addition to receiving key TV & radio play, industry tastemakers (including MTV, MOBO) have marked her as a ‘one to watch in 2012. This didn’t go unnoticed as Cleo signed her first major deal with Island Records in December. Now in 2012 we chat to Cleo about what the experiance has been like and what the future holds for her. For those who don’t know, give us a brief insight into who Cleo Sol is and your musical journey to get where you are today? Cleo Sol, I’m a singer / songwriter from Ladbroke Grove, West London. I started working a few years ago with Davinche who got in touch with me a through Myspace. I featured on a few songs with him before working with Tinie Tempah, Wretch 32, Bashy and a few others.Then last year independently my management and I released a song called “High” which went really well for my first
solo journey. After that I signed with my label that I’m with now, Island Records and I’m promoting my current single “Never The Right Time” There’s a mixture of musical influences such as motown, jazz and soul in your music. What inspired this blend of musical genres? I think it’s to do with my upbringing, you know, all the music I listened to whilst growing up. My mum used to listen to lots of motown, I used to listen to lots of old R&B, (I still do) and my dad played lots of reggae. So I kind of took inspiration from everything I’ve heard and put it in my music. What drives you to create your unique style of music? Constant inspiration from other people now and throughout my life. People like Bob Marley pool different sounds together and not focus on one thing, so I try to do the same. Tell us about your new single ‘Never The Right Time’ and what is the story behind the song? This produced by Davinche. We were going through some old samples in the studio and we both stopped on an Isley Brothers sample and we both started nodding out heads getting really into it thinking “this is the one”. So he put a beat behind it, chopped it up a little bit and we wrote to it really quickly. It’s about the things that a lot of females including myself (and a lot of men) go through to change themselves when they first start to like somebody to impress them. It’s a fun, upbeat kind of vibe, for the girls. In the video your fans get to see your sexy side with the lovely lingerie. How has this video been particularly different to any of your other music videos? The video for “High” was kind of the fun side of me because it was filmed in my area with my friends, loads of colours and lots of energy from the West end of London but this video I wanted to take it somewhere else in terms of who I am. So I just thought you can mess around character, you can change your music, so why not play with different aspects of my personality. So we went a bit more mature, to show the flirtier side of me. How was your music transitioned between the track you did with Tinie Tempah “Tears” and where you are today? When I started out, I was just jumping on the wagon with Davinche so it was an opportunity to get my voice heard and get myself known featuring on other people tracks. It was really nice to being in that kind of scene meeting new people, but now I feel like it’s more who I am. Never The Right Time is something I would listen to myself so I thought I have to keep it true to myself and make music I like, that hopefully everyone else will like too. You’ve done several youtube acoustic videos to build a name for yourself, whats the next step for you? Still doing my Youtube acoustics, filming new videos as well but mostly I want to get more music out there, a few videos hopefully, performing everywhere to try and get my music heard. After performing at a few festivals whats the next milestone you aim to reach? Worldwide! I love the unity that music brings so I just want to tour and visit every country and see the world signing along and enjoying themselves to my music. That’s an amazing feeling to me.
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