New year, new Lexi Onyango.
The Tulsa musician has wiped her musical slate clean and is starting anew with a lead single from her first EP dropping on all streaming services Friday.
After eight years of writing and recording songs, the 24-year-old has changed her mindset and musical direction after a year-long hiatus from the scene.
Onyango recently went for a walk with the Tulsa Flyer at the Oxley Nature Center to discuss why she deleted her past music from streaming platforms and how she’s infusing personal stories into her new work.
You’ve been recording songs and randomly dropping them for many years, and then you basically took a year off from it. Why?
I took a break for a while more so just so I could fall in love with the art of music again. I just felt like I was not necessarily being myself, so I just took a little bit to reflect and figure out why I’m doing this, if I’m still passionate about it and to make sure I’m making the music I want to make, rather than something I think people would want to hear.
So a lot of the new music I have coming out is very personal to me, which I feel like I’ve always done with my writing, but the genre is more just like singer-songwriter mixed with indie pop and mainly live instruments, rather than like synth or auto-tuned things. I’m super excited to just feel back to myself and excited about the music I’m releasing and performing.
You deleted all your past music from streaming services in a time when musicians are doing waterfall releases and trying to get the algorithm going as much as possible. Why remove the past recordings ahead of this release?
It’s a sweet thing, but also very sad. I have a connection to each song and the people that I made those songs with, but honestly, I started working with new management, and they highly encouraged it, just since I am changing my approach and just trying new things.
I’ve been releasing music since I was 16, and I’ve changed a lot … There’s a possibility of re-releasing some things, but I guess I’ve seen a lot of luck with people just completely wiping things and just not even like a redo, you know? So, yeah, clean slate, but I think it’ll be good.
Your new single “In the Distance” drops Jan. 16. Give us the backstory on the song.
The theme is very much coming of age and just growing up and figuring things out. This next song is kind of about how I grew up Pentecostal, and that’s a very strict religion.
It’s weird because I kind of just had to navigate what I believe in as I get older and separating myself from that. But it was kind of just a sad time figuring those things out whenever I left that. I get nervous about people thinking it’s sacrilegious, because it’s really not about God at all, but more so just about the church, or like being in a strict church and figuring out what you stand for.
In the past you’d release a new song when you felt like it, which meant there could be long waits between music. Now you’re in a more traditional structure of single drops before a full release. How’s it feel to be going into it this way?
I think it feels a lot better. I definitely feel a lot more organized. It just feels so much better to have all the music done and already uploaded, and it’s just kind of like waiting for the spring date to get here for the EP to come out. That feels good.
What are the goals? There’s an EP coming. Are you wanting to do more recordings? Take the show on the road for a tour?
I definitely want to do it full-time. I think having structure is good for that, like how I’m releasing music now. I would love to do it full-time, and at the same time, though, I’m kind of just like, we’ll see how it goes. I just need to keep the consistency. You never know if it’s gonna work out or if it doesn’t, but either way, it’s OK because I am passionate about it, and it’s fulfilling for me.
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
