Ahead of her latest EP release, The Floor Mag sat down for a chat with Ghanaian-American singer-songwriter Moliy to talk about the Ghanaian music scene, collaborations, and her brand new EP, Honey Doom.
You've had a busy couple of years since WONDERGIRL : remixes, the high-profile playlist features, and recorded a track for Apple Music as well. You're very nationally and internationally present, which is amazing. Was this the plan from the start and how are you finding it?
I mean I'm loving it! Obviously like I'm super proud of everything that's going on. You don't really know how much whatever you're doing is working until you see or experience certain things and stuff like this as well, you know? It's good to experience this because then it keeps me going, it makes me not feel like I’m working for nothing.
Great to hear. On experiences, are you someone that enjoys the press runs, etc. and people asking you the same question in different ways?
I do enjoy it because it doesn't happen all the time. It only happens for a period of time and during that time I actually get to practice the way I speak about my music and about, you know, my plans because I'm not always having these conversations. So it's interesting to be having them.
No, that's good. And speaking of, we didn't get to discuss Wonder Girl back then or Mahogany Street earlier this year. What do you want people to hear when they press play on those projects?
I wanted something that would identify me, you know, as Ghanaian or like show my roots in a way. That's [Mahogany Street] the street of my mom's house where I was raised, where I grew up for 20 years. So that's why I wanted the name of the EP to represent the area I'm from; that's what the cover art also kind of does. It shows all the interesting things that you would see daily, whether it's the nearby stores, the food sellers, the kids playing soccer, all of those things. And we picked records to show more of my afro-reggae side because I knew what was coming after.
Honey Doom is way more versatile, it has pop and different elements. It’s kind of a takeaway from my usual Afro-Fusion, even though it has Afro songs on there - just the mixture of it maybe diffuses the Afro a little bit. That’s why I wanted that project to come first to actually amplify Afro and show the balance.
Yeah, a hundred per cent. That sounds well thought-out, is this the pathway you expected were you always into music, singing, songwriting and storytelling in this way? Or was it ever a thing where you only wanted to write songs?
Yeah, I don't think I just wanted to just write songs. I definitely wanted to be like a professional artist and you know, be a performing artist as well, that's the plan. Just want to grow as big as I can grow - I don't wanna ever limit myself.
Absolutely, so what kind of vibes are we waiting to hear?
It's definitely gonna be a big flex because I need to represent the girls in Ghana. For some, they feel like opportunities are not many, you know, but I just got up one day and decided to do this and put my heart and soul into it, and if it’s worked out then y'all can do it too! I wouldn't mind somewhere along the line doing documentaries and little films just to give people more of an insight into who I actually am or where I'm from. You know, my family, my background, all of that.
Love that and I can see why you were a poster girl in Ghana for Spotify Equal back in June. How have you found the attention around Ghanaian artists and Ghananian female artists over the past few years?
I feel like it's been building up to this for a while cause I knew there was tension coming to Ghana and this started from the year of return - I saw so many celebrities in Ghana. I felt like I saw it coming and I realized like, yo, there's a moment happening here where there's space for me to kind of rise.
Like how the Grammy’s want to open it as a field. I'm just like, wait, wow. it's exciting for me, so I'm sure it has to be exciting for every other young artist in Ghana right now. Like it has to be, we see opportunities brewing. An opportunity to be seen, the possibilities feel kind of endless.
It’s super exciting! Of course, we've all heard your most popular collaboration to date, Sad Girls Love Money, which I've loved since it came out. But what’s your favourite collaboration you've done? It could be one that we are yet to hear that's on Honey Doom.
It's actually my first songwriting collaboration, and I feel like it was really fun! In this session I got to basically, like I was talking to her like a friend, trying to get to know her, trying to see how she is, how she feels about relationships and dating and, you know, money and all of those things. Like obviously now sad girls love money *laughs*
That's true.
I got to just see her personality and put that into the music. To me, that was just a really cool experience and I think it’s gonna be on her album. So yeah, you’ll probably get to hear that.
Okay. I'm looking forward to hearing that.
Moliy’s new EP Honey Doom is available to stream and purchase now.