ‘Come Around And Love Me’, and lands just as he concludes his sold-out tour of the UK at London’s Roundhouse this evening.
But if you didn’t manage to nab tickets this time, never fear - he’ll be back on the road for a run of festivals and support slots this Summer, before headlining another batch of UK venues in the Autumn. Check out Jalen’s full upcoming live schedule and hear his new single for yourself down below”.
Jalen Ngonda has also been championed by Elton John. Someone with an eye for spotting the best new talent, it all bodes well for an artist who built his fanbase and is growing his sound. I will be interested to see what his second studio album sounds like. Before getting to a new interview, there is one from CLASH from last year that you need to check out. I have selected a few sections from it:
“Debut album ‘Come Around And Love’ reflects those instruments, but it feels totally natural. This isn’t a time capsule – it’s the document of his experiences, marked by each passing day. “Also, I’m signed to Daptone – and they love that music,” he points out. “Maybe if I hadn’t signed to them it would sound like something else. But when you strip it down, my songs aren’t all that different to other songs coming out right now – they all talk about love, sadness, the heat of the summertime.”
The timeless nature of truly gifted songwriting is something he aspires to. A great song can make an impact on lives in other decades, creating points of connection that transcend the barriers of time and place. “That’s the whole point,” he says. “You get great songs from any decade, any century. Look at the jazz standards from the 30s, and how they’ve lasted. I think the 60s just had certain technological advances, and people were hearing that for the first time. And there was so much change – from songwriting to instruments to Civil Rights and the Vietnam War. There was so much happening at once. And because of that those songs will be remembered for a long time, possibly for centuries – the same way we remember Beethoven and Mozart.”
Jalen Ngonda is part of a new wave of soul artists who are breaking out of their niche. The streaming numbers for groups like Thee Sacred Souls are astonishing, and Jalen is following suit – the new soul generation are going global, gaining a huge audience in the process. “It’s a combination of many things. I guess it came out on a label that’s popular – Daptone is a pretty looked-at label in the soul world. But it’s maybe a combination of me playing, social media, and it’s just exposure, really. It’s down to exposure. I’m one of millions of artists who are putting music out – it’s down to who you work with, your team. If everyone works hard at once then things happen. And my duty is to write the catchiest stuff possible. I always intend to write something catchy, and for people to relate to it. Lord knows why things happen… but I’m very grateful. And it inspires me to keep doing it.”
CLASH caught Jalen Ngonda’s KOKO set, and it was an inspiring evening of soulful communion. For the American-born star, the connection he gets from live performance means everything. “It’s a good feeling. I put my bag at the door, and it’s all about the music. It’s an hour and 15 of pure humanness. Everyone’s together, we’re all looking in one direction. We’re intertwined. It’s a good feeling to be onstage, sharing music. When you look out and catch someone’s eye, and they sigh to a lyric, it shows that we’re all human, we’re all together, experiencing the same thing.”
His story is still continuing. Take recent single ‘Here To Stay’ – already a staple of his live sets, and sought-after by DJs itching to play his music to soul clubs. “It’s three months old to the audience but it’s five years old to me,” he laughs. “I wrote it back in 2019 with my dear friend Adam Kay. It was the second song we wrote together. It began as a backing track – we wrote the instrumentation first. He’d pick up the bass, I’d play guitar… we’d get chord progressions together. We built the track up, and we experimented with different melodies. I wrote the lyrics like two days later – I’d been listening to a lot of Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells type stuff. It’s got this low rider, sweet soul feel. I had those sounds in mind, and that’s what came out”.
I am going to end with an interview from Liverpool Echo from earlier in the year. Jalen Ngonda’s new home, it seemed like the city called to him. I discovered him back in 2023 and knew then that he would be a huge name. Someone with a long career ahead. That seems to be the case. This is an artist that you need to follow closely. An artist who, decades from now, will be mentioned as one of the true greats:
“Jalen's sound means comparisons with these legendary acts are inevitable, but describing him in simplistic terms as a 1960s throwback is doing his story a disservice, as his journey and his music are entirely his own. Although, on a surface level, the musician sounds like a product of those famed American soul cities such as Detroit, Chicago or Atlanta, it was actually in Liverpool where he found his voice and blossomed into one of the most contemporary voices in modern soul.
The Come Around and Love Me singer spoke to the ECHO in an exclusive interview about how he went from growing up in a small town, just north of Washington DC, to moving to Liverpool and selling out shows all over the world. He explained the turning point came when he was aged 19 and watched a documentary about a prestigious New York performing arts school as he plotted the next steps of how to turn his music dream into a reality.
However, it was another school across the Atlantic which captured his attention when the programme first made him aware of LIPA. He said: "It sparked interest. At the time, I was trying to go to school in either New York, Chicago, LA or Atlanta. I wasn't thinking about going to Liverpool or the UK.
