SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One of the first things you notice when you hear British singer Elmiene is just how distinct his voice is.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MARKING MY TIME")
ELMIENE: (Singing) Holding my breath, I've been dying, obeying all my life.
DETROW: It's melodic and rich and full of emotion.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MARKING MY TIME")
ELMIENE: (Singing) Free me from this world I've found so frail. Want to set my soul on fire. So, so, so, free me from this world I've found so frail. Want to set my soul on fire. (Vocalizing). Get me out this hole, too tired to stand. Want to set my, want to set my, want to set my. My soul, my fire, my life.
DETROW: And he discovered it at school, when his music teacher asked the class to pick a song to sing.
ELMIENE: We were in this room, and they gave us, like, 70 songs to choose from. And my eyes immediately went to "Man In The Mirror" 'cause I had a little afro, and I was already being referred to as, like, Michael Jackson kid.
DETROW: So he sang it, and people were impressed.
ELMIENE: My music teacher recorded it on his iPad, and I could see his conniving face as he was recording it. He was - I could see he wanted to do sing with it. Like, he saw dollar signs, pound signs, sterling signs.
DETROW: Word got around that Elmiene had a nice voice, and he says, the very next day, he became what he calls school famous.
ELMIENE: And then I just felt someone come and grab my hair, my afro. Michael Jackson kid. Oh, my God. It's you. Sing "Man In The Mirror," then. I went, what? I turned around, there was five Year 9 girls, and that is the scariest sight anyone can ever see. Fourteen-year-old girls? Nah. It's done. It's over.
DETROW: So he kept singing and recording videos, this time, on his own. He'd cover R&B songs from the '90s and early-2000s and post them on social media. Soon, he gained a following and became a lot more than school famous.
ELMIENE: It basically ended up being, like, a microcosm example of what would happen later on when I recorded the D'Angelo cover, and that kind of blew up.
DETROW: Years later, those videos would lead him to NPR's Tiny Desk. I spoke with Elmiene after his performance to learn more about his path, and he started by telling me about his love for soul music.
ELMIENE: What keeps me going about soul and R&B is how powerful intentions are with soul music. I don't feel like there's any other genre that translates emotions as sincere as soul does.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: Come on.
(Singing) Whoa.
Yes.
(Singing) Whoa.
Beautiful.
(Singing) Anyways, how've you been?
There's something about soul that is so pure and innocent in the way that it sings and translates. And that message of, like, love and just beautiful, simple things - that's something that I want to also be giving out to the world, so soul just became my instrument...
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: ...That felt mostly aligned with how I view the world and how I want to change it.
DETROW: You said something in another interview that really jumped out to me. You said that - talking about the feeling that you want to elicit when you perform - that if - you feel like, if I didn't make people cry, I failed.
ELMIENE: Yes.
DETROW: Can you tell me more about that approach, that goal? This is, like, a high bar to set for yourself.
ELMIENE: Pretty high bar.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: It's a pretty high - the thing is for me is 'cause I - the bar that I set for myself in writing is me, and that's pretty high...
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: ...I feel like. When it comes to making me cry, I have specific things. There's, like, certain chapters of "One Piece" that will break me down, for sure, which I watch and read on repeat. But when I'm writing music and songs, even if it's a happy song - and this is something that only started happening to me after I started writing it because I suppose it became my personal story. These are the things I'm taking from myself onto the page. But I just noticed that if I don't have this moment of my lips quivering in a way that I'm not used to that I've not done something right.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: (Singing) Awake in my mind. I've thrown my last dice. Hope in this try, I'll catch the last tide. I, I hear, I feel, the encore will ring. But anyways, how've you been? Whoa. Anyways, how've you been?
DETROW: You can have that high standard, and you can also bring joy to your performances, and we felt that here today. And for people who watch the video, they can see it, but for people listening to us on the radio right now, this caftan you're wearing is amazing, and it has all these different - it seem - you describe it for me. Tell me some of the things on here and why you decided to put them on there.
ELMIENE: This whole caftan - the idea behind it is basically it's just an explosion of my mind.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: If I got - such a horrible visceral analogy I'm about to describe.
DETROW: Go for it.
ELMIENE: If I got shot in the head, and my brains were everywhere, voila...
DETROW: (Laughter).
ELMIENE: ...It would be this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: I've also - I brought the Zangief. Yes, I did. Yeah. I know. I had to. Where is he? Is he in my bag? Is he somewhere here?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.
DETROW: What's your connection to "Street Fighter"? Is this - 'cause you normally have that (ph), then you brought Zangief, I think. Yeah.
ELMIENE: What's my connection to "Street Fighter" is a very loaded question, man.
DETROW: I love "Street Fighter." I played a lot of arcade "Street Fighter." And I feel like I just kind of did the one button with Blanka...
ELMIENE: Did the one button.
DETROW: ...To electrocute my opponent.
ELMIENE: Oh, the electric. Right, right, right.
DETROW: It's all I could do.
