霍普塔拉

豐滿嘅櫻桃雪藏鮮奶油, 而佢哋毛絨绒嘅皮膚，屈住唔透明嘅糖漿，衫味蕾監難以抗拒的甜味. 雖然呢個圖像召喚咗喜悅同甜點, 霍普·塔拉把櫻桃描繪成一個人激情嘅聖地, 自我物質宇宙與情感宇宙嘅碰撞. 佢對生果嘅強烈致敬係佢與Aminé合作嘅新單曲Cherries嘅掌舵. 樂觀嘅R&B斜槓爵士節奏掩蓋咗佢緩慢而平靜嘅聲，佢唱住由猩紅色毒液到占罐中嘅短語陽光吃掉你的皮膚, 睇下我哋所处嘅狀態, 隱喻同擬人化嘅節封印了她的標誌性風格.

自從她開始寫歌詞以來, 塔拉一直被生果嘅存在所吸引, 伊甸園, 亞當同夏娃嘅故仔係佢藝術嘅關鍵. 她對欲望對象和聖經參考的偏愛在她的新EP《女孩吃太陽》中達到了頂峰, 佢向世界自我啟示嘅選集. 封面把女歌手描繪為宇宙嘅最高力量, 她的頭喺太陽和月亮之間搖晃, 当佢戴住一對櫻桃耳環，企喺反烏托邦嘅地球上空時. 釋義, 如果你受不了熱, 走出廚房, 為標題嘅背景故事提供動力, 並反映藝術家嘅性格同沉思. 作為吞噬太陽嘅女仔, 塔拉敢于所有人，无所畏惧.

喺佢剝開一層層自我，解開自己係邊個嘅謎團之前, 呢位倫敦藝術家由佢對新靈魂同R嘅喜愛中出發&B流派模仿呢種風格，用波萨诺瓦嘅扭曲，用文學和個人神話嚟強化她的音樂. 喺我哋對她的獨家採訪中, 她呼應了她在行業中的起源點，並講述了她的過去, 目前, 同未來.

教養, 影響, 抒情, 同花名. 希望塔拉為布兰克雜誌提供一切.

TC:
現在在倫敦和現在第四個感覺如何.. 這是怎麽? 我什至不知道現在這是哪個鎖定..

霍普塔拉:
係, 所以我哋有所謂嘅第四層, 就好似一個相當嚴格嘅限制級別. 所以我哋基本上又回到了封鎖狀態. 所有不必要嘅業務都關閉晒. 而且我哋唔允許睇到入面嘅任何人; 我認為我哋最多可以做嘅就係同另一個人喺出便散步。. 所以它非常嚴格, 這是可悲的. 但我嘅意思係, 我認為這只是其中之一, 因為我哋而家有做到, 咁耐, 今次感覺輕鬆多咗.

TCr:
你嘅名由何而來? 係你嘅本名啊, 抑或係你嘅藝名? 就好似希望塔拉由何而來?

霍普塔拉:
希望係我嘅真實名, 但我嘅真實中間名係娜塔莎. 我好鍾意開, 但我從來冇真正想過，係我. 有一日, 我喺網上查找, 好似娜塔莎嘅暱稱, 顯然, 娜塔莎係一個俄語名, 係娜塔莉亚呢個名嘅暱稱. 我認為喺俄羅斯, 就好似娜塔莎同娜塔莉亚嘅另一個暱稱係塔拉. 我見到喇, 我就好似, Oh, that's such a beautiful name. So I just used that, and yeah, I think one day maybe I'll change it for real. I don't know, but I think it suits me better.

TC:
係, it's a cool name. What is your background? Where are you from, you're from West London?

霍普塔拉:
Mm-hmm. I'm from West London, and my ethnic background is that my dad is black, and his parents are Jamaican. They moved here, he was born in the 1960s, and my mom is white British.

TC:
What is it like to grow up in a mixed-race household?

霍普塔拉:
My experience has been pretty positive. 我嘅意思係, I'm lucky to live in a place that's very diverse, and I never felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb, or I’ve never felt like my family is the only mixed race family. So I think I was really lucky to have that.

霍普塔拉:
My dad has always lived here. He's visited Jamaica a couple of times, but he's definitely a Londoner and a British person. And so I think it would be different if he had been born there. He has two older siblings who were born in Jamaica, but I think he has a different relationship with Jamaica to them, simply because he was born in the UK.

霍普塔拉:
But no, I've always had a very wonderful experience, and I think I just grew up with the kind of mentality and the message that it's just amazing to have kind of exposure to multiple different cultures. I spent a lot of time with my Jamaican grandmother. She lives in London, and I spent a lot of time with her growing up and my cousins from that side of my family and my aunts and uncles, and similarly with my mum's family. And they were often quite different environments, but both very, very loving environments and environments where I learned a lot and definitely shaped me into being the person I am.

