Toshín swing into Cork for Jazz Fest 

“A lot of people don’t really know the actual story behind ‘RESIST’,” says singer Tosin Bankole of her band Toshín’s recent single with a certain hint of dare, at the outset of our conversation ahead of their upcoming appearance at Cork Opera House for Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. They’re opening for Lee Fields and the Expressions – but it’s not Bankole’s first encounter with a legend, following a personal passing of the torch.

“It’s actually a song that was written by Janis Ian. She headlined Dublin Tradfest last January, but she’d damaged her voice on tour, so she handpicked ten Irish artists to sing, to perform her songs, and I was one of the artists she picked. She gave each of us a song from her album, and she gave me ‘Resist’. She’s like, ‘I’d like you to perform this song’, so I performed it at the National Stadium in Dublin, in front of 2000 people, and it got a standing ovation. A lot of people were like, ‘I think you should release your own version of the song’, and Janis said, ‘y’know what? I’d like to give it to you, and I’d love for you to go and release it, do whatever you want to do’. So that’s obviously the biggest opportunity. She’s such a legend. I did my own version of it, which is still kind-of similar to Janis’, but I just did my own take on ‘Resist’.”

Bankole, an eleven-year veteran of the Irish music scene, is no stranger to filling big boots, from opening for UK chart-topper Corinne Bailey Rae, to embodying Aretha Franklin in a conceptual show built around the soul great’s work. For herself, carrying the torch passed to her is in keeping with her ever-developing body of song, and the values that align with same.

“Obviously the message means a lot to me – I love singing about women and supporting women, I’m a bit of a feminist, and I have songs like ‘Girl, Go Off’, which is probably one of my highest-streamed songs. It’s about women being the best they can be, whatever occupation they’re in. If a woman wants to be a pilot, she can be a pilot; she wants to be a housewife, she can be a housewife, without being judged. So this song really resonated with me.

“‘Resist’ shows how society keeps telling women we’re either too much or not enough, and how we’ve pushed ourselves into boxes that don’t let us be ourselves. So to me, this song is about saying ‘no’ to those pressures, standing strong and not letting the world make us want to disappear. I feel like this song is like such a bold and emotional anthem, all about women’s strength, and it challenges the unfair rules and labels that are put on women about pain and power. I feel like with the chorus, ‘RESIST’ becomes more than just music, it’s a call for women to take back their voices, their body.”

It feels like an opportune time to ask Bankole the obvious feelgood questions about the current moment of societal upheaval, the conversations that surround same, and how work like hers can fit into the moment, especially being based in Berlin at the moment, amid heightening civic and domestic tensions. But your writer still can’t help but be taken aback at his own ignorance in failing to consider the flipside of that coin, as Bankole pulls no punches in describing growing tensions when she comes back to Ireland to visit family and friends.

“It’s between a few worlds, and that’s hectic, for sure,” she says of straddling the lines between Berlin’s bustle and Ireland’s ever-changing music picture. “It’s humbling as well, in so many ways, but also a bit scary. Ireland is home, of course, and I love going home, but it’s getting super, super-racist… Y’know, I was back in Dublin, I was walking to my gaff, and I live on East Wall – there was a young lad, just on his scooter, and he just shouted ‘blackie!’ at me. I feel like this is now the norm. This is not only happening to me. I’m not only saying it because I’m black, this is also happening to Turkish people, to Arabs.

“Everybody is getting, like, attacked verbally or physically, one way or the other in Ireland [and that includes white Irish people], they’re just not feeling safe as they used to feel. I would have had no problem back in the day, like I used to live in Tallaght and Crumlin, and I’d have had no problem walking or coming home from work or a gig at, like, one or two AM, and feeling safe, but I could never not get a taxi now. The only word I can say is it’s just uncomfortable. It’s really uncomfortable.”

“Then I come back to Berlin, and to be honest, I do feel a bit more safe here than I do in Ireland these days, definitely. I live in Neukolln in Berlin, and people classify it as, like, the ghetto or whatever. It’s just full of culture, art and history, and it’s really amazing. But there is the other side of Berlin, y’know, with everything that’s going on, with the protests, and it’s really, really scary,” she says, in reference to heavy-handed responses to pro-Palestine demonstrations and the rise of the far-right NPD party.

“Sometimes you feel so scared to, like, speak your truth, and like, have a voice in what’s going on, so there’s two sides of it. There’s two sides to every story, and there’s two sides to living in Ireland and living in Berlin. But one thing I will say is, I’m just very grateful that my music is received very well… I’m just very happy that I can just express myself freely.”

• Toshín plays Guinness Cork Jazz Festival on Saturday, October 25, at Cork Opera House, opening for Lee Fields and the Expressions. Doors 7pm, tickets €40.50 are available from https://www.corkoperahouse.ie, or at the venue’s box-office.
• Download and stream recent single ‘RESIST’ at https://toshin.bandcamp.com/, also available for streaming across other digital services.