Blending soulful vocals with thoughtful songwriting, Ayoni Thompson, known mononymously as Ayoni, is a Bajan singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles.
Earmilk had the chance to sit down with singer-songwriter Ayoni for her debut album Isola.
In this interview, Ayoni reflects on her musical background, the moments of isolation and heartbreak she has felt in her 20s, and the triumphs and hopes she has for her music career.
Can you talk about your musical background and how your Bajan ancestry influenced your musicality?
I was born in Barbados. That is the start of my story.
I was born in 1999 to Bajan parents as well. My dad was born in the UK, but he grew up in Barbados, from the age of eight. My mom is Bajan, and her mom is Guyanese, but her dad is Bajan as well.
So Bajan on both sides, and lots of Caribbean family, UK family, but Bajan, Barbados, Bajan. Guyana and the UK have definitely been places culturally for me, where my people are from, and where sonically I've been curious. Even though I was born in Barbados, we moved at the age of one to Miami, which is pretty close, honestly. It's just three hours away by flight.
For eight years, we lived in Miami, so we would go back to Barbados for the holidays. I do have really fond memories of just being in Barbados. I think at that age, I was still very aware of not being American and not sounding American and not really resonating as much with American culture because my parents were Bajan, and that was my home experience. But when I was eight, we moved to Singapore.
That was the first time that I really saw more of the world in that way. I think in, you know, Barbados and Miami, it was still very, like, Western culture. Singapore was the first time that I really experienced, like, Southeast Asian culture and really, like, the melting pot that Singapore is for Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. So I went to an international school in Singapore.
We were only there for a little under two years, but it was still a very formative time for me. I remember what actually sticks out about that time musically is that Rihanna was beginning to blow up at that time. I was like eight or nine years old. It was interesting because before she started to blow up, nobody knew where Barbados was. People in Singapore would ask us where we were from because there weren't many Black people at the time that they would have ever seen. Barbados—they didn't know.
What inspired the name of your debut album, Isola?
The name of the album, Isola… Isola means island in Italian, but Isola kind of became something I took for myself. I was like, Isola, that's my world, that's my existence.
To me, Isola represents this concept of existing in different dimensions on your way to finding yourself in the process of life. Losing love and experiencing love.
Simply, I like to say it's a coming-of-age record. You kind of see me going through these relationships in it. I feel lonely outside of them. I feel lonely. I'm questioning myself. I'm questioning my place in the world, but I feel like by the end of the album, you go on this journey with me. At the last song, “Hunting Happy,” you kind of arrive at this place of like,
I guess we're all just trying to find happiness. I guess that's kind of just a point of life. There is no arrival point. There's just layers of knowing yourself, and there are seasons of not. I think Isola, for me, conceptually represents this idea of standing alone.
In a wider context, and I think that's why the word "isola" in Italian stuck out to me, because at the time I started this concept, we were in isolation, we were in a pandemic, and I was curious about who I am going to be when I come out of this season of solitude. Then I came out of the pandemic, and I went through a breakup with the first person that I ever loved. And it was like, who am I going to be when I come out of this solitude? I think Isola came to mean so many different things.
The last concept I want to touch on is this concept of superposition. I think the idea was kind of born from watching Everything Everywhere All at Once and this idea of different timelines existing at the same time.
So I think with Isola, one of the interesting things is that some of the songs that I wrote chronicle things I experienced two years ago. The album comes out, and I'm in the exact same place that I was two years ago, but now in a different way.
I think some of these songs are still living, and I'm still healing from some of these things. Isola represents this space where I am past Ayoni, I am present Ayoni, I'm looking to the future. So it's like all of these me's that I have been, that I am, that I will be existing in one space, you know. I think you kind of hear me in the album reflect on the past, and you'll kind of hear me talk about how I feel now.
Can you talk about the musical and songwriting process of your debut album?