TC:
What was your relationship with music growing up?

霍普塔拉:
I've always loved, loved, loved music. I remember getting an iPod for my birthday. I was probably maybe nine or ten years old, and I just so desperately wanted an iPod. I wanted to be able to possess my own music in a way because there was always music playing. I had in my room, like dance parties and stuff, and there was always a lot of music around, and it was always really just such a part of who I am. And I was lucky to have music lessons as a child. And I think my parents were intent on me being able to have the opportunity to have lessons. And I played the clarinet from the age of eight, and I would go to a music school every Saturday. And so I played a lot of classical music, which was amazing and fundamental; I've used a lot of those skills now.

TC:
What sort of music did you like? What was your favorite band or a group growing up?

霍普塔拉:
I had so many different ones, but right now, I'm thinking about Take That. I loved Stevie Wonder as a kid. I really loved Michael Jackson. Oh, I love Beyonce. I was absolutely like, dangerously obsessed with Beyonce from between the ages of about nine and like 14, and yeah, it was really, I think, unhealthy. 係, she was a really, really big one for me then.

霍普塔拉:
I had that such an expansive taste, and in my teen years, I got more kind of into the neo-soul music and R&B. And then I think over the past couple of years, it's widened out again, which is nice. And I'm into more indie stuff now and rap and different genres.

TC:
Hm. How would you describe your music to someone who's never heard it before?

霍普塔拉:
I would say that it's alternative R&B with pop influence, definitely some bossa nova influences. And I would say that I think the lyrics are really important and I like to tell stories.

TC:
Talk to me about the stories you tell, how you find your influences, and your inspiration? Is it from your life?

霍普塔拉:
係, I think I got a lot of inspiration from my daily life or things I'm going through. In the conversations I have, someone will use a word or a phrase that I like the sound of, or I will, and I'll write that down in the notes on my phone to save for a rainy day in the studio. And so yeah, the conversations I have, a lot of the things I go through.

霍普塔拉:
I've always been a really big reader. A lot of the books and the poetry that I read inform what I'm writing in a way and help me structure a story, maybe more, directly inspired the stories that helped me in terms of structure and form.

TC:
How has this past year affected the way you make music?

霍普塔拉:
I've been a bit more introspective with my lyrical writing, which is on this EP that I've just put out, which I wrote during lockdown called Drugstore. And I think it's a vulnerable song. And I think that stems from spending a lot more time alone than I usually would. I'm looking inwards, perhaps a lot more than I'm looking outwards, because none of us are necessarily out. We're not as active, and we're not doing as much as we usually would.

TC:
If there were one thing that you could take away from 2020, any ways that you've grown or changed, what would you say that would be?

霍普塔拉:
That's interesting because I think the positive thing that I've got from 2020 is the ability to go with the flow a bit more. Being a little bit less focused on the outcome and more focused on the journey and what I'm doing, a bit cliche but less achievement-focused and just live in the moment more. And I think I worry less about trivial things because there's so much going on in the world on such a large scale.

霍普塔拉:
I think negatively though, I think I've become a little more socially anxious, and I'm more of an anxious person because I'm just not used to hanging out with people anymore and stuff like that. You know, I would love to say like, I've really grown, and I've learned all this stuff, and I definitely have, but also there are things that in 2021 I'm trying to work on and try to be more open and more sociable like how I usually am. It's hard to be sociable right now, but be a bit more like confident and stuff because this year has taken a toll, I think, on that side of me.

霍普塔拉:
係, sometimes we have harsh restrictions in the UK, which means you can't see anyone. Sometimes you can go for a walk and stuff. And I think that it's just so weird that I just stutter over my words so much more, and I'm like, Oh gosh, how do I articulate this? How do I articulate that? Because I'm just not used to it anymore. It's so strange. The way that we communicate and interact with people has changed so much.

TC:
What are you looking forward to for this year?

霍普塔拉:
I'm looking forward to hopefully putting out new music, being able to go on tour. Hopefully, I can't wait to be able to really hang out with people again and travel, maybe. Have new experiences.

霍普塔拉:
I think that my expectations for that stuff have gone down a bit, which is probably a good thing, and less obsessive about all these great things happening and doing lots of great stuff because anything is an improvement from last year.
I'm just so lucky to be alive and have my health and just continue making music and just to live my life. Like many people have had it so tough, 我嘅意思係, just excited for a new year. I don't know what it will bring if it will be any different, but fingers crossed.