Tesh on Collaborating with Others, Staying Inspired, and the Importance of Music Quality
Photo By: mont.pr | IG: @mont.pr
There’s a level of vulnerability that shines through when you’re a performer. People see you and hear your soul in the songs that you share. For most, this is a foreign concept that wouldn’t come easy. For Tesh, it’s second nature. It’s exactly who she is—open and honest and raw. The Raleigh, NC Hip-Hop/R&B artist delivers heart-felt flows and subtly sweet melodies in her music. You can hear just how much she opens her heart to the ebbs and flows of love, life, and circumstance. It’s so easy to open up and vibe to her sound.
A few months ago, I got to chop it up with the Stay Yellow creator herself, in her humble place with her crew and dog Mojo. Tesh met me with wholesome, warming vibes as she got her hair twisted by a close friend. We chatted about collaborating with others, staying inspired, and the importance of music quality as an independent artist.
When people first meet each other they initially see each other’s image. The first time I ever met you was at Imurj and you were wearing yellow. That’s your brand now, ‘Stay Yellow’. Why yellow?
Stay Yellow at first was just my own expression. I really liked how our people looked in yellow, so it was just something I embraced myself. Then I was like, I wear it so much all the time I might as well expand it a little more. Doing more research, and making a brand, I found out colors have meaning, numbers have meaning. Everything has meaning. So I looked it up and yellow is actually the color for suicide awareness. So being that I am expanding Stay Yellow into a mental health awareness brand. Stay Yellow, and be at your brightest. I’m expanding a little more this year.
That’s like really amazing. I’m glad I asked. Let’s get into your impressive discography. I noticed you didn’t give yourself a lot of time to take a break. You continuously put something out. I want to know how you stay motivated because as a performer, an employee, and an artist, it can be hard to manage your time.
I really dived into music after college. In college, I was doing music but I was playing sports as well. At the time I was focusing more on sports and academics. I didn’t have time to expand on music then. After I graduated, it’s job search time, and I was like okay…I don't want to do any of this stuff. I just wanted to make music. So I got a job and started focusing a little bit more on the music. I put projects out previously before moving to all platforms (Soundcloud). I had about 2 or 3 albums out, just a compilation of what I had been working on at the time.
As I got my brand going, I released Yellow Jacket and that was my first project that I created in the studio. All that made me really appreciate making music and it made me want to just make the quality even better. The next project had to sound better, I wanted to do things differently. With that, it’s being inspired by the people you’re around. That’s something that kept me going. I make sure that I surround myself with creative people. I don't think there's anyone that is around that isn’t creative.
Performing. Performing is also something that keeps you wanting to create new stuff. The more that you perform the more you want to perform new music. And loving the passion for music. I can’t really see myself not making music. It’s slowed down recently because I’m really focusing on the technicalities, down to marketing and the quality of my music.
I like that you mentioned marketing. Independent artists tend to need help with the business aspect. We start creating the music at first because we’re passionate about it and we love it but then you forget it is technically a business. We don’t like to think of it in that way because it can make the process not as fun.
Yea, even though it is a passion, you do have to treat it like a business if it’s something that you see yourself doing long-term and you want to grow.
You mentioned your SoundCloud earlier. What inspired you to take your music from that one particular platform to all (Spotify, Apple, etc.)?
I was kind of just starting out. I didn’t really know at the time how to get my music out on all platforms. It was just a way that I could get my music out there. I was doing SoundCloud and YouTube and then I found out that I could have my music on all platforms. I didn’t know that I could do that. I thought you had to be famous to do stuff like that. So when I found that out I started focusing on how my music sounded. If I made a song and it wasn’t mixed all the way I’d probably put it on SoundCloud. If I went to the studio to record a song I knew that I was gonna put it on all platforms. Also with performing, when people go back home and want to listen to your music they’ll be like: “Hey, where can I find you?” You want them to have access to whatever you have. I just wanted my music to be more accessible to my audience.
Your first single on all platforms is ‘Space’. Looking back now, what is most memorable about that track?
That song is super special to me because it was one of the first songs I auditioned with for The Art of Cool. I was auditioning to open up for them and they chose me. After that, I had a manager that helped me put it up because it was being recognized at the time. It was a pretty big record for me.
