We got a chance to speak with Polaris Award-winning Haviah Mighty on the eve of the release of “Obeah,” a song that pays homage to both her Caribbean heritage and her deep trust in her inner circle, particularly her family. It’s a song about knowing who to trust and reflects one of Haviah’s core beliefs: the energy you allow to surround you dictates your reality. Produced by her little brother (Mighty Prynce) and featuring a cameo by her father in the video, “Obeah” is a full Mighty family affair.
What is the plan for releasing your latest singles?
The vibe is releasing each single one at a time, and eventually, once we get to maybe half of the singles that we have, we’ll start kind of focusing on it as a body of work. But for now, I think people are just seeing that these singles are coming out back to back. It’s been a year and a half since I last put out 13th floor, my last project, so I think it’s just a reminder that I’m still here. Through a pandemic, it’s been a year strategizing for us as a team to continue to make music, continue to try to find my sound – but at the same time – continue to communicate with the fans, determine what they like, what they don’t like, collaborate virtually. I think it’s been a strategy year, you know? Different types of sounds, strategy with songwriting, touching on different topics, and even just different marketing strategies due to our circumstances, right?
Watch the “Obeah” music video HERE (directed by Jesse Dart of Die Fire Films in collaboration with production house Cultiv8) and listen to the track HERE.
The new video for Obeah, can you tell us about the concept behind the video?
The concept I think is just interesting, it’s a parallel of Obeah, which is a spiritual practice in Jamaica that, for some, is for spiritual healing. But for others it’s definitely seen as kind of battling with the spirits, and it’s kind of an occult practice. That purpose is to adjust the way that things happen. Oftentimes in Jamaican culture, that’s related to when we’ll call it an Obeah man, or somebody that utilizes these practices to adjust things that could happen to you, oftentimes negatively. I grew up in a Caribbean household where the concept of Obeah was referenced in that way, and the parallels of growing up with a family that was always kind of pushing me to focus on the energy in the universe, the energy of those around me, and how I can respond to that energy; how that energy can be positive or negative. And then I think of the trajectory of my career, of achieving more and more success, and realizing that I was losing a lot of friends (or people that I thought were friends), and recognizing that their everyday practices and thoughts, their spirit, in essence wasn’t supporting me and what it is that I was trying to achieve. And then, just recognizing I grew up with parents that would say, “watch out for your friends,” my parents would never enjoy me having friends come over, or sleepovers. We were just never really big on that. And I think it’s because they’re just very perceptive about energy. The song is me largely focusing on that.
Over the last few years, just recognizing how much more important it’s been to really be mindful of the energies that are around me and recognizing that that’s why so many of the relationships with my friends have – or so called friends – have fallen apart. Those people didn’t necessarily have the best intentions for me as a person. And I think as I started to achieve success and recognize what negative energy looks and feels like, those relationships started dropping off. This song is just focusing on that, recognizing that that’s been something that I have to be so much more cognizant of going forward. Especially when you’re trying to achieve success and work towards something that can garner a lot of money, it can make people be very different than the person who thought they were when you didn’t really have much going on.
I feel with this current set of releases you’re focusing more on Theology. Is there also any sort of Rastafarian aspect to this?
Yeah, my dad is Rastafarian, and I would say that I am, too. Not necessarily heavily practicing, but my spirituality is in alignment with that. I think that my dad is a natural, in a way Theologist. He is not religious, but he’s extremely spiritual, almost to a divine level. And I think the idea that Mother Nature is the answer to all of our questions is a big thing for him. In a Western way, we look at energy through astrology: the planets connect to this and that. The energy that we look at is from an astrological perspective. But I think that my dad without having any understanding of astrology, or watching any of these documentaries, he just knows. His depth has always been there. I’ve always known my dad to be vegan – he understood that what you put in your body is what you get out of it before all the documentaries told us that. I was raised vegetarian because of this type of thinking, this way of thinking. I think that just recognizing the external sources in the universe and how those things can impact you, whether it’s food, people, drink, clothing, whatever it is – my dad has been very hyper-aware of his surroundings in that way. I was just raised in that very hyper-aware environment to where it’s just difficult to not notice what the universe is giving me.
I completely understand what you’re saying. My next question was gonna be who inspires you? And I think it sounds like your father, frankly.
Yeah, I would say my dad and my mom in different ways, right? Really spiritual perspectives. He’s a natural teacher, if he comes to a show, he’s teaching other artists. He is just that type of person. I find people always say they understand me better once they’ve met my dad, which I always think is really interesting. But my mom comes from a more logical perspective. She might be the one to take action on something. Where my dad might suggest it, my mom would do it. So my dad was the one that suggested I go to school for music in college, and my mom was the one that put that application in, right? So they work together in the sense of support. My dad heavily encouraged music growing up, but I think it was more so my mom that put all of her daughters in lessons. But then of course, they work together, they drive us together. They really – I mean, so collectively – my mom and my dad have been really, really, big inspirations for me.
I also have three older sisters and a younger brother, and I think, sadly, overall, the whole “blood is thicker than water” concept doesn’t apply for a lot of people. But for me, it does, only because the way that I’m treated by my family is different than anybody else in this world. I know that doesn’t apply to everybody but for me, family is what they say it should be.
