February 21, 2025
Inayah from SoulFlower stopped by to talk to Carbon Sound's host Sanni about how SoulFlower came together, the band's busy February, and more.
Sanni Brown
It is The Message, Carbon Sound Music for life, Sanni here in Music Class. And as I promised all week, I got in the studio SoulFlower. I am new to SoulFlower. So this intro is for everybody, including SoulFlower, or Inayah from SoulFlower, is in with us today. And Inayah is from the Twin Cities band SoulFlower that will be opening up for Dua Saleh at the Fine Line on Sunday, February 16. Remember I mentioned that to y'all at the beginning of the month? So in studio, Inayah from SoulFlower, yay!
Inayah
Thank you for having me!
Sanni Brown
Of course! Thank you for being available.
Inayah
I'm so sad the rest of my band couldn't be here, but —
Sanni Brown
Are they working? I know bands work four different jobs.
Inayah
Yeah, Zeke's actually getting a tooth surgery.
Sanni Brown
Oh no, not that kind of work! Well, welcome. We'll keep them in our spirit, because you gonna be answering some questions on behalf of them anyway (laughs). So welcome to Carbon Sound Studios. First of all, I'm a super fan. The song that we have is "Passion," that we've been playing, and I feel like it takes me back to when I was a little girl on a Saturday morning, and we're getting up and we're going to the corner store to get some candy or something. It's just such a carefree, fun, lighthearted song. And so before we get into how you made that, how did SoulFlower come to be? Because I thought you were just a one person thing, and you're a band. So put us on, how did SoulFlower come to be?
Inayah
SoulFlower came to be from a series of jams and shows and exploring with other artists in the Twin Cities. I've been making music by myself for a while and playing the bass and writing songs, and then I got the chance to play in a band for the first time. Super low key, was in an apartment.
Sanni Brown
When you say played, you mean like an instrument or sing?
Inayah
So I was playing bass and I was singing. And then playing with other people at the same time. At the time when it was feeling really fresh, it was super gut wrenching, in the sense of, like, "I've always wanted to do this, and now I'm doing it." And it's not that big or unreachable or unattainable as I maybe thought it was. I didn't need to know my bass for like, 8, 10 years to finally sit in with people or whatever.
Sanni Brown
So you didn't know how to play — you didn't play bass that long?
Inayah
I picked it up in high school. I wasn't very consistent with it. And 2022, 2023 is when I really started to play it more, and play it every day, and write more songs with it.
Sanni Brown
Of all instruments, why bass? I am flabbergasted by people that play bass.
Inayah
I would love to ask my high school self. I don't know, I was just drawn to it, just magnetic. I don't know, I just was pulled towards the bass. And writing songs with a bass, I wouldn't say it's unconventional, but it's only a few people who will write a song to a bass line.
Sanni Brown
Yes! I totally understand. So you're playing bass, you're kind of being introduced to it, kind of feeling it out, and then what happens after that? Are you getting noticed, or what's happening?
Inayah
The way that it has just flowed for the past couple years has been — I don't want to say effortless, because there's been a lot of work put in, and all that stuff.
Sanni Brown
Would you say authentic?
Inayah
Authentic and like a flow to it. Each moment leads to another moment, leads to another opportunity. And the things that I'm controlling is myself and my voice and my expression, and from me expressing myself, I'm connecting with other people who love to express themselves or have whatever connection to expressing themselves that they do. So how it came to be as a band is just meeting folks who supported me. That makes me feel, actually, a little bit emotional now, because it really was just people who just cared for me and what I was doing. And when I sung with people, or played bass or whatever, there was a connection there, and people are just lovely, I don't know. Just showed love and wanted to continue to help me and see me share my music. So I'm grateful to all my friends and the people who have walked with me to where I am now on this musical journey, and my band now I met through The Cherry Pit, from different jams and these shows that we would put on. And hitting up Matt, hitting up Freakwhensee, like, "Yo!" I didn't know him at the time, but I saw him on Instagram, and saw he was a guitarist, and I hit him up. I was like, "Yo, you should come to this jam, you should come to this show.” And he did. And from then on, it was like he was around. And then Matt, I'm gonna call him Matt, his his stage name is Freakwhensee. This is one of my guitarists of the band. And Matt knew Zeke, which is the drummer, and they've known each other for a couple years. Matt kind of had Zeke in the back of his mind, of a drummer that he knew, and really looked up to.
Sanni Brown
So you told Matt, "Pull up to the function, I'm performing." And then Matt pulls up. You blow it out the spot. And then he says, "Hey, I know a drummer."