Do you ever go back and listen to it?
*Laughs out loud* I think about it from time to time, but I don’t go back and listen to it. I don’t listen to a lot of my old music, because it’s kind of like a diary. Like, you don’t want nobody looking in your diary. I’ll probably go back and listen to it, but I’m always around people so I’d probably be like, “Um, you can’t hear this!” I don’t mind though, because it was pretty good music back then. I do sometimes go back and listen but it’s not a thing that I do very often. When I do go back I’m like okay, I was making some pretty good stuff. I’ve been doing music for about 10 years.
That’s crazy! It makes sense though from the way that you perform and write. When I listen to music the first thing I notice is the lyrics. I can always tell if someone is a veteran. Can you remember when you wrote your first song?
It goes back to when I first started. My cousin was the first person that I saw record his own music. Again, I didn’t know that was something that we could do as regular people. I’m thinking that you’ve gotta be famous to make your own songs. He’s like, “Nah, all you gotta do is get you a computer mic, some software, drop your song in there and you’ve got your song”. My cousin, his name is Dre, he still makes music today. He helped me invest in a computer mic and figure out what software I needed to record.
When I first started I would always try to create groups. At the time, I didn’t really wanna do it by myself. So starting out I was actually in a group. That’s what helped me find my way and do certain things like write and record and make a song in general. Being a part of a group definitely helped me develop myself. I never really saw myself being an independent artist. Things happen the way they should. You’re just pushed in that direction and either you do it or you stop. I made a lot of music back in the day. Back in the MySpace days. It’s crazy actually, my old MySpace page is still up with the first song I’ve ever made.
After releasing ‘Yellow Jacket’ (2019) on all platforms, you dropped an EP ‘You A Fool’. Sonically it seems like you were going a different route, maybe trying something new. What was the process like?
At the time, I was a part of a group, Good Company. I had access to a lot of producers, some I still work with today. One of the producers I was working with, Prolific. He just came down from Charlotte and wanted to do an EP over a weekend and drop it on New Year’s. I was like, “You wanna do a whole project and drop it on New Year’s in a weekend?” So we agreed to do it. We pushed each other to just do what we needed to do to get it done. We actually did get it done and shot our own video for it. It was a new experience for me.
I’ve never really done anything like that since then. It was my first time doing something like that. I think it put me in a different place as an artist. It showed me my capability and what I could do. When we actually put it out I felt satisfied with it. We didn’t have all the time to get it mastered but we got the songs completed and sounded how we wanted them to. I was glad that we were able to get it done and meet our goal. Shout out to Prolific for pushing me on that.
Going back to when I mentioned connecting to lyrics. I made the assumption that you write mainly about love. If I were to pick a topic, almost all your songs are about love. You seem like a very romantic person. How would you describe yourself?
I’m absolutely a romantic. I write a lot of songs about love. I write a lot of sad love songs too. That’s what I used to write about a lot—just old experiences and stuff. Now, I’m not a sad love girl anymore. I got some new love now. I gotta start talking about happy love stuff. I can still make sad love songs, but it’d just be from past experiences.
I feel like the most universal feeling is love because it’s something everyone can connect to. Do you ever think you’d venture off and challenge yourself to write more introspective songs?
I’m kind of in that mode now, just digging deeper into myself, aside from writing songs about me, I’m just writing about myself. Period. I’m figuring out more stuff about myself and getting to the details. I’m working on getting people to know a little more about me. I’m finding different ways to do that. I can get deep.
Fal: Yeah, there are definitely levels of vulnerability. You don’t wanna give everyone every little piece of what goes on in your mind.
It’s kind of scary talking about yourself sometimes. Like, those deep, dark moments and the stuff that people don’t know about you. But that’s what a lot of people may connect with. I want to get into a lot more of that moving forward with my music.
For your supporters and listeners out there who are curious, what is your creative process like? Where does the creation usually begin? Walk us through it.
