SAVANNAH RÉ INTERVIEW: 3x JUNO Award-winning singer and songwriter Savannah Ré is a Toronto native, reshaping R&B with her ethereal melodies and unapologetically honest lyrics. Get familiar…
What five words define your sound?
Honest, edgy, unapologetic, timeless, heavy-hitting.
Tell me something unique about your creative process.
My creative process is very chaotic. I don’t have just one way that I write a song. My process just comes to me. I genuinely believe that I’m a vessel of God, and a song comes to me in different ways. I could be in conversation right now, and then one word that somebody says to me will spark a whole song for me; or I could hear something first and then just start singing until it becomes a whole song. So I think that it is unique that I don’t have a concrete process.
Which song of yours would you like people to hear first?
I think the song I would like for people to hear first depends on the type of person that they are. I feel like I have so many different song styles, and it depends on the type of person for which song would resonate with who. For the R&B enthusiast, I would go with “Solid” first. I think for the person that likes them some hard-hitting shit, I would go “Where You Are” first. I think the person who just likes music in general would be “Last One” featuring Dylan Sinclair.
What inspired you to make that song?
Specifically for “Last One,” it was a very organic, fun record for me to make. Dylan [Sinclair] and I have been close for a very, very long time. You know, we have this thing where a bunch of us here in Toronto – me, RAAHiiM, Dylan, a lot of us – we spend a lot of time together, but we don’t like to force music. So of course in the back of our minds, we know we’re all gonna make music together, but just a matter of when. When “Last One” came about, I flushed out a verse and chorus type of thing, and I wanted a feature but I didn’t know who it was gonna be. Dylan, Saint Harrison, and a bunch of us artists all happened to be in LA at the same time and we got a crib and we were doing karaoke, playing demos, and vibing. I just decided to play the song I was working on, and Dylan started freestyling and going crazy over the song, so I was like “Okay cool, this must be the one because it’s happening so naturally.” The rest just happened from there – we got back to Toronto, finished the song, put it out, and won a JUNO for it.
What’s the most vulnerable you’ve allowed yourself to be when writing/making music?
The most vulnerable I’ve allowed myself to be is with “Opia,” the title track from my first project. I was in the studio with two incredible writers that I look up to, Marcus Semaj and Varren Wade, and producer Akeel Henry. We were just in the studio and I was pretty much done with the project, but I felt like I still didn’t have that record that made me uncomfortable. None of these records made me uncomfortable – the project itself [Opia] means to look into someone’s eyes and it’s too intense because the eyes are the window to the soul. So if I’m calling a project this, I need to have a song that is so deep and so touchy for me to sing that it feels like the lens is on me. I told the guys in the studio about it and I told them the song will not be done until I feel uncomfortable, and that’s exactly what we did. “Opia” touches on being scared – telling your partner and the world that you’re scared. I think as Black people, especially Black women, we’re told that we have to be strong and impermeable to the things that are happening in our lives. It was scary for me to just admit that I’m scared about being loved, being vulnerable, and being seen.
What’s the best/worst experience you’ve had on stage?
I have had so many experiences on stage, but one that comes to mind for my worst experience is performing at a dive bar. As some of you may know there’s two different types of mics: cordless and corded. And when you perform at some of these dive bars, child, you just going to get what you get. I had a corded mic at the bar, and all I’m thinking is “Girl, don’t trip. Don’t trip over this cord and embarrass yourself.” I’m singing and I’m not tripping, right, and I’m mid-line and mid-belt and the cord drops out of the mic. It’s silence, and the song is still playing. I didn’t have a DJ or anyone to stop the song so it’s still playing. So I was fiddling with the mic with my long nails trying to fix it, but it was honestly chaos.
The best experience I had on stage was my headlining show in Toronto. It was my first headlining show and it was sold out, which I didn’t know until right before I hit the stage. When I got on stage, the whole set was big, grandiose – the band is playing this long, drawn out note for me to come on and it’s fully dark. The lights went on was the first time that I saw the crowd; it was filled to the brim with so many faces that I recognize from my life and childhood. I ain’t no punk, but it made me emotional immediately before I could even start singing [laughs]. I could feel that outpour of love, and I will never, ever forget that moment.
What is your favourite song to perform?
I think my favorite song to perform is “Solid.” As soon as the first couple seconds start playing, I think a lot of people react naturally to it because there’s an emotional connection in it for the people who support me.I’m always excited to see the folks listening light up as soon as they realize I’m about to start singing it.
Which artist/song/album made you want to make music?
Beyoncé’s “Dangerously In Love” was my earliest memory of wanting to try to sing a song and learning it in and out. Brandy’s Full Moon album is everything – the vocals, the stacks, the delivery, the production, the songwriting, everything. An artist who made me want to make music would be Lauryn Hill because she was the most versatile – she can calmly go from some of the best R&B vocals you ever heard to rapping and it was just like, “You can do that?” She was the first example that you can do whatever you want.
What’s the meaning behind your name?
There’s no meaning behind it – it’s my actual first name. I think a lot of people think it’s just a stage name, but that’s my name. My mama named me that. For purposes of stage though, I added an accent mark to “Ré” because people butcher the hell out of that part. Funny enough, I actually never thought about using my real name as my stage name. Years ago, I sat with someone who does branding and tried to think of all these funky names and they were not good. [laughs]
If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing instead?
If I wasn’t making music, honestly I would try and hope to be doing something creative. I’m a creative person by nature, so be it being a dancer somewhere, writing for television, or doing visual art, I would definitely be somewhere within the creative and entertainment space for sure.
What’s success to you?
Success to me is being able to wake up every day and do the thing that I love. I’m trying to be mindful, especially this year, after the last couple of years that I’ve had were full of uncertainty career-wise. I’m trying to focus on the things that are important, which is my health, my loved ones, and just living life by being present.
What moment in your life/career forced you to change direction?
I would say the moment that I quit my last job. I will never forget the feeling. So Boi-1da reached out to me at the time, and at that time I wasn’t signed to him at all as a writer or an artist. We had been connected through a Toronto legend named Cuatro Cinco, and he had sent a bunch of my stuff to 1da. We were connected but he never reached out to me. I was working the front desk at the Hilton – the best job I ever had – and he called me on a Monday like, “Hey, could you come in for the week and work with this artist named Snoh Aalegra.” I was like, “Excuse me?” He says we’d be in the studio for four days and he wanted me to come for all four days. I remember asking myself, “What the hell am I gonna do with this job?” I remember I was trying to get people to switch shifts with me – I switched out two shifts and then there would have been two days left that I could. I had that coming to Jesus moment where I was like, “Girl, are you going to let your job stop you from your career? This could be that moment.” I took that leap, and when people asked me about it, I said I do not recommend quitting your job without a plan or savings [laughs]. By the grace of God, it worked for me, and since the end of 2017, I’ve been a full-time artist.
Where can people keep in touch with you?
@SavannahRe on socials, Apple Music, Spotify, and more. Stay tuned for what’s coming next!