Who do you want to collaborate with? And I think the answer is your family, but other artists too, are there any artists in particular that you would like to collaborate with?
Yeah, ‘cuz I already collaborated with my sister on “Wishy Washy”, and I’ve collaborated with my brother, who produced “Backup”, “Blame”, and even “Atlantic” and “Occasion” with me. So we’ve done a lot together, I’ll continue to work with family. But yeah, who would I want to collaborate with? I’m starting to think of that list now… I’m collaborating with a couple more people on this new music. I just collabed with Old Man Saxon on “Antisocial”, which I thought was really cool. I first saw him on that Netflix show Rhythm and Flow, and after the round that he got kicked out I thought, I wanted to see more! I had an opportunity to open for him in April, and of course those shows got canceled, but I was working with him remotely creating a song so we still found a way to bridge our relationship a little bit. So that was really cool. I have two collabs on some of the new singles that are already done as well that I won’t say yet, but I worked with two really cool artists, and I’m still looking to reach out to more. I want to reach out to people that are in different regions, whether it’s Africa, whether it’s Europe, the UK – people that have different energies, that have different sounds, so that we can collaborate… because this is a strategy for me. I want to try different things. I like to think that trying different things is going to help me establish what my main thing is. I’m striving towards finding what my sound is and what my vibe overall is. I know that I’m a singer, I’m a rapper, I can tap into different pockets – I want to be able to do that authentically and organically. I think this year is just allowing that to happen. So, I don’t have a lot of names.
My next question for you would be, what is something people don’t know about you, or maybe some misconception they might have?
I think people think that I’m really serious. I think people don’t realize how not serious I am! I think I’m pretty 50/50, but what I put out there is a little more 75/25, so that people think that I’m extremely rigid, and that I’m always kind of in that controversial space. That’s the energy you’re always going to get, which I would say applies because I’m always ready to have important conversations and I like to talk. I think that people would be surprised by how much I like to party. I like to have a good time! Yeah.
I think that part of my personality doesn’t get the same recognition because this is a business. I’m trying to find my sound as a musician, but it’s still in business. And so I guess it’s logical that in the beginning, people don’t see as much of the party vibes, as that’s not really what I’m putting in the forefront necessarily. I’m having a good time! It’ll make its way into more of the new music, and even more of the new visuals. I think I’m becoming more okay with the fact that that’s a large part of me, and that people can actually connect with that side of me as well. I don’t have to always talk about being a Black woman from Canada who doesn’t gender conform, or always have to talk about God for people to relate. And I think that as I get more comfortable, and just be myself outwardly, people will start to identify more with that side of me.
So I’d say that’s probably the thing people don’t know is that I like to have a really good time.
I wanted to ask you a little bit about your creative process. Do you spend a lot of time writing in advance? How do you do it?
Yeah, I think I do. A lot of what I used to do is I used to get a beat, and I used to write to it, and then execute it, record my demo, bump it and then make changes as I’m listening to parts. I still do that too, but my new process that I want to take on a little bit more is getting into different spaces in life. Throughout the day, whether I’m upset, let me go record… I’m angry, Let me go record. Let me go into the recording process with beats or ideas that I like, but no writing, because that, to me, is a very different way to approach starting a song. I’ll probably end up writing lyrics eventually, but I want to explore going into the studio or just freestyling from wherever my mind is at, and I want to actively do it when I’m in different mindsets to see what comes out of it. Choosing beats that I really enjoy and are really inspiring. But not writing. Just going to the studio and seeing what happens, because the cool thing is the studio is in my house. And if it’s dope, I don’t have to re-record it. It’s taped, the tape is there.
So I think that’s my next step. Again, this is a strategy year. Now that I’ve put all this music out, I can do that in the background and just have fun with it, with no expectations.
One of my friends made a comment to me the other day. He said, “this is the time to make ‘bad music’.” While I don’t intend to make bad music, I know what he’s saying. And I think to me, the idea of making bad music is just not thinking about it in advance. Not to make it bad. I have no idea if it’s going to be good, but still I have no doubt that something good will come out of it. Even if you make 18 bad ideas, there will probably be two good ideas. I’ve gotten very good at not getting married to ideas anymore. That used to be a difficulty of mine.
I’m not rushing to put stuff out – I understand how long it takes to put a single out: the fact that you guys are hearing this, “Obeah” has been done for a long time. That has allowed me to take my time with it, and I think freestyling in-studio is definitely going to be a fun strategy throughout this year.
Final thoughts. What’s the best way for your fans to reach out to you on social media, what platforms do you prefer? And what would you like to say to your fans?
First, my thing is, I would say, I love and support all of you. And I thank you so much for continuing to rock with my music, for streaming it, for being engaged. Instagram is the platform to connect with me. I try my best! It’s getting harder, but I try my hardest. Otherwise, just keep streaming the music. My goal this year is to get this music into more households, to be heard by more ears and to connect with more beautiful people. So I thank all of the people that I already have connected with who are helping me make this happen.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me. It has been an absolute pleasure to talk with you.
Definitely, thank you as well. And I really appreciate the questions.
“Obeah” by Haviah Mighty is out now, listen/buy it here.