ELMIENE: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: Since I was a kid, this has been, like, my comfort franchise.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: Like, I remember being - once when I was like 12, we got kicked out of our house by these guys. This is a really deep story. I don't know why I'm telling this. Got kicked out of my house by these guys - and we had to live in my auntie's house, but I still had my Xbox.
I remember I was living in this room with five, six of my other family. And all I'd do every day is just sit there and play "Street Fighter III," and it was always fine. It was me and Ryu, me and Ken and all these guys. And then when I finally got back home, that was the constant. That's something that always is never - to this day, like, I've got a Switch in my pocket in the green room right now...
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: ...With "Street Fighter" loaded up. So if I ever need it, just...
DETROW: It's the automatic safety blanket escape out.
ELMIENE: It's just safety blanket.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: It's just the one.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: (Singing) Someday I want to love like the love I had with you.
DETROW: And the flag of Sudan is on the caftan as well. Can you tell us about your family's personal connection to Sudan, what Sudan means to you?
ELMIENE: Sudan is my blood.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: Sudan is the reason I'm here right now. Sudan is the reason I feel like I am as musical as I am or I was so inclined to poetry. I feel like Sudan is a country with a lot of history and tragedy and emotions and feelings and a really, really deep cultural history. And I don't know. I feel like there's nothing like the words that we use to describe those complex things.
Like, we're a nation of sharing. We're probably the most giving people you'll ever meet in your life, like, legit. Like, back in the day - an example I always like to give is in the neighborhood in Sudan, if you ever heard the bass of a party, that was your invite. Didn't matter who you were - you can hear it? Come through.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: (Singing) Going on and on and on. Same pages, never reached that omen.
And then we used to play as kids back in the neighborhood. It's like, you'd be running around. Da-da-da-da-da (ph). You'd see some lady's doors open. You can smell the food.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: You'd walk in as kids. You'd be like, oh, what's going on? Can we halve and share some of that (ph)? And they'll be, oh, like, come through. Like, let's - yeah, we'll feed you, isn't it? We're very giving. And it's the same with our poetry and our words and the way we express our emotions. We're a very, very giving people. And I feel like that's why I am the way I am. My mother, my grandma, my dad - all of them.
I feel like there's stories to tell about Sudan that have never been told before. And it's a country that's not had the chance to do that yet. Ever, really - well, most of East Africa, really. In general, I feel like we've not had the chance to tell our story yet. I mean, we - I used to watch TV as a kid. And there'd be some Black people on BBC or whatever on the TV, what's going on. And my auntie would be like, you know what? He could be Sudanese. He looks - I'm like, mum.
DETROW: (Laughter).
ELMIENE: There's Melvin Odoom. He's not...
(LAUGHTER)
ELMIENE: He's not Sudanese. I promise you.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: Wow.
(CHEERING)
ELMIENE: Thank you very much. I am Elmiene. This is my ridiculous, incredible band. I'm here right now. Yes, sir. And I thought I should share some lines of poetry because I am from England. Yes, sir, I am. And Shakespeare is of my kin.
So when the sun rises, and the moon descends, and the leaves grow up on the dews of the mountaintops, under the giant's armpit, it's me.
(Singing) Ain't it funny how things change? All of a sudden, we on the same page. Before you came, I thought I drained my luck. Now you've redefined the way I smile. Oh, you came to me.
DETROW: I feel like we got kind of weighty in a good way. So I want to end on a less weighty note, but you are embarking on this big tour. This is a new experience for you, and I'm just wondering what have you enjoyed the most about it.
ELMIENE: Sure. America food is crazy, man.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: You, like...
DETROW: How so?
ELMIENE: ...Just got it. You just got it like that. There's - I feel like it's most of, like, you know, the E numbers in that. What a wonderful, horrible thing. But just - I remember last time we were on tour. We were in - we ended up in Arkansas. In Rogers, Arkansas. Don't ask why. I won't explain. And...
(LAUGHTER)
ELMIENE: But we ended up in this, like, barbecue spot.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: And there are these, like, guys that are just, like, massive barbecue nerds. You could see were, like, really, like, deprived of human interaction, sat in their pits.
DETROW: Yeah.
ELMIENE: And I remember, my tour manager, George, was like, oh, like, how did you do that? And his eyes just lit up. He was like, yo, da-da-da-da-da. And then we were there - got this whole, like 30-minute description on how he does his meat, and you got to do the wood right, man. Got to be maple, none of the others - and I was like, yo, this is amazing. But it's like, I feel like in America, there's just a lot of passion for everyone's day.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: (Singing) It's light work, baby, light work, baby. I need you, oh, I need you. There's nothing heavy about this love, girl. It's light for me. It's so easy. It's light work, light work, baby. I need you, oh, I need you. There's nothing heavy about this love, girl. I need you, oh, I need you. It's light work, baby, light work, baby.
DETROW: That was singer Elmiene. You can catch his full Tiny Desk concert at npr.org/music or by going to NPR Music's YouTube page.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELMIENE: (Singing) I need to know if I can feel... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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