"But when they mentioned the school, it just ticked a lot of boxes. I just looked it up on the internet and I was like, 'Man, this looks cool'."
Jalen reached out to the school, founded by Sir Paul McCartney, for information on how to enrol and was encouraged by its response. He told the ECHO: "They emailed and said, 'We went and checked your music out on SoundCloud. We were very impressed and highly recommend you apply.' I just picked up on that sign. That was the only time any institution had hit me up and said you should apply. I just went from there and things fell into place."
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Jalen grew up in Wheaton, Maryland and had hardly travelled outside his home state throughout his life. However, nothing was going to stand in his way of pursuing his dreams as he landed his place at LIPA and resolved to make the 3,500 mile trip to move to Liverpool.
Jalen's local community came together to make his dreams possible as his family and church united to raise the funds for a one way ticket from Maryland to Merseyside in 2014. Although the idea of uprooting your life to move to another continent aged 20 would be daunting for most, the singer saw the odyssey as a necessary step to fulfil his potential.
He told the ECHO: "The only thing I was worried about was if I wasn't going to make it. The worry I had was the doubt. No one in my area ever left, so I thought I was probably just going to be another dude that's not going to leave my area. The idea of moving to the UK felt so far fetched.
"I thought I don't know how that's going to happen, but I hope it does. I would have bad dreams of being told, 'Sorry son, you're not going to Liverpool."
Fortunately Jalen's nightmare didn't come to fruition and he made the long journey to Liverpool, by way of two culture shocks, with stopovers in Dublin and then the Isle of Man. He laughed: "I was like where the hell am I? All in a good way. I was excited".
However, he felt in more familiar surroundings the moment he arrived at John Lennon Airport as he explained: "When you fly to Liverpool airport, and you go [back into the city centre] through Garston, Smithdown and Wavertree, all that just looked like Philly or DC. Rowhouses and corner shops made me think this is just like Baltimore. This is just like home.
"Don't get me wrong, I didn't grow up in a city. I grew up in the suburbs of DC. When I went to places like the Wirral, I thought now this is like where I grew up." He joked: "I'm a wool equivalent when it comes to DC."
Before he travelled to Liverpool, Jalen already had a strong knowledge of the Merseybeat sound and he was thrilled to find a city and a culture more aligned with his musical tastes. He added: "Growing up, I was open about listening to Motown.
"Me, at 13, would get bullied for listening to my grandma's music. And that made me feel very insecure at times. When I moved to Liverpool, I remember I put on My Guy by Mary Wells [at a party] and then everyone in the room was singing along,.
"If I go out, I went to places like Heebie Jeebies and L'ago and they got The Kinks playing. I'm like, 'Is this the 60s?' This is my dream come true. That played a big part in it becoming my home."
This was world's apart from where he grew up when listening to soul and Motown went against the norm for kids his age. He said: "I feel like there was a pressure of 'Why aren't you at football?' or, 'Why aren't you at wrestling practice?' Or it was like you should rap or sing gospel music.
"I thought how about I just do soul or do what I want to do? Something changed once I moved to Liverpool and I think it was with my self esteem."
Doing what he wants has been a formula for success for Jalen as he is now looking forward to playing a hometown gig in the city so close to his heart, with a sold out show in the O2 Academy scheduled for March 12. He said: "It's always nice to play where you consider home. Because you get to go back to your gaff after the gig and you don't have to deal with any hotels.
"More importantly, it's good to play in front of people who I live amongst. Liverpool has played a very important part in my life since I was 20 years old. I may have grown up in Maryland, but I feel like a Scouser inside."
Selling out shows has now become customary for Jalen as you're unable to get a ticket for his new tour, which has just been in Australia and will be stopping off in locations such as Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Texas this year. In addition to a legion of fans, Jalen has won over a number of celebrity supporters such as Elton John and Snoop Dogg, who shared a clip of himself on social media listening to Jalen's 2023 hit, Just Like You Used To.
When he saw the Drop It Like It Hot rapper's video, Jalen said: "I didn't pinch myself. I slapped myself. I was like, 'Nah, this can't even be real.'" However, the success has not gone to Jalen's head as the love for music ignited when he first listened to his nan's soul records still burns brighter than ever, more than a decade after it prompted him to move across the Atlantic.
He said: "I have a drive. I'm never satisfied. I'm always wanting to accomplish more, not in a power sense. I don't care about the wealth side of it, I just know that I'll be very depressed if I ever run out of ideas and run out of things to write about. That has been the core reason why I'm still active and I'm still here".
I will leave things there. Go and seek out Jalen Ngonda. I wanted to revisit his work because he is someone who is growing in popularity but there are some who do not know about him. Busy on tour and with new music on the horizon, there is a lot of justified excitement around Ngonda. A scintillating live performer who is a future headliner, go and follow him and check out his music. He is going places. When you listen to his voice and immerse yourself in his music you realise that there is…
NOBODY like him.
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