- 2025-01-31
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MUSIC
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Mahalia Premieres New Song “Pressure Points” featuring Lila Iké on BBC Radio 1
British singer-songwriter Mahalia premiered a new song “Pressure Points” on BBC Radio 1's New Music Show with Jack Saunders.
On the track, she teamed up with Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter Lila Iké. This marks the first collaboration between Mahalia and Lila Iké.
For Mahalia, the collaboration with the Jamaican musician follows “Pick Up The Pace” with Jamaican singer-songwriter Baika, which was released last November.
The track was written by Christopher Thomas, Jean-Andre Lawrence, Joshua Jones, Karlon Edmondson, Lila Iké, and Mahalia Burkmar. Produced by J.L.L. and Karlon Edmondson.
The accompanying music video was directed by Ben Cole.
Mahalia said of the song, “I’ve been a fan of Lila for a long time, so working together on this feels really special. 'Pressure Points' captures that intoxicating mix of pleasure and pain in relationships we know we should probably walk away from but can’t just yet. It’s about embracing the messy, toxic parts while trying to navigate through them. Sometimes, those pressure points are painful, but they can also spark moments of intense pleasure. I love this song, and I'm so excited for people to hear it!”- Mahalia told Jack Saunders about the song, “We were warmer than we are now. We were in Jamaica. And when was it May? It was like, May time last year. And we just honestly, this one actually came together very, very, very quickly. It was a few hours, we were just in the room together.”
She continued, “I was very, very, very, very nervous to meet Lila. I'm obviously, I have Jamaican heritage. I grew up on reggae, but I've never kind of sat and been in the space to make that kind of music, so I think I was also nervous to do that in a way that felt authentic to me and also authentic to the sound of the island. So we just had a lovely time. And I think the fact that there weren't drums and loads of stuff going on meant that we could.”
She added, “There's something about Jamaica just made me feel very myself, which I think made me just feel very honest. And I was very calm, very warm. It just kind of allowed me to, like, maybe tap into a part of myself that I probably couldn't do in London, we had a great time.” -
Lila Iké said, “What's interesting, when I got to the studio, there wasn't any drums that weren't anything. I was literally just, I think, guitar. And I was like, this piece of music is beautiful. And being a Jamaican and I mean Mahalia is Jamaican as well. But a lot of times when artists from different places come and they're like, oh, they want to do the reggae thing. You'd be like, All right, I'm gonna have to take this and do some post production. But I was a bit nervous to see what is it gonna sound like in the end. But when I heard it, I was like, wow, even the way, like the vocals were mixed, it's beautiful.”
She continued, “Natural, even like, because, we met in the studio when we made the record, and that was the first time I was seeing her, meeting her. We were just locked into making the song, and then I didn't we never really communicated for a while. And then it was like, Okay, we need to shoot the music video. And then, spending two days on site, set with her, I kind of get to, familiarize myself with her personality, and it was so natural, I feel like I know her forever. So it's like, this song feels like we've been making music for years to be honest.” - source : BBC Radio 1