Inayah
And this didn't all happen in the same day, but yes.
Sanni Brown
Right. You use the word magnetic. And I love seeing the magnetism of groups in music, and I don't want to lose it.
Inayah
So then, when we first formed was two guitarists, and it was Matt, and it was my good friend Eilif, who plays with The Dregs. And Eilif played with us for the first couple months, and then dropped out to focus on his own music. And then my friend Niko, who is a visual artist, who I started living with 2023, he introduced me to his friend, Victor.
Sanni Brown
I love seeing the universe be like, "Come, and come!" and then you're just sitting there and this whole thing is just forming around you. This is The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life. I am with Inayah from the band SoulFlower. If you ever listen to my show, I be playing out "Passion," and that's on both the streams, whether it's The Current or Carbon Sound. And so big fan here, we're gonna take a break, because we got into how you guys got together, and then I want to know the creative process, because after all that magic comes together, I want to know what y'all doing with it. So again, this is The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life. Sanni here, your radio friend in with Inayah from local band, SoulFlower. Don't go any place. This is Music Class.
Sanni Brown
We are back. It's The Message, Carbon Sound Music for Life. I'm so excited. I have Inayah from local band SoulFlower. I gotta slow down my thoughts. Okay, so if you missed it, we went over how SoulFlower came together, and how the universe has this magical juice that just pulled you together and form people around you. And you were doing music yourself, and then you jammed out, told a friend, and then a friend told a friend, a friend told a friend, and boom, we got SoulFlower. And so what are y'all doing with all that energy? Because I can hear it in "Passion." There is something very special about that song. If you have not listened to it, go listen to it. Or just keep listening to this show, because we gonna play it. So what is the creative process for you guys? What does that look like?
Inayah
We rehearse two times a week on a continuous basis, not just for upcoming shows. I do all the songwriting, and then rehearsal, we really just try to hone in and listen and we jam a lot.
Sanni Brown
I'm glad you said that, because when I was younger and I first started learning, I first started learning how to do keyboard, my music teacher would have me do jam outs. So what is that about? What does that look like? What does that sound like? What does that feel like?
Inayah
It usually just starts when we're setting up our instruments and tuning up. If we've been working on stuff by ourselves, you know, sometimes Victor will start playing the most loveliest riff, or like the most loveliest tune on his guitar, and then Freakwhensee will jump right in with something that goes with it, but is rhythmically challenging it, and then Zeke hops in. Because Zeke is just literally a wizard, like, the coolest, the best on the drums. And then words and melodies kind of just come to me so when I think too much about what I want to say, or what I want the melody to be then it kind of like goes away.
Sanni Brown
I have that as well. Can you talk to trusting yourself and just letting it come to you and trusting whatever comes to you?
Inayah
It's not easy. I'm so thankful to have a space, and the space is built by like the people that's in it. So I'm grateful to have a band that I feel so comfortable to be vulnerable around. To be open to trying and saying vulnerable and different things.
Sanni Brown
So there needs to be a level of vulnerability for you to be able to do that.
Inayah
Amongst everybody, amongst the group.
Sanni Brown
Do you feel like that was already established when you guys kind of pulled together, just off you guys knowing each other? Or is that established through you guys all coming together and creating together?
Inayah
I think both. We're all very introspective people and kind and empathetic and compassionate. And I think since we respect each other so much and actually care about one another outside of just the music, it's so easy to feel each other and to lock in when we get to actually playing music. And the magic comes from just all of our different experiences with our instruments. Some of us went to school, or some of us started when we were really, really young. Some of us just started in the past three, four years, or whatever it may be. And most of us are self taught. So we're really just writing with that intuition because music is life and is innate in our bodies, in our being. So there's so many times where I'll do something and they'll have the music theory for it. But I didn't — I just liked what I heard and kept playing it.
Sanni Brown
But you need that though! It's interesting because you need that. And it's interesting too that you said you guys are all coming from different musical backgrounds, but the one thing that connects you guys is you being human, and that innate ability to connect within yourself. What are you learning in this space among all of this universe juice?
Inayah
As someone that is in the band and also manages the band, I'm learning a lot about being more open with where I'm at. If I'm stressed, or sometimes I like to put on a little front that everything is handled and everything is cool, which, yeah, it is, but at the same time I'm low key like, it's overwhelming. Sometimes a girl just wants to play her guitar and not answer emails (laughs). I just want to be in the flow and not the logical structure of it. And I'm learning a lot about balancing that. And they give me so much grace and love and support throughout that process. And that's been very lovely. And I'm also learning how to listen more.
