Written by Lauren Rosier
The brilliant Dutch-Ghanian singer/songwriter, Nana Adjoa, shares a brand new single titled “I Want To Change” and prepares for the release of her debut album, Big Dreaming Ants, out September 24. With her previously released singles, “Throw Stones,” and “She’s Stronger,” you can hear exactly why there is so much buzz surrounding her music.
Adjoa talked to Gorilla vs. Bear and explained more about her single “I Want To Change”: “The desire to change is a weird feeling and brings with it a dichotomy of emotions. You get a sense of wanting to move forward, of getting out of a (perhaps self-imposed) rut, but you also fear leaving behind the comfort and security of what you know. With ‘I Want To Change,’ I’m giving space to an inner voice that quietly yearns for change and amplifying it in a way, calling for change that speaks to both the global and individual scale. I wrote the song over a year ago, now placing it in the context of the current state of the world, that inner voice feels more like a call to action for myself.”
Adjoa tells us, “It’s like being a piece of a puzzle – this small person, dreaming about larger things,” she continues, “For me,” she says, “music is a way to believe in something deeper.”
Born to a Dutch mother and a Ghanian father, Adjoa joined her first band as a teenager and decided she wanted to play bass. “Every other instrument had been claimed,” she laughs. Later she found out her mother played bass in a Ghanian Highlife band and still had her guitar.
She later joined the prestigious jazz program at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, but soon realized her heart was elsewhere with music. She eventually joined a variety of bands, began recording her own music, and then in 2014, she entered the Grote Prijs van Nederland, the longest-running and biggest pop-music competition in the Netherlands. She made it to the finals, and also gained a band, a manager, and the confidence to start a solo career.
n 2017, she released her debut EP, Down At The Root (Pt.1), followed by 2018’s Down At The Root (Pt.2), and A Tale So Familiar, also from 2018. With each release, she earned more and more critical acclaim and more support from radio stations and streaming platforms. Her debut album, Big Dreaming Ants, is taking a different approach, though. Big Dreaming Ants feature a wide variety of instrumentation. She was able to bring in some of the best names in music to play on the album including members of her live band, including drummer Mats Voshol, trombonist Daniel van Loenen, and guitarist Tim Schakel.
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