Writing music comes easily to Steff Kalloo. Maybe because she has been doing it since she was ten, or maybe it’s because the words and melody flow once she is in the right environment and has the right mindset, usually with her guitar in hand.
“I play the guitar just enough to write. I wouldn’t say I play like I’m like Santana or anything, but I use the guitar to write most of my songs. So I start acoustically with the guitar, and then I add on music to what I’ve written once I go into the studio. I play what I have on guitar and then the producer will take it from there.”
Kalloo told Guardian Media her latest single, Forget It All, comes from a place of quiet chaos—an environment in which she was having a conversation with God during a tumultuous period in her life. The song is already on the airwaves and she said the feedback has been positive.
“A lot of people have been really into it. People have been messaging to say they can relate to it. It’s about talking to God, or whoever you believe in. And I was just letting all my worries out because it was at a time in my life when I was feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I was just like speaking to God, and then the melody just came out from there. Music is my therapy, so I use whatever I feel and I just put that into my song.”
Forget It All advises listeners just to forget about all their problems and worries, and just dance, live and let it go.
“I do more of an island fusion of pop, reggae, dancehall. This one in particular has a little bit more of Afropop and like an island pop sound.”
It was produced by Mahindra Ramdhan at The Zone Recording Studio.
Kalloo has been singing professionally for the past 15 years, on and off. And although she has a naturally beautiful singing voice, she has done training with vocal coaches Glenda Collens and Audrey Gray. Over the years, she has released approximately 15 songs.
“Some I’m super proud of, some, not so much. I mean, any other artiste would tell you the same thing. You just question like, ‘oh, what phase of my life I was in then, boy?’”
She said she has plans to do an EP that would include most of her songs, especially Forget It All.
“I also have songs there that are finished and I have not released,” with more on the way. And if she could have her way, she would write and sing full-time.
“But it doesn’t allow me to make a comfortable income from it just yet.”
She described her time in the local music industry as a bit difficult as a result of the genre of music she puts out.
“Because I don’t really do the predominant genre, which is soca, it’s usually a little bit harder to get gigs and to have my music showcased.”
But she is in a place where she feels very satisfied with the music she creates.
“I think this song came about in the best time; when things actually are more balanced in my life with work, with family and everything else. So I think I’m in a space now where I can write music that I feel comfortable with,” in contrast with the space occupied by her younger self.
“I would say that before, in my other songs, they were at the point in my life where I was a bit younger and it was a little more sexualised. You know, the sexy female artiste? But now I don’t really care to be like that. I just want to make good music about things that people can relate to.”
But she has managed to create a special space, separate and apart from her music, for the sexy—a space that she shares with other women.
“I also do belly dance workshops. Like once every month or every two months at Chancellor Boutique Hotel, I do a sip and belly dance. It’s more like a safe space for women to come and learn belly dancing, just offload, relax and feel a little like sexy at the end of the day.”
