Tolü Makay ready to take to the stage at Cork Jazz Festival 

The cruel assumption of “success”, as casual observers will no doubt define it regardless of your walk of life, is that the struggle and hard work of existing in the world as it currently is, with all of its compromises and humiliations, will one day stop – that you’ll somehow be on “easy street” and the little things of day-to-day life will somehow begin looking after themselves. For Tolü Makay, at once a chart-bothering vocalist with a long resumé of live appearances and an artist continuing to occupy her own niche on the independent level, a change in professional circumstances meant a re-evaluation of what really matters, with the resultant comparison and contrast bearing fruit in most recent extended player ‘People Still Cry in Summer’.

“I think it’s allowing people to understand that during the really high times, like festivals, where people are enjoying their lives and in a season that you’re expected to be so joyful and happy, that it’s okay to admit that sometimes it’s a bit s**t,” she explains. “I just wanted to reflect that, because I suppose, for me, with these songs, even though they’re quite heavy, there’s still hope, there’s still resilience. These songs were written during a time where, y’know, I was in the limelight, and a lot of people were getting to be introduced to me, and what would have been considered to be one of the biggest times for me in my career so far. I suppose it was just apt for me to call it ‘People Still Cry in Summer’, just to emphasize that duality of, yes, this is a really amazing time, but I also am going through something that I don’t have a space to share, because the expectation is for me to be happy.”

It’s a tightrope walk that permeates the entire extended-player, and will have to be balanced with the celebratory atmosphere of her upcoming matinée appearance at Live at St Luke’s on Saturday, October 25, for the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Getting into the nitty-gritty of that reconciliation means a look into Makay’s process, often moving from fragments of songs and lyrics caught in a moment, and fleshed out into something that will sit alongside Makay’s already-burgeoning body of work.

“They say there’s five stages of grief, if I’m not mistaken, and I think I went through them without really realising that that’s what I was going through. Grief can happen in moments of losing people, of course, but it’s also that expectation of having that team that you thought was going to get you to where you wanted, or a vision that you thought you saw for yourself, and then that didn’t actually come to fruition. So all of those are losses that you feel like you need to grieve, and especially when they impact you so, so much. Like I’ve always said, music, especially when it comes to writing and the way I am as an artist, it’s always about talking about my experiences. But also music has been a way, from the very young age of 14 to allow me to understand how I’m feeling, without me actually having the right words to express this. And I suppose it translates into how I even like to write these songs.

“It always starts with voice notes and me just pouring my heart out in a voice note or a poem, and then transitioning that into an actual song. I have so many songs from that time, and the first project being ‘People Still Cry in Summer’, I think it’s allowed me to let go of that feeling, but also realise that that was really heavy. It was a way for me to reflect, but I also hope it’s a way for other people to also understand that it’s okay to go through these moments, to share those feelings that you’re having, because you’re not the only person that’s going through it.”

With that being said, having processed the end of one chapter and the beginning of another, there has to be some degree of satisfaction, not only in having the documentary evidence out in the world, and having weathered that whole storm, but having it as the foundations of something new – something in which Makay is currently glorying.

“Oh, I’m obsessed. I’m so proud of myself, because I’m doing this completely independently, and honestly, I think this EP has really shown me that when people care, they really do help you, they support you. There was something that a mentor shared with me recently, and it was that generous people want to support you and I think what he also meant by that, is that people that you know are also creatively doing really well, if they see that you have something in you too, they want to help and support you. I had to lean on people when all my trust was broken, and this year reignited the love and trust in other people that I think are absolutely brilliant.

“So I was working with people like Cian Sweeney from Cork, and they helped me put together this EP that I had basically been storing for two to three years. Honestly, the journey of it, I think it’s the first time I’ve released a body of work that I’m not anxious about, but I also think I have to give a bit of thanks to my therapist, because she’s always like, ‘practice feeling good’. I think that this EP has just allowed me to let go and not expect the worst, and I’m really excited about it. And even just sonically, I think you really get to hear the journey.”

With all that being said, with a busy live year and a new EP in the can, and a Jazz Weekend matinée just ahead, has it been worth the struggle?

“Yeah, with all the challenges I face, I think it solidified my love for the music. I think it really, it made me realise the depth it holds in my life, and how much it has impacted and also saved me at times. From a very young age, I didn’t really have a safe space to really express myself, because I think a lot of people just deemed me to be a bit too sensitive, so I always shied away from really sharing how I felt, and music really was just that safe haven for me. So the fact that music has become my full-time job, my life, I think I had to realise, okay, I need to find other maybe healthy ways of expressing myself.

“I’m not like, naïve to the difficulties that it also presents, but I don’t know, there’s a certain type of gratitude that I kind of hold for it too, because now that I’m like, ‘okay, there’s a business angle to this too, but I also understand the vocational and the spiritual aspects to it’, it’s made me look at it in terms of like, okay, how does it nurture me? How do I use this to perform and also help other people? And then with the integrity of my creativity, how am I making sure that these relationships that I have around me are also having a balance that allows me to feel free, and also express how I want my music to feel like? Yes, music is a slog, but I suppose, like anyone would say, it’s one of those things that feels like the best kind of sacrifice you’ll ever make. Because it really does, It holds a certain weight that keeps you, it reminds you of the love that you have for being alive, but also seeing how it also makes other people feel alive. And there’s nothing more magical than that.”

• Tolü Makay plays Live at St Luke’s on Saturday, October 25, at 1.30pm, in a matinée event for Guinness Cork Jazz. Tickets €25, available online from eventbrite.ie.
• Stream and download her ‘People Still Cry in Summer’ EP from Bandcamp: https://tolumakay.bandcamp.com/album/people-still-cry-in-summer; also available across other streaming services.