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Music

Laura Mvula

LAURA MVULA at the Virgin Mobile Mod Club (722 College), Saturday (September 7), 6:30 pm. $20. TW. See listing.


Prince has used many aliases over the years, but the one he used on an August night in Stockholm left his opening act, British singer/songwriter Laura Mvula, in awe.

“I was invited to sit and watch his set from the stage,” the 27-year-old recalls. “When he was introducing the band, he introduced himself as Laura Mvula, which was pretty cool.”

Mvula cites the shout-out as a highlight from the past year, which she primarily spent on tour in support of her debut full-length, Sing To The Moon (RCA/Sony).

An uplifting, sprawling pop oddity fusing jazz, choral and R&B into 12 harmonically complex and compelling songs, it’s both experimental and accