with someone else, there’s somehow
more of me in it.”
It’s true that falling in love seems
to have brought Shura out of herself
- the album, and particularly some
of the tracks on there, feel extremely
intimate. In its first half, BKLYNLDN
perfectly captures the initial euphoric
lust of a new relationship and, in
its second, flips the narrative as
lust becomes love. “That was 100%
my intention. It starts off as quite
a dramatic, slinky, moody sex jam,
basically,” laughs Shu. “Sounding like
the way you want to feel at the begin-
ning of a relationship; like the other
person finds you sexy. It’s quite cool
and restrained for the first half and
then, suddenly, it explodes into this
joyful... silliness. The first half is sex
and the second half is love. And love
in that way that when you are in love,
you will skip down the street holding
hands without giving a fuck what
anyone thinks, because fuck what
anyone thinks.”
Love, as on the album, is a theme
that comes up frequently through-
out our conversation. So, just who is
this mystery woman she’s so madly
fallen for? “We met online.” Don’t we
all? “Yeah, I mean, that’s something
that happens with gay people a lot,”
she jokes. “I mean, the straights are
definitely catching up but, you know,
there weren’t that many out queer
people around when I was growing
up in Manchester. The only way that
you could meet other people was by
going to the Gay Village – underage
and sneaking into bars – or by using
Gaydar Girls, so I feel like we’re used
to meeting others that way. This [rela-
tionship] happened after we met on-
line, but unlike Tinder – where maybe
you set a 10-mile radius – we weren’t
physically near each other and, actu-
ally, that’s what was really lovely. We
couldn’t just meet up straight away,
because she lived in New York and I
was living in London.”
In the beginning, Shu explains,
she and her long-distance beau texted
each other occasionally. Then it be-
came phone calls, and then the phone
calls became Skyping and then, after
WATCH
BKLYNLDN
tinyurl.com/DIVAshubklyna few months, she thought: “Well,
I guess we should probably go on a
date!” Then, “I basically invented a
reason for me to be in New York and...
we haven’t looked back since,” she
smiles, tellingly.TALES OF THE CITY
It wasn’t only a new love interest that
captured Shu’s heart, but America
itself. Has it been conflicting falling
in love with a nation at a time when
many are falling out of love with it?
“It’s a weird emotion to feel at a time
when everyone else is like, ‘Fuck’,” she
admits. “It is conflicting, but when
you’re falling in love in a place it’s
very difficult not to fall in love with
that place, because it’s the backdrop,
the scene in which you’re falling
in love.”
“America is so fucked in so many
ways – in the same way that the world
is kind of fucked right now – but New
York is a bit of a bubble, which is nice.
It has been strange to discover that
there are so many wonderful things
about America at a time when I’m not
a fan of the politics or the president...
But thank god I’ve managed to find
some joy, otherwise I’d be miserable
over there. It’s like a protective barrier,
but then being in love is like that,
isn’t it?”
Has she always had a soft spot for
New York? “No,” she replies, shak-
ing her head. “The first time I came
to New York I bloody hated it. It was
loud, everyone was angry at me for
no reason and someone stole my
phone from under my pillow at the
hostel I was staying in. I was like,
‘New York fucking sucks’. It was only
once I started experiencing it with my
girlfriend that it began to look like acompletely different city.”
Shura now lives full-time in
the Big Apple – “That’s where I pay
rent” – but is often in the UK or on
the road, never settling for too long in
one place. But is settling something
she’d like to do one day? “I think I’ll
always feel a bit like a nomad. Musi-
cians often are. But then I wonder
whether growing up bicultural meant
that I was always going to be a bit of
a nomad? I’ve always had that spirit
of wanting to do things that are new
or different. The idea of being in the
same place forever sounds horrible
to me. I always want to push myself,
but at the same time, sometimes you
just need to sit down, pay your rent
and like, chop an onion. Make some
spaghetti bolognese, you know?”HEARHER
As we begin to wrap up, the conversa-
tion turns to headlining the newly
rebranded HearHer Festival this
autumn. How did she get the gig? “KT
Tunstall was one of my favourite
artists growing up. Tegan and Sara
were, too. So it’s really funny now,
with supporting Tegan and Sara [in
September 2016]. In fact, I think I have
a copy of DIVA with Tegan and Sara
on the cover that I’m going to frame
and put alongside this issue. But
that’s the weird thing about becoming
successful. You end up meeting these
people who were your heroes. So,
when KT was like, ‘Do you fancy
doing this?’ I was like, ab-so-fucking-
lutely!”Want more? Visit weareshura.com, follow her
@weareshura or catch her at HearHer Festival, 11-
13 October 2019. For tickets, visit hearherfestival.
co.uk and follow @hearherfestival on InstagramSHURa SaYS...
The best thing about Brooklyn is...
“Bodegas! Which is basically
just the American version of a
newsagent, but they have so much
more in them. Like, every bodega
has a deli and 300 million different
things to choose from. Literally
absolutely everything, it’s so great.
I love them.”The best thing about London is...
“My cats. They stayed with my twin
brother when I left. We’ve got two,
Winifred and Fluff, and Winnie
definitely has anxiety. So I’m like, if
I put her on a plane, she’s definitely
going to have a heart attack and
I don’t want to do that. Plus, it’s
also an extra thing for me to look
forward to when I go home.”My last WhatsApp message is...
“A message from my brother’s
boyfriend, who’s dressed as a nun
(he did that at Glastonbury, too)
sending me a picture of the Alps or
something. My girlfriend doesn’t
use WhatsApp, so my WhatsApp’s
pretty dry. It’s basically made
up of just one giant group called
‘Homosocialise’.”35COVER STORY | SHURA