Sanni Brown
What kind of listen? There's different types of listen (laughs).
Inayah
All around listen more —
Sanni Brown
Because you are talking about intuition, that's a different type of listening versus your ears. That's why I ask.
Inayah
I think listening to my gut and I'm speaking to listening to intuition, and I'm speaking to listening to you have drums going, you got a guitar going, then you got another guitar going. Then I'm singing over all of it, and then I'm trying to play the bass??
Sanni Brown
Okay, because this is what the average music listener, that's what we thinking. Like, you're doing all that?? You blew me at the beginning of the interview, when you said you're singing and doing bass.
Inayah
I'm just trying to do my best. Like there's not a lot of singers and bass players — there's a lot, and I just have deep respect, because they just do it with grace, and they do it with their own style. And that's too, what I'm learning is my style, because I feel like I haven't even been playing bass long enough to — like it's there, initially, of course, but I'm growing into it more. And that's what also gets me excited too, is like, we've only been playing for two years. I'm 22.
Sanni Brown
Okay! Y'all fresh. So where can we see this? You guys got any upcoming shows?
Inayah
We do! This February, we're a little bit booked and busy. Valentine's Day, you can bring yourself and your boo out to Zhora Darling, because we're gonna be playing with LASALLE and Vinny Franco and the Love Channel. So that's February 14. On the 16th, we're playing at Fine Line, opening up for Dua Saleh and XINA, which is just a beautiful, beautiful bill.
Sanni Brown
I know, that's an insane bill. I talked about it on the local show at the beginning of the month. I let everyone know SoulFlower gonna be in here.
Inayah
And then we're headlining Icehouse, February 26 with LASALLE again, ChocVillah and GR3G The Poet. So it's gonna be a beautiful — hip hop, R&B, you know, whatever our genre of music is (laughs).
Sanni Brown
But you said you're still discovering it, you're still finding it. For the music listener, I like watching an artist find themselves and develop themselves and being vulnerable enough to let humans be like, "Hey, we're going through it too." But you guys just give us beautiful music (laughs). It sound chaos when we do it. But I didn't ask this. How would you describe your sound? If people are coming to go see you, what kind of sound and vibe should they expect?
Inayah
I'm gonna pull from just what I've heard from people, and what you should expect is just soothing music, but also it's energetic music at the same time. Like we're not gonna put you to sleep, we're definitely gonna make you ponder a little bit. We definitely try to bring a genuine flow to our sets, like not trying to make it too "you're the audience and we're the performers."
Sanni Brown
It's like a community.
Inayah
Yes, we're trying to bring how we play in rehearsal, we're trying to bring that comfortability on stage to make you feel like you're in that rehearsal space with us. It's intimate, but we're gonna make you dance. We're gonna make you sway. It's a great array of R&B and a little bit of a rock in there, and a little bit of soul, of course. And a lot of people say, like, psychedelia, or psychedelicness. I need to start writing notes, because everybody asks me this question, and every time they ask me, I'm like "uhhhh."
Sanni Brown
If you guys were a box of cereal, how would you describe the taste?
Inayah
Oh my gosh, that's such a good question. I think probably like, oh! Like Apple Jacks. Yes!
Sanni Brown
There you go. Why Apple Jacks?
Inayah
Because it has, like that fruity (laughs), but then the cinnamon with the spice.
Sanni Brown
Okay, that's what I was gonna say. You got a little tang tang, I see! See, when I bring it to food (laughs). Well, Inayah, thank you so much for coming in, and for performing on February 14, Valentine's Day with LASALLE, with Vinny Franco and the Love Channel at Zhora Darling. February 16, SoulFlower and Xina opening for Dua Saleh at Fine Line and February 26 headlining at Icehouse with GR3G, LASALLE, and ChocVillah. Where can we find out about you?
Inayah
You can find us on Instagram, @soulflower_music. You can find us on Facebook. You can also find our email list, through social media, or if you come to a show, I will just send it to you. And if you sign up for our email list, you'll get emails about all our shows and upcoming things.
Sanni Brown
And hopefully next time we'll be able to get the whole band in. Hopefully no teeth issues. Tell that brother my heart is with him (laughs). Thank you, Inayah.
Inayah
Thank you.
Sanni Brown
We're gonna get back to the music. You are in Music Class on The Message on Carbon Sound Music for Life.
