September 2019 | Rolling Stone | 21
line songwriter, an uncredited vocalist on a
few massive British dance-music hits, and as
the lead singer for folk-rock band Phantom
Limb. She did some work as a backup sing-
er, though she turned down an offer to work
with Adele. “People try to coax you into
those jobs all the time as a woman of color,”
says Yola. “Backup singers are almost ubiq-
uitously my shade or darker. The moment I
touch it, I devalue my voice.”
Yola felt a similar lack of creative control
in her band Phantom Limb, which led her
to quit the group in 2013. She took a three-
year break from music, funded by royalty
checks from British club tracks she sang onand produced. “My life looked like this,” she
says. “Tuesday: tennis. Thursday: javelin.
Saturday: horse-riding. In the middle: loads
of cocktails and eating in a kind of super-
gastronomically-advanced way.”
As a way to make sense of her tumultuous
time in Phantom Limb, Yola began writing
new kinds of songs: more honest and raw,
about “the hurt of divorcing myself from that
[time].” She thought about all the relation-
ships — personally and musically — where
she felt relegated to a supporting role. “For
quite a long time, I put on the ‘I can do any-
thing, I’m a strong black woman’ bullshit,”
Yola says. “But all that does is reinforce aparadigm of neglect. And you get pushed
into it a lot more if you’re in white spaces
most of your life, which I was.”
The latest space she’s learned to navi-
gate is Nashville, where she recorded Walk
Through Fire with producer Dan Auerbach
(of the Black Keys), and now stays in a space
owned by fellow Americana artist Rhiannon
Giddens. Yola is still getting used to all the
acclaim — for an album she made entirely
on her own terms. “The response has made
me highly emotional,” she says. “Getting
tweeted by Kendall Jenner and Jamie Lee
Curtis was not on the list of things I expected
for this record.” JONATHAN BERNSTEIN“Every
other day,
something
really
awesome
has been
happening,”
says Yola
of the past
year. “It
feels totally
abnormal.”UNDER COVER
Left: Matt strips off seven
layers during each Cage
set, though all that fabric
can be challenging at the
start of a gig: “When I start
to struggle, some people
are mortified.”ELEPHANT HERD
The band – Daniel
Tichenor, Brad, Jared
Champion, Matt, Nick
Bockrath, Matthan
Minster – outside their
club show at Reggies.
CAFFEINE FIEND
Below: Brad arriving at the
radio show: “I was drinking
14 [espresso] shots a day and
had a barista intervention. My
coffee shop said, “Are you sure
you should be drinking this
much?’ ” Left: Beck with Matt.MIDNIGHT VULTURES
Right: Matt and Beck
team up for “Where It’s At.”
Brad was shocked when
Beck recently offered
to ship them recording
equipment: “It’s like a
childhood dream.”SURF’S UP
Below: Matt surfs to
the end of the floor.
“Some of the things
he does scare the hell
out of me,” says Brad
of his brother.