ME: You recently reached 80k+ monthly listeners, how does it feel so reach those numbers?
HENJILA: It feels amazing, obviously, it gives some clarity that I'm going in the right direction in terms of with my style and taking up music as a career path.
M: How did you kick start your career into music?
H: I posted a cover of Moon River and that gained some traction. I did some covers of songs I really liked and I'd say that's how I started out. I slowly collaborated with producers, where I'd do the writing and they'd produce and they'd become the most successful of my songs.
M: Something I love is your aesthetic both with your socials and the covers of your singles for example. How did you come up with the cover ideas?
H: I guess a lot of it stems from a love for 'dollette' aesthetic, I create mood boards, first in my head and then on my Pinterest. I then hope it becomes something to show people in the end. My songs have sounds and I link those to certain imagery, likes movies.
M: What movies?
H: Definitely breakfast at tiffany's, barbie films, the 2000's ones, ballet, and also Disney princesses! Things that almost give off divine feminine and are centred around softness.
M: And what mostly inspires or fuels your aesthetic?
H: Good question! I think most of it comes from my comfortability when I'm like dressed up well, in my colours, like lilac, it just comes from a place of comfort, and it feels very healing, like my inner child, a lot of it is based on the media of when I was younger. I think for a long time I shut my femininity out and now I'm embracing it and allocating my own touch to it and honing my aesthetics really emphasises and improves my quality of life.
M: How would you describe your music for someone who hasn’t listened before in 3 words?
H: Emotive, dreamy, and complex.
M: You’ve done an interview for bbc introducing which is a really big achievement; how did that go and how did it feel?
H: It really depends on who is approaching me and for what. BBC introducing, the team there are so lovely to me, they were so human and they resonated with my music. That was a huge moment for me, they've asked to interview me a couple times when my singles came out, we do things for each other, when they've needed an artist. I've never been on that platform before so jumping from college and making songs quietly in a music room to that was like a sign of growth because it was change but I was amending myself to that change and accepting and welcomed it.
M: Can we expect any new releases soon and any shows coming up?
H: There's a bunch of things I'm working on actually, there may be something around November time possibly, but it's a collaboration. But next year for sure with my own stuff, hopefully January. This year I've focused on live sound and finding peace within me and I think it's really shown in my art lately, being in touch with myself and my feelings, I feel like I'm making more genuine connections these days. I think I'm booked in for Reading Universities Summer Ball, and I do have a little show coming up with Love Trapezium and Princess Xixi at George Tavern.
M: Are you nervous for that?
H: A little bit yeah, this is the first time I'm being so hands-on with my own stuff. I don't think I've felt fully content with my past work, and I feel like I'm going to do a lot better now I've done so much learning this year.
M: What is your favourite thing to write about and what inspires you to write, personal experiences etc?
H: It's a mix. Partially, my songs are real life experiences, I think they're really authentic that way, and then in comes the imagination, to exaggerate or do the opposite. It's an insight to my internal feelings, but it's also filtered because I'm naturally filtered and I'm not brave enough to be fully weird, but maybe I will be one day.
M: What would you say is your reason to make music?
H: I started playing guitar, my auntie bought me a really bad low quality guitar from the shop down the road and I still have it. It stayed in my bedroom collecting dust, she gave it to me when I was eight and I started to learn it when I was eleven. It was just my ambition, I felt so drawn to it. It was an emotional outlet, I didn't know how to express my emotions very well at all or elaborate or process what I was going through when I was younger, so I'd just write. Word vomit. Those words became poems, those poems became songs. It became very therapeutic to me.
M: Who would you say is your musical inspiration?
H: Corrine Bailey Rae, and Amy Winehouse. I think she especially inspired the note I sing in. I have other influences as well, IU, a Korean singer. All my influences have been women, and it is a natural bias because I gravitated towards them, but also their aesthetics which are so thorough.
M: And who have you listened to the most this year?
H: A new artist that does Jazz, I've been listening to, she did a collaboration with Dodie! Their music is very feel good.
M: And finally, what is your message to people who listen to you and follow you?
H: You have really nice questions, they invite deep answers! I feel like my main trajectory with music was healing and it being an outlet. I guess its the same thing, I hope people listen and get a sense of comfort and that they feel like it's a safe space, I want to also provoke deeper thoughts into my listeners and you know have some kind of deep reflection. I hope its a source of comfort, that's the main thing.