FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: flowerovlove

FEATURE:

Spotlight: Revisited

flowerovlove

__________

HAVING spotlighted her…

PHOTO CREDIT: Finn Waring

over two years ago now, I felt it was overdue I return to flowerovlove. Since then, she has released the 2024 E.P., ache in my tooth, in addition to some fabulous singles this year. The moniker of the London-based producer and artist Joyce Cissé, she won Artist to Watch at the 2022 A&R Awards and New Artist at the 2024 Music Week Women in Music Awards. I am going to come to some interviews from this year. To start, I will go back to last year and an NME interview with flowerovlove. Published around the release of the ache in my tooth E.P., we get some biography and background to start which is very useful:

“After all, writing about big feelings has always come naturally to Cisse. Born in London and raised at home in Essex speaking Mandingo, the language of her parents’ native Ivory Coast, Cisse first started making music aged 13 around the same time her older brother Wilfred taught himself how to produce. The first song they made together was a rap track that she’s already decided will soundtrack her Album Of The Year win at the Grammys one day. “I realised: ‘damn, I really do love writing’,” she recalls.

In her teens she was scouted as a model and featured in a Gucci campaign as her first professional gig aged just 15. Balancing budding careers in both modelling and music, Cisse left school after her GCSEs and swapped exam halls for fashion shows with stars like Zendaya. After independently dropping her 2022 debut EP, ‘A Mosh Pit In The Clouds’, the singer signed to Capitol Records on her 18th birthday.

Your new EP captures universal experiences but they’re all told through Flowerovlove’s light-hearted and fun sound. Why are you drawn to that approach with storytelling?

“I connect most to songs about love, whether it’s self love, or it’s about other people. Love is so universal, which is why I’m writing about love. Stuff was happening in my love life and I was like, ‘There’s nothing I can do but write songs about this pain or this amazing feeling’. It’s crazy how love can turn to hatred so fast, and from the start of the EP to the end, I go through that journey sonically as well as lyrically.

“The EP is about different types of love, and it’s in chronological order. It tells a story. And I honestly just love the sound of pop. It’s the music I’ve always wanted to make.”

Your new EP captures universal experiences but they’re all told through Flowerovlove’s light-hearted and fun sound. Why are you drawn to that approach with storytelling?

“I connect most to songs about love, whether it’s self love, or it’s about other people. Love is so universal, which is why I’m writing about love. Stuff was happening in my love life and I was like, ‘There’s nothing I can do but write songs about this pain or this amazing feeling’. It’s crazy how love can turn to hatred so fast, and from the start of the EP to the end, I go through that journey sonically as well as lyrically.

“The EP is about different types of love, and it’s in chronological order. It tells a story. And I honestly just love the sound of pop. It’s the music I’ve always wanted to make”.

One reason why I want to include parts of a PRS for Music interview from February is because, on the same day ache in my tooth was released, flowerovlove collected the PRS for Music and PRS Foundation-sponsored New Artist Award at the Music Week Women In Music Awards. In this interview, flowerovlove discusses the importance of remaining grounded and developing her confidence as a songwriter:

“On the same day Ache In My Tooth was released, Joyce was on stage in London accepting the PRS for Music and PRS Foundation-sponsored New Artist award at the Music Week Women In Music Awards. It’s an accolade that draws attention not only to her achievements in music so far, but to her desire to empower and support women around her.

‘I’m just grateful that women are being seen, especially as a young Black woman myself,’ she says of her win. ‘I hope we get to be seen more. That’s why I’m here.’

For Joyce, it was particularly special to be in a room with so many other inspiring women whose stories and achievements gave her new insights into the industry. ‘There was so much love there,’ she adds. ‘Even if I hadn’t been there to collect an award, it was just nice to be in the room. It wasn’t really about me when I was there — I was just soaking everything in.’

Joyce clearly has a constructive mindset when it comes to tackling the landscape around her. But as someone that’s been making and releasing music from such a young age, what has it been like navigating the industry as a solo artist?

‘My honest answer is, I’m not sure if I’ve navigated it yet,’ she admits. ‘But PRS was a big part of my career when I first started, and it still is [now]. I didn’t even know what PRS was initially — my brother told me to sign up when I first made a Spotify account — but it’s been amazing. I think it’s a great platform for artists [as it means you remain] somewhat in control of your finances, and it’s also important in terms of giving you the knowledge of what’s happening in the industry too.’

'PRS was a big part of my career when I first started, and it still is.'

Joyce was also able to make use of funding through PRS early on in her career, which helped her build both her aesthetic and overall connection to her fanbase.

‘It was a very easy process [to apply], and very helpful in terms of [providing] funding needed for videos or events,’ she recalls. ‘I love to do fan events where I open and style a thrift store, and then spend time with my fans. Stuff like that is great, but there’s so many similar things you just can’t do as an independent artist without funding”.

I will end with an interview from The Standard from last month. The tremendous flowerovlove has joinined Halsey for dates on her North America tour. She has already opened for Olivia Rodrigo at BST in Hyde Park. This is a simply awe-inspiring artist who is going to headline festivals and release a string of huge albums. Supporting some of today’s biggest artists, the stock and popularity of flowerovlove is rising by the month. I am excited to see what the rest of the year holds in store:

“I just want to make pop the way I would have loved to have had it growing up,” says Cissé. “My music is very conversational, it’s somewhat nostalgic, and it’s super fun.” She cites everyone from ABBA to Justin Bieber as an influence. “I Iove dumb songs. I love when the lyrics are very unhinged.”

Music was her first love, but it’s not her first career. Cissé began modelling at 15, booking campaigns for Gucci and walking the runway at Paris Fashion Week. While she learned lots from the experience, she was soon eager to return to making music. “I felt my calling was just greater than being a model,” says Cissé. “It was to express myself, and it has nothing to do with the way I look.”

She implicitly understands the importance of iconography in contemporary pop, the way top artists encode messages to fans. She’s also got a much cooler term for it than the phrase Easter egg: “lore”. She’s creating her own mythology. “I like to do things with socks, I’ll have little snippets of text written on them.” She loves it when her fans go on the hunt for the hints she’s dropping. “Sometimes they think stuff is a clue when it’s not, and I love it,” says Cissé.

Singing about love inevitably means people are desperate to work out who the subjectof a song is. There has been more than one occasion where someone in Cissé’s circle mistakenly thought they had become a muse. “I recently got blocked because someone thought a song was about them,” she says.

Performing is clearly home for Cissé. She would rather be on the bill at a festival than in the crowd. And she can’t wait for fans to hear her new work and learn more of that lore. “It’s been a long time and I’m ready,” she says. “I’m excited for people to hear my music and understand my lyrics and feel something.”

Don’t fight the feeling, it’s about to be a summer of love — or rather, Flowerovlove”.

The brilliant ache in my tooth won some hugely positive reviews. I wonder whether Joyce Cissé is working on a debut album at the moment. With some big U.S. dates coming soon, the rest of this year will see flowerovlove win over new fans and hearts. Go and follow her if you do not already. Someone who I was captivated by when I spotlighted her in 2023, that sense of amazement and love has only grown. This is a phenomenal artist who is no longer ‘rising’, ‘promising’ or ‘on the cusp’. The future legend that is flowerovlove is truly…