I have a lot of different creative processes. I noticed that when I’m writing without a beat, I really get into the storytelling. The songs are deeper and more detailed. When I’m presented with a beat first it’s a little different, because I am just off the fly. Usually, I’m with the producer and we’re just building off the beat at first. I work with a couple of producers on a regular basis. I work with Quale, I’ve worked with DJ Eyeconic before, Prolific, Tyler Hendrix, and J’Mar. Right now, the main producers I’m working with that I’ve worked with most often are Prolific, J’Mar, and Quale. We have a really great relationship where we can create from scratch and help each other build on the songs. Even sometimes they might give their opinion on how they think it should go or I might give them an opinion on the beat.
My favorite way of creating is to be with the producer, but I don’t like to feel the pressure that comes with completing songs the day I start them. That’s kind of what I go through when I’m creating in that setting. That’s why I do like to write before I go to the studio. I prefer starting from scratch, organically. I’ve started working with a band now. The creative process is different because we are starting from scratch with instruments. I get a lot of inspiration from the people around me. When we’re all just throwing our ideas out, it really helps the overall idea come out even better than expected. And I really do appreciate when I’m able to just sit down and write in silence.
Do you produce?
I used to when I first started out, but I’m a perfectionist. I wanna be able to have everything and I’m not really in that stage right now. Maybe in the future when I’m able to invest in more equipment. I wanna get all the instruments that I don’t know how to play.
What usually catches your attention when a producer presents a beat to you?
Probably the drums first even though I love the melodies. I feel like the drums are what’s gonna give me that melody. They allow you room to do so many different things. Funky chords. When it goes off one key then it goes back on. Yea, funky chords that make you make the “stank” face. I love to hear piano keys, guitars.
When it comes to your cadence, how do you decide the way you want to hop on a beat?
It comes down to feeling. When I first started making music I was really inspired by boom-bap. I got inspired by Left Eye, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu. Just by admiring and listening to them growing up, I developed my sound. It makes you feel good when you hear that music. It touches a different part of you. It took me a long time to find my sound. With rap, either the flow sounds good or it doesn’t. It’s just what flow is I guess. There are so many different ways to deliver. I think that’s why rap is so special—you can do it in your own way. There are people that rap off-beat and still get notarized for it. There are famous people who can’t really rap. There are different arts to it.
I find myself struggling to really get into mainstream hip-hop. I cannot find an artist that I really ride for heavy right now that isn’t independent or underground.
It’s so crazy because now rap is so different. I feel like it’s kind of dying out. They’ve been saying hip-hop is dead for a long time, but now I’m like yo, it’s kind of scary out here. There are not a lot of mainstream artists who are releasing good music right now. Since Kendrick Lamar dropped his album, I haven’t really heard anybody that I can just listen to. I feel like music is in a transitional period. I think a lot more artists are trying to get more melodic and sing. I think artists are trying to figure out where music is going. I think music is definitely headed in a different direction. I haven’t given up hope on people releasing good music. I just feel like it’s transitioning into something better.
I like to see how artists collaborate. That says a lot about the way that they work with others and how creative they can be outside of their own box. I wrote down some honorable collaborations of yours: ‘Light in the Dark (ft. Kameon Carter)’, ‘Never Settle (ft. Shego & Jack Doyo)’,‘Function (ft. Tia Corine)’, ‘Sunshades’ (ft. Jaron Smalls), and ‘If I Say I Love U (ft. Blvck Zenzi)’.
So Kameon Carter he has one of the smoothest voices that I’ve heard. When I first heard him I was like: “Yo, you got a smooth voice”. When we made that song I just invited him to the studio and he knocked it out that same day. I was satisfied with it. I heard him do a lot of other songs with other people so I knew for a fact that I wanted him on that song.
Shego and Jack Doyo, on that record when I first created it it was just an empty song. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it. I think Jack had just heard it and started rapping and I was like: “Bro, you can get on this”. And Jack, he’s a beast. Jack Doyo’s a beast. If you just take a dive into his discography, he’s a genius with melodies. He has this voice that has such range. It can go low or super high. I love the way he delivers on a lot of his songs. I was super excited to get him on.
Shego and I we work a lot together and have a lot of songs together. We just work really well together. I rethink she has a very unique sound and delivery. She’s fun to work with. You gotta keep fun people on your stuff. I feel like she livens up a lot of music that we do together.