I think for me, this album is such a glimpse into my soul. Because, you know, being given the ability to executive produce this album, sequence it the way that felt right to me, and just really pour who I am into the birthing of this album, I think for me there's such a, like, between myself and this music. I felt like it's so important for me as a Black woman that the first note that people experience me on is mine. I was like, it can fail. It can be terrible. It doesn't have to be great.
But I need the first taste the world gets of Ayoni in an album to be on my own terms. I really wanted to take time to do that.
You know, it's been kind of like a long process. I'd say I really, really seriously dug into recording in the past, like, 18 months. I think what's also unique about this album is that it's fresh, you know? Like, sometimes in the past, I'm sitting on stuff for so long before it comes out.
But with this album, it really is like we finished it just, you know, before it really came out. So, yeah, I think in the writing process of this album, kind of leaning and pivoting away from production, I would say with the writing, authenticity, and vulnerability were my only concerns with this album. I think in the past, I've done it selfishly, where I'm like, I just want to make what I want to make.
But with Isola, I was like, I want this to be a classic album. I don't know what level of support I will have in terms of getting it out initially, but I felt like once this music is out, I want to do the old school, you know, play the shows, go shake the hands, go push the project.
I feel like with Isola, I wanted people to actually be able to walk away from this album and know me. I think that in the past, when I've written songs, I felt a responsibility to be uplifting or encouraging or just leave people with some sort of positive, you know, taste. But I think with Isola, I was like, no, they can know who I actually am. I think I've always shielded who I am. People are like, you should show your personality more, and you should.
I don't actually want or need the people who listen to my music to have that parasocial relationship with me.
But I did feel like with Isola, I was like, no, I need everyone to know who I am. I think in the writing of this album, there's a certain level of transparency and authenticity, and just like a rawness that I've never approached before musically.
Where do you see your music career in 5 to 10 years?
I think that when I think about the next five or ten years, I am excited.
I truly believe that my sound is unique. I think I've spent a lot of time in these first six years of my career developing, studying, being a lover of the game, and being a lover of the craft. I think I will always continue that tenacity.
But I think that what sets me apart from the industry is my perspective. I think the more things that I go through, the more things I have to say. So I'm just leaning into that.
I think that, for myself, it can be hard sometimes because I don't have an artist to look to that I've seen doing what I'm doing. I don't see a ton of Black singer-songwriters excelling. I don't see a lot of women who are phenotypically Black being the face of pop music.
Then I think about the next five to ten years, honestly, I don't think I've seen a phenotypically Black woman be the face of pop music in a minute. You know what I'm saying? I feel like we got SZA, but they be trying to push her into R&B, you know what I mean? We got people, but they are trying to push them into certain genres.
I think I exist to disrupt. I don't know where the future is going to take me, and I want to do music at the biggest level and scale that I can.
But I think, for right now, I'm just focused on creating art that disrupts the norms of the times and seeing where that takes me, you know? Letting the music kind of lead my way forward and just going from there.
What is something you want your audience to leave with after listening to Isola?
Potential. I think Isola isn't an album about just what is; it's about what has been, and what can be again.
I think that even in music, even in life, that's what I want to be. I want to be a sign that maybe there can be more or maybe there is more.
I want to be the artist who encourages other artists to try that weird thing they've been wanting to try that feels like them. I think the best thing Isola could do in this world is to push people to be more authentic. And when I think about what I want the album to do, I just want it to open doors for me, and I want it to open doors for everyone who listens.
I think that with my first project, I was honestly flabbergasted at how organically the music found the right ears, with no marketing and no push behind it.
So with Isola, I'm hoping everyone who listens to it does so with an open heart. I think sometimes people press play on my music and listen with industry ears: "Well, we don't really know what this is." Instead, I want them to just listen. Just hear. Just be.
You know what I'm saying? That's what I'm fighting for, it's the right to just exist outside of scrutiny. So that's my hope for Isola – that it's the little catalyst to people getting to know themselves deeper and loving themselves more.
Connect with Ayoni: Instagram
