Tara Lily makes mystic jazz for all the ‘things that go unsaid’

For someone who makes such deeply meditative music, Tara Lily sure does speak quickly. I usually have some idea of how an interview will play out but, within the first ten minutes of the South London artist covering everything from her travels in India to being kicked out of Brit School for being “too ADHD”, I threw all plans out the window.

Her work is heavily guided by the Hindu goddess Kali. Responsible for death, violence and female empowerment, the mythical deity appears in the music video for lead single “Double Time”, leading Tara out of Mumbai and into the dark wilderness beyond, as well as being the spiritual energy behind her Shakti Jazz project, which explores the intersections between Ancient Indian and spiritual jazz music.

These dichotomies of creation and destruction underpin Tara’s debut album, Speak in the Dark, as a whole, unfolding with the natural oscillations of ADHD itself. From ethereal title track “Speak in the Dark” to the jazz-infused drum and bass explosions of “Double Time” and “Breathe Now”, the project is dedicated to all the “things that go unsaid” – a brooding meditation on death, mental health and Indian mysticism. 

Arriving on the heels of a jam-packed summer that saw Tara perform at Glastonbury, We Out Here, Shambala and alongside King Krule’s Archy Marshall at Mustafa’s Artists for Aid concert, the project marks a turning point in her artistry. Her first independent release following a contract with Motown Records (the first and only UK artist to be signed to the major label), Speak in the Dark is a fierce statement of her creative independence – mirroring the legends of the goddess Kali herself.

Below, we attempt to untangle all of the above in conversation with Tara Lily. 

It really feels like you’re on an upwards trajectory at the moment. How does it feel for you?

Tara Lily: It’s difficult, because I know that I’m very niche and I‘m very underground, so it’s via word of mouth that people find out. I’m South Asian. I grew up in Peckham. I’m blending electronica and jazz with my own heritage sounds. It’s definitely niche. I was signed to a major label, but my style was a bit too underground for them. It was a challenge for them to market me, which sometimes made me feel out of place. But then finally coming to an independent like Tru Thoughts, where people are fully behind the sound has meant a lot to me, being in a place where I’m understood.

I have severe ADHD, so I’m very up and down emotionally, but that‘s also something that I enjoy as an artist – I enjoy going into those different states and feeling those things. There’s things I sometimes want to hide away from, but overall I want to connect with them, because I feel like that’s where my creativity is. Over the last year, I’ve started this project called Shakti Jazz, which is an exploration of the relationship between ancient Indian meditation, spiritual jazz and improvisation. 

How did meeting the album’s producer Dom Valentino come about?

Tara Lily: I think it’s a lot of south London. Dom’s from south, I’m from south, a lot of people that I know are from south London. We all grew up here. Now it’s obviously become a lot more commercial and gentrified, but when I was growing up, it was an exciting place.

The album almost felt like it had one foot in south London and one foot in India. You were in India while writing the project, right?

Tara Lily: Yeah, so I toured India, Nepal, Hong Kong and Thailand. Everyone’s so heavily focused on America and Europe and getting to the top of the tree within capitalism, and I was like, ‘No, I want to go and connect with my culture and perform songs to people there.’ For example, I played the oldest jazz club in Nepal, which is called Jazz Upstairs. It’s a building made out of stone and has a massive fireplace in the middle. There were like 100 of these moras, which are South Asian woven stools, laid across the floor. People were smoking hashish in front of the fireplace in the middle. It was so incredible to perform there, it just blew my mind. A lot of the album is set between my touring here and in India. 

I can’t just sit in a room and make an album out of nothing, writing with random people. That’s just an alien concept to me entirely. A lot of the ideas have come from travel, movement and relationships – Tara Lily

How did that influence your songwriting process and the choices you made? 

Tara Lily: For me, going back to the ADHD thing, I have to do things that I find exciting and interesting. That’s my addiction. I’ll be like, ‘OK, I’m gonna go to India tomorrow,’ or, ‘I’m gonna go to Hong Kong,’ and it will just override any other things or thoughts I have at that time. So, those sorts of things really feed into the album. I can’t just sit in a room and make an album out of nothing, writing with random people. That’s just an alien concept to me entirely. A lot of the ideas have come from travel, movement and relationships. Even going on the Palestine marches – these are all things that are a part of my life, so that all has an impact on my creation.

I feel like, with so much conversation going on around neurodivergence at the moment, it’s so powerful that people are able to speak more freely about different ways of relating to the world.

Tara Lily: Definitely, it was so hidden for so long. I got expelled from the BRIT School because I had ADHD – and I was undiagnosed at that point. That’s what made me get a diagnosis. At that point, I was just unable to conform to society. Around that time, there was no radar for women with ADHD, it was just not a thing. Now, it’s a lot more known about, and everyone thinks that they have it, but I’m like, ‘Guys, you think you have it, but when you actually have it, it’s a different story.’ I was really badly behaved when I was younger, and I think a lot of that came from being pushed into a corner and made to sit still for long periods of time. I wanted to do jazz and South Asian music, and I’d go to BRIT School and it was all Beyoncé covers and pop music. I really wasn’t about that, like in my audition I played Mack the fucking Knife, which is a really wacky tune. Do you know what I mean? BRIT School just didn’t keep my attention. 

How do all these experiences play into the messages you wanted to send on the project?

Tara Lily: With tracks like “Speak in the Dark”, that’s about speaking your truth. “No Way Out” had quite a lot to do with people within the industry who are very controlling, very possessive, they pull you in and trap you in their web. Being a young female going into the music industry and having a lot of those people around me was hard for me. Then there’s “Six Feet Down”, which is about the deep, dark place of sadness, and “Double Time”, which is inspired by all of the Shakti energy that I mentioned at the beginning – channelling Kali, the mother of destruction and creation. Three of the songs are really about death too. It’s all about destruction and creation – that polarisation. So, when I talk about ADHD, it’s that – up and down, creation and destruction. I’m very expressive and I’m not afraid to go into those places. So, ultimately, Speak in the Dark, is about expressing the things that we don‘t want to say.

You were obviously making music and playing instruments from a young age, too. Where did that come from?

Tara Lily: My mum was in a punk band, and my dad was a Bengali folk musician who played tabla and harmonium. They had a love marriage. My parents were very wacky artists, we were a broke, arty family, and that’s really how I grew up. Then, being in south London and being surrounded by electronic music and the emerging jazz scene, I connected to all of those things.

London is one of the most exciting places in the world for music. Hands down. It’s just very hard to survive and be an artist here. The main thing is just the huge amount of different people that are here, which creates a mad landscape for exploration – Tara Lily

So, even travelling so much while writing the project, London is still important to you?

Tara Lily: Yeah, like I travel a lot for work and London is one of the most exciting places in the world for music. Hands down. It’s just very hard to survive and be an artist here. The main thing is just the huge amount of different people that are here, which creates a mad landscape for exploration. There’s nowhere else in the world that I’m going to meet similar people. 

Well, going back to the project’s theme of all the “things that go unsaid”, do you have any advice for people who, deep down, have things they don’t want to say? 

Tara Lily: I just see it as like you’ve got nothing to lose by speaking your mind, because, inevitably, your actions are going to come out later anyway – your thoughts and feelings around this thing are going to come out in some aspects of your life or your work. So, just voice your truth.

Speak in the Dark is out now