Tia Corine. I decided to get her on ‘Function’ back when she first got signed. I asked her before to work together and she, of course, is a well-known artist so I knew she wasn’t free to get on a track. So I ask her what her price was and she told me. It wasn’t anything outrageous, but at the time I just didn’t have it. Then she got signed so I was like shit, I gotta hop on that. So I went back and asked her again and of course it was a little bit more, but I took a chance and I just went ahead and I did it. I was satisfied with how it came out. Looking back at the time about 2 or 3 years ago, I probably would have put a little more into developing that song. I’m not saying the song isn’t good or anything. I just feel like I could’ve prepared it a little more in order for it to be the way I envisioned. I definitely appreciate having her a part of the song. She’s super dope and talented.
Sunshades! Jaron Smalls is amazing and super talented. He has a voice that meshes well with whatever. You throw him on a song and he’s gonna put some sauce on it. I appreciate him for that. On another song, ‘Me N U’, he put some crazy vocals on it. It was just what the song needed.
And Blvck Zenzi has that tone. I can’t explain it. It’s deep and mysterious and raspy. I rock with him. We go back. That’s my guy.
Congratulations on your last album release, ‘Themotions’. What inspired the album cover? There’s a bunch of Renaissance-painted babies and rollercoasters.
When I released ‘Themotions’ I wanted to do a project for Valentine’s Day. So me being the artist I am, knowing that I’m a sad lover girl I was like: “I got pretty of these songs.” I found a few songs, I created a few new songs, and whenever I listened to what I had I organized it into a story. If you look at the title it's ‘Themotions’ together. It’s ‘The Motions’ or ‘The Emotions’, depending on how you look at it. It’s basically a visual of going through the motions of love. Love is a rollercoaster, broken hearts, angels, happy, clouds, sad clouds, everything. I just wanted to put all those emotions in one visual.
The last track on the album titled ‘Me N U’ has such a great and relatable verse: “But I ain’t too attached to you/I’d probably cut you off if I knew all the things you do/You always wait on me and swear that I won’t make no move/I guess we’ll always wait and see because we scared to lose/Can’t trust it if we skeptical”. Besides the rhyming, this reads like a journal entry. Is there any overlap between the events or feelings that go about in your everyday life, and the lyrics in your music?
Yea, it’s like you can’t really trust them completely. They probably doing some stuff. You don’t know but you love them so you’re gonna try to do this thing, but sometimes it gets into that toxic love.
In that particular song, I was definitely writing about somebody. But yeah all of my stuff is true. I don’t recall writing anything just because. A lot of my lyrics are from experience. If it’s not from a specific event, it's probably something that I just visioned or something that I want or don’t want. I wrote a lot of my best songs back when I was a little heartbroken girl. It’s beautiful to just be vulnerable and speak about your past experiences in an art form. Instead of talking about it, you can just sing about it.
Fal: Yea in the past I’ve struggled with expressing my emotions in the moment. I’d have to write a letter or just write my thoughts down.
Yea, absolutely me too. A lot of times I don’t know everything off top. So sometimes I just have to wait then collect my thoughts and then write them. A lot of times it’s just easier that way.
And there was a two-year gap between ‘Themotions’ and ‘Yellow Jacket 2’.
I moved to Atlanta in 2020. I was just transitioning to a new city and getting acclimated. After a while, I decided I wanted to drop something. I liked Atlanta for personal reasons. As far as business and my music career, it’s a cool city to be in, but I wouldn’t say I fit the crowd out there. I was mostly performing for clubs. I do have music for the clubs but I’m not really that type of artist. It kind of got draining after a while. I started to miss creating music that I actually love. I just wanted to get back to the real organic stuff—paint and chills and festivals.
Your vocals really stand out in this project. Looking back at earlier releases in your discography to now, there’s so much growth in your singing ability.
Yes, my singing voice had definitely developed a lot because I’ve always been afraid to put my voice out there. People would always say, “You can sing! Your voice sounds good!”. I knew my voice wasn’t where I wanted it to be at the time. With more practice, making more music, and my peers pushing me to use my voice, figuring out how to use my voice, just made me a little more comfortable. I’m still getting more comfortable and I know I still have a journey when it comes to my singing voice. It’s cool to see the journey of where I started, where I am now, and where I’m gonna be.
