Poppy Ajudha: "I'm going in a new direction. It's exciting, but it's fucking scary"

From jazz snobbery to pop euphoria, Poppy Ajudha's musical evolution sees her confronting fears, celebrating love, and redefining her artistic identity with a new, sunshine-soaked sound. Check out the latest cover story for our New Music Friday playlist edit, PLAY.

Words: Martyn Young.
Photos: Leila Afghan.

"I definitely feel that I'm challenging myself in a way I haven't before," says Poppy Ajudha confidently as she gets ready to continue her comeback with new music that showcases a different, poppier sound for the singer-songwriter as she embarks on a new era. Having just performed at London Pride, Poppy is on a high as we encounter her, knowing she has a bucket full of pop bangers up her sleeve, beginning with the ebullient joybomb of new single 'Girl Next Door'.

"It's such a different experience starting to put songs out into the world that are so different from my previous music," she says. "I'm going in a new direction. It's exciting, but it's fucking scary."

Poppy Ajudha has always been an artist who knows exactly what she wants to do and exactly what she wants to say and is determined to make her voice heard. 2022's debut album 'THE POWER IN US' was strident and powerful with socially conscious lyrics and a real urgency to her message. "The most important part of being an artist for me is being a fucking artist," she says forcefully. "As an independent artist, that isn't a lot of what you do. There's a lot of business, a lot of industry stuff, a lot of conversation and strategising. Social media has become a huge part of being an independent artist. The thing that keeps me really passionate is making music that's reflective of who I am, and is honest and raw and tells a story of my journey as a person and a human in the world having experienced things."

If her previous album was centred around her observations of the world and the social change we need, this time around, on her forthcoming second album, the focus in more inward on Poppy herself and her place in the world and the relationships she has. For example, in the expression of breathless love and desire of 'Girl Next Door'. "It was a song I wrote about the first queer relationship that I had and the first woman I really fell in love with," she smiles. "It also forced me to accept my own identity and my own sexuality. It forced me to have conversations with my parents. When you're dating someone, you can't hide it; you want to talk about it. It was a coming-of-age song."

The single was also a landmark song in terms of Poppy finding new ways to express herself and new textures for her music. "I allow myself to be influenced by everything around me and I was listening to more pop music," she reveals. "I was engaging with different sounds that I hadn't been before. My music tastes were very alternative. I've very much been an artist that's like, 'Urgh I don't listen to Drake, I don't listen to Justin Bieber'. I've come from that jazz scene that can be a little bit snobbish about that kind of music. I started exploring more alternative pop music, people like Kevin Abstract and King Princess. That started influencing my sound. I started writing this song on the piano, and I couldn't finish the song because I was like, this just feels different; I'm writing in a different way. It was the birth of this album. When I heard it, I was like, omg, it's definitely more pop than the other songs. How do I feel about this?"

The desire to challenge herself is part of the journey of self-reflection that Poppy has been on over the last few years as she has travelled the world from stage to stage and emphasised her place as a vital voice in black British music as a woman in multiple creative fields from music to fashion to art. The one thing she kept coming back to, though, was the importance of finding herself. "I've gained a lot of self-awareness," she reflects. "I've learned a lot, and I think doing those soul-searching activities, being in therapy, as you get older, you're thinking about the world and how you interact with it and what your relationships are, and you're becoming more self-aware, and that's why this album is what it is. Before, I was looking to the outside, fresh out of uni and looking at the chaos around me and writing about it. I don't think I had that level of self-awareness on the first album. I strongly believe that any kind of social change in the world starts with how you behave and you engage with the people around you."

Human connection is a strong theme of Poppy's new music. "Something that has become super important for me in the last four years is finding people that you have a synergy with, that get you and understand you and make you feel safe and open to explore and experiment," she explains. "Especially with this album it's become the most important thing. I don't want to work with people if I don't feel comfortable." Working between LA and London, Poppy found a team who could bring her vision to life. In an example of how close bonds were creatively inspiring she talks about how a trip to Europe led to her finding a creative partner to bring her vision for the visual identity of the project to life. "I went to Hamburg and found an incredible photographer; within a week, we shot every single piece of artwork and the album cover," she says. "We became incredible friends. We'd do a Zoom to talk about the artwork and spend hours talking about philosophy. We connected and made beautiful art because of that. That's the way I want to work."

The feeling of self-awareness and self-care is at the heart of her new record. "Being an open and honest raw person accountable for their actions, who treats other people with kindness and communicates clearly is what I want people to take from this album," she says as she expands on the theme. "A different way of looking at the world and investigating what they want in their relationships and love. All these things are equally important in how we see the world and affect the people around us."

At peace with the world and her place in it, Poppy is now eager to spread a message of hope. "It's much more euphoric," she exclaims. "I felt like I wanted there to be joy in this project. I wrote a lot in LA, so I was surrounded by sunshine. There are some sad songs, but it's much more upbeat, and fun and open. It's reflective of wanting to experience that happiness in life. I can't wait for people to hear the full story. It's about me wanting to make my mark on the world and have a legacy."

Like all great stories, once you experience them, they will be remembered for a lifetime and for an ultra-ambitious artist like Poppy, she's determined for her story to be eternal. ■