Ezra Collective have reflected on their Mercury Prize-winning success and set the scene for their imminent new album.
The 2024 Mercury Prize shortlist will be unveiled this week and the eventual winner can expect to see a boost for their sales and profile, like Ezra Collective following their victory last year.
Last year saw the quintet become the first jazz act to win the award, claiming the 2023 prize for Where I’m Meant To Be (28,637 sales, OCC), their second studio LP.
Follow-up Dance, No One's Watching is slated for a September 27 release via Partisan. The band's Femi Koleoso and Ife Ogunjobi discuss the construction of the record alongside label executives and manager Amy Frenchum, as part of the group's cover story in the August issue of Music Week.
“We were making these songs looking at the audience of Ezra Collective and going, ‘What is the sound for this moment in the crowd? What is the sound of everyone together? What is the sound of people?’” said drummer and band leader Koleoso.
"Where I’m Meant To Be was very much a lockdown project and Dance, No One’s Watching is a let-out-of-the-house project.”
“The statement ‘dance, no one’s watching’ is such a powerful statement in terms of freedom,” added trumpeter Ogunjobi. “Express yourself how you wanna be and don’t care about what people are saying – you’ve been locked up for two years, so you don’t have time to think about that, life is for living now.”
I couldn’t think of anything worse than trying to write an album and then winning the Mercury Prize and then trying to get back to that album
Femi Koleoso
Special guests on the record include London singer-songwriters Yazmin Lacey and Olivia Dean, South African artist Moonchild Sanelly and Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, as well as Arsenal legend Ian Wright (“Rock’n’roll, innit - we’re mates with football players now!” laughed Koleoso. "I never got to play football with Ian Wright but at least I got to put a song out with him") - all of whom had a pre-existing relationship with the group prior to the sessions.
“I’ve just come to really understand that the best music is made with your friends," noted Koleoso. "That’s where we’ll come out best.”
Moreover, Koleoso considered it a blessing that the new album, which was recorded at Abbey Road, had already been completed by the time of last year's Mercury triumph.
“I don’t think anything positive can happen from something that monumental happening to you when you’re in a creative place,” he said. “I couldn’t think of anything worse than trying to write an album and then winning the Mercury Prize and then trying to get back to that album. Suddenly you’re trying to rewrite Where I’m Meant To Be, trying to relive the glory of what was done.
"We knew that we were nominated but we’d written the album already. We were just waiting to record it.”
While Koleoso dismissed any notion of “the curse of the Mercury Prize”, he admitted to concerns that success can distract from the creative process.
“Sometimes what you see is such a monumental win that it takes away from the organic nature of how you created it in the first place,” he said. “Nothing really changes when success gets piled on; there’s just more things that can go wrong. But the core values of how you got there doesn’t change."
Koleoso revealed his ambitions for Ezra Collective stretched to breaking new ground for a jazz band, such as winning a BRIT Award or Grammy, or getting to No.1. He added that he has a slot on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage in his sights for 2025.
“Those things are also positive because you tap into the dream that a lot of young people are having that you can start something with your bredrens, something with a very small beginning that can go to the greatest heights in the world,” he said.
I’m really proud of what Ezra Collective signify for the concept of sticking at something and slogging your guts out, even when it feels as if you are against the tide
Amy Frenchum
However, he suggested the Mercury win was yet to have the desired effect in terms of expanding the band's fanbase.
“I love diversity and I love who we are as a band - I love that there’s four Black Londoners in Ezra Collective,” said Koleoso. “However, when you look at our fanbase, it isn’t really young Black Londoners like ourselves that listen to Ezra Collective.
"I love that when you go to a Little Simz concert, it looks like Little Simz, all these beautiful Black girls from London that talk like her, live around the corner, they all love Little Simz. They don’t quite love Ezra Collective in the same way and I thought the Mercury Prize win would help that happen. It hasn’t yet, which is fine, because it goes back to what I was saying before. The mission stays the same, we have to keep on pushing.”
Manager Amy Frenchum, who was saluted by Koleoso as Ezra Collective's “super-mum” during his Mercury Prize speech shared her pride at what the group stands for.
“I’m really proud of what Ezra Collective signify for the concept of sticking at something and slogging your guts out, even when it feels as if you are against the tide,” said Frenchum. “Lots of young artists feel quite disillusioned, I think, by this smoke-and-mirrors presentation of overnight success. Like artists releasing their first ever song in October and miraculously selling out a 5,000-cap venue by the next January? What kind of cheat code is going on there?
"I just know that Ezra Collective have been doing this for long enough to truly know who they are and why they are here.”
In addition, Frenchum indicated the group will soon sign a publishing deal that “feels right for where we are at currently”.
“Other industry opportunities have been most significant in the brand space,” she added. “There are loads of exciting moments coming up that tie in with the campaign. Everything we’ve ever done has been with a ‘sky is the limit’ mentality."
Subscribers can read the full Ezra Collective Music Week cover story here.
