When you are an actress, a scriptwriter, a children’s author and a jazz singer, not to mention a mother, a friend, a lover and plenty else besides, how do you describe yourself?
As Ada Morghe, Alexandra Helmig has the answer. Don’t put her in a box. This is the inspiration of Ada Morghe’s current journey - a jazzy, soulful, deeply personal and suitably titled second album, ‘Box’.
Written and recorded between Livingstone Brown’s studio in London and Peter Gabriel’s studio in Wiltshire, the 10-track album features the recent singles: the tight, upbeat funk ‘Wake Up’, the love letter to air ‘Oh My Love’ and the romantic Parisian inspired ‘Water Lilies’, which has just been placed on YouTube’s Jazz and Blues Experience playlist with over 1.36 million followers. Plus the highlight of the album, new single ‘Box’.
The groove-based focus single ‘Box’ was co-written with Andrew Roachford, who knows a thing or two about being put in boxes. When he was having hits like ‘Family Man’ and ‘Cuddly Toy’ at the end of the 80s he was forever described as the Black guy who did rock music.
Ada explains: “He related to the idea in the song. We both had the same question: in your professional life, do you need to have that identity for people to rely on? It got us talking about all aspects of life and being put into a box. We can often judge and make assumptions based on first impressions: by the way people look or the roles they play personally and professionally, but everyone can have several identities. Only by talking and learning from others can we find this out”.
Roachford says: “Writing with Ada was a unique experience and I’m happy that we managed to capture Ada’s strong individuality when we wrote this song Box”. Directed by Annika Blendl and Leonie Stade, the video was shot in Munich before lockdown in March.
Ada specifically employed a team of people in front and behind the camera that had various professions and identities, to reflect the message of the song, “It’s about diversity and tolerance, the courage to express yourself and awareness. The video should be fun to watch and encourage to think outside the box”.
The rest of the album stretches from the melancholic elegance of ‘Rainy Day’ to the hazy, Radiohead cover ‘Weird Fishes’. There is the jazz seduction of ‘Sugar Lips’, a perfect vehicle for the warmth and smokiness of her voice. Ending with the beautiful ‘Demons’, an orchestral epic with shades of Scott Walker and a message of self-acceptance, Box marks a true coming of age.
For someone who cannot be put in a box, how does Alexandra feel about being labelled as a jazz singer of verve, passion and elegance?
“Music makes sense to me because everything is in there,” she replies. “There is the writer, the musician, the performer. And this album is about where I am now.”
Alexandra’s career in music began in earnest three years ago, after she wrote and starred in a play, then a film, called ‘Mother Bee’. A pun in its German title, Frau Mutter Tier, refers to an overprotective mother. Having been encouraged to also write songs for the film, those compositions fell into the hands of former Prince collaborator Hans-Martin Buff and just six week later, Alexandra found herself recording at Abbey Road.
That ultimately put Alexandra in the relatively unusual position of releasing her debut album ‘Pictures’ in her 40s, which has gained over 1 million streams across DSPs.
The album tracklisting is:
1. Wake Up
2. Water Lilies
3. Rainy Days
4. Box
5. No More Fools
6. Oh My Love
7. Honey Juice
8. Sugar Lips
9. Weird Fishes – Arpeggi
10. Demons