You ever been in a situation where someone is hyping you and they play your music in front of you? Do you ever get nervous?
Girl! So, I don’t mind hearing my music here and there, but listening to it back to back? I’m like: “Okay! You can turn it now. Please!” I really just have to be in the mood, but sometimes I do appreciate listening to all of my music at once. I’m like damn. I made all this shit.
Fal: Sometimes modesty can outshine the ego, but at times you’ve got to step into that ego a bit. There’s a nice balance to it.
Yea, I try to keep a balance, but I like to stay on the humble side.
You’ve performed at this point more times than you could probably count. Every time I look it seems like you’ve got another performance lined up.
It’s been a building process getting to that point for real. People say: “You’re performing all the time.” I’ve been doing it for so long, 10 years. I like to have a little consistency. Performing is like one of my favorite things. If somebody says they have a show, I’m getting details about it, I’m asking how to get on the next one if I’ve never been a part of it.
Fal: That really is good to follow up. You can miss out on a lot of opportunities if you don’t follow up with those you’ve worked with. It does show that you care.
And now I’m at a point where I can do my own events. Even with artists not being able to perform at shows, it’s cool to just throw your own show. If people have the ability and flexibility to do that, it’s dope and it can help grow your community.
I think there’s something to be said of quantity and quality. Should artists focus more on the amount of work they put out or the level of quality that work holds?
Quality is important because you just never know who’s watching. You could have an amazing song, but 9/10 times if it’s not mixed properly, it’s not going to come across the same if you went to the studio and invested your time into a good engineer. The people who know what sounds good are going to notice it. I think it’s important to show that in your work. You want to put your best out there.
Here’s an experience that put everything into perspective for me. When I first started putting music out, back when CDs were cool, I was part of a group. We printed our CDs off and we wrote our names on top of the CD. We just put it in a blank white sleeve and we were gonna take it to the radio station. I was probably still in high school. We got dressed up, we put our little clothes on, made sure we looked like stars and we went up to K97.5. There was a lady in the front and we were like: “Hey, we just wanna see if we can get somebody back there to listen to our music.” She looked at it and said, “I’m gonna be honest with y’all babies. Y’all look like y’all make good music, but this is not gonna do it. We don’t have any contact information on here. We don’t know who you guys are based on this.”
She basically said to try again. From that day it really just put things into perspective for me: you can’t just present whatever. You want to make sure you tried your best and show the hard work that you put in. It’s so important to just make sure it looks good. I’m not saying you gotta put out thousands of dollars, but you get what you pay for. The more you invest, the more return you’ll get back in the end.
Any tips for songwriters?
As an artist, it’s so easy to get blocked. When writing, one thing to make sure is that you’re in the right environment to write. Cut off your distractions and just go somewhere that makes you feel comfortable, wherever that is. That’ll just pull out a lot of the things that you need to write about. It’s easy to get blocked. Figure out how to get past those blocks. Find out the things that inspire you. Stay inspired. Whether that’s being around your creative friends, watching concerts on YouTube, listening to your old music, or whatever it is for you. And even if you’re not able to write, just stay inspired, because it’ll come. Don’t rush it. Let that shit flow.
Top 5 Most Played tracks or artists in your library?
Where I Go by NxWorries Knxwledge, Anderson .Paak & H.E.R.
SZA
SMINO
Kick It (ft. MalBoogy)
Boy’s A Liar, Pt. 2 by PinkPantheress & Ice Spice
Ice Spice is sneaking up on me. I’m like what is this? I love it. I don’t know what has come over me, but I’m digging Ice Spice a little bit. I’m like okay this is kinda rockin’. I saw somebody say the other day that Ice Spice just makes music for pretty girls. I’m like that makes sense, I like it.
Anything you want to close off with, any announcements you’d like to make?
I want to promote my new single with Mal Boogy. It’s called ‘Kick It’. We dropped a dope video for it. I’ve got some new stuff on the way. I’m in the lab right now so I can’t really say what I am working on. Nothing is set in stone right now. I’m just focusing on the brand Stay Yellow. Stay on the lookout for more things from that and more events for sure.
