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Articles Irregular Articles Ajah UK
Ajah UK
Jaheda Choudhury and MC Lucidity, the two frontwomen from Ajah UK – the former talked to Chimp's Matthew Mahabadi.
MM: You've just launched an album, what's its theme?
J: Well the album's called "Money Ain't Your Friend". I think that pretty much lets you know what
the theme of the album is. It's just about how the world is, the country is, everything sort of is.
Right now, we're putting this album together, and we've got like a tiny scrap of money. Money
hasn't been our friend and yet sometimes just having a little tiny bit, it's been alright, because we've
been able to get to this point. Whereas two years ago, when we had nothing, just our voices, we
were having to go around and just spit bars to see if we could get a drummer, a guitarist, get a full
band together.
MM: You didn't know any of the people who formed the band before?
J: Me and Lucidity [Samira, Ajah's second lead singer], we're both artists and we wanted to spit bars
and we wanted to write and do something that wasn't acting where you're reading somebody else's
script. We're both from acting backgrounds (Samira is working on a play at the moment, touring
away). So I got sick and tired of reading other people's lines, and I thought, 'Right, I want to write
my own stuff'. But then I didn't want to be like other rappers. There's nothing wrong at all with
other people that use electronic beats and producers and things like that, cos' they've got their world.
But I've always enjoyed other human beings and having a cast. I'm used to being an actress and
to always have a cast on stage with me, so to have a drummer, a bass player, a horn player, a lead
guitarist, a violinist on stage... that shit just makes me all excited! D'you know what I mean? And
I can feel them on stage: every beat, every chord, every bit of melody. That's what we wanted. Me
and Samira went out, spat our bars, until somebody said, "Yeah you're good enough, I'll play drums
with you!" and "Yeah you're good enough, I'll play guitars!" and so we got to here.
MM: Tell us about the difficulty of translating the work you do on stage into an
album?
J: It's one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced in my entire life, especially because
I'm from a live performance background. The most gruelling thing for me was how to interpret
all that energy on stage into three minutes, compressed into a track that's just... waves. But what's
amazing about us is that between the five of us we've got various different skills that we come with.
So, Paul our drummer, he has like... squibillion years of experience in the studio, he knows what
to do to make sure that that music interprets right on that audio. When it comes to on stage me and
Lucidity take over and make that piece come alive... but when it comes to honing in, Paul hones it
in. The biggest thing is discipline... I've got very little discipline! But I try really, really hard. And I
think the end result of all that has got through.
MM: Is there a central story to it as well, then?
"Money Ain't Your Friend" – the first track on the album – it's an epic track and we love to open with it cos' it's like...
dah, dah, dah, dah, daaah! And it makes us do that.
dah, dah, dah, dah, daaah! And it makes us do that.
We feel like, "Yeah, we're about to do this shit"! Throughout the album, it's about how money ain't
your friend, but it's also all about when you get your heart broken or how we're defined by labels.
Whatever room you walk in to, and depending on where you go, people put labels on you.
MM: Have you had to deal with overcoming labels in your life?
J: Yeah! I'm a South Asian, Bengali-heritage women, 35, who's an open, out lesbian. If people want
to pick on me, there's lots to pick on me about. If you want to fun me, there's loads of boxes to pick.
MM: And Samira's also gay isn't she? Did that make you feel you could express something better
together?
J: Well, it's not our sexuality that gets us up there, what gets us up there is our hunger and our drive.
As well as my sexuality, I'm scrimping and scraping in a menial job to try to pay my rent and get
some food. We all are. And we're all facing various gender stereotypes. You've got Alex, a white
guy who's got bright red dreadlocks but who's quite soft and gentle. People react to him in different
ways. His dreadlocks have got him laid, but also dissed! And the album is about all of us and all our
lives.
MM: Are you all bold characters?
J: I don't think that we're any different from any other human being. But we're definitely five
headstrong, full-headed human beings that have our hearts set on wanting to be the best that we can
and do the best that we can. But always we want to get on stage and kick arse, that's what keeps us
bound together but also sometimes what tears us apart.
MM: Are there any issues in the band?
J: Definitely! We're five crazy human beings! We have the greatest of times but sometimes we can
fight like cat and dog. However one of the things that defines us as a group is that we do have a huge
amount of, underlying, respect for each other's skills. That's what stops us from walking out.
MM: And where do you want to be in three years?
J: What we want to be able to do is play our music and not become Spice Girls or Bollywood. We
just want to spit our lyrics, play guitar, and be respected by audience members and other musicians
and have a life in this industry. But we've got a bit of a battle. We're always being told 'Why don't
you take the gay angle?', or another angle, but if we went with that then we're dissing another angle,
and it's about trying to find balance. There's so many layers between each of us, and that should be
celebrated, and that's what we celebrate with our music. If the Beatles can do it, why the fuck can't
we? They rocked it in their way, and the mainstream became them.
MM: If you were to succeed, would you bring other people along with you?
J: Yeah, we wanna have a team. We're a package! We'd like to say, this is our video, VJ,
choreography department...
MM: A bit like a social enterprise then?
J: Yeah mate! We've got someone coming in doing choreography, and he's going to mentor us,
and right now we can't afford to give him any money but he's doing it for free for now. And I'm a
really good cook, so anybody who's involved in all this part of it... well, we're working with Danny
[owner of film company Glass Eye Productions] on this video shoot, and we can't pay him, but
there's a nice big pot of food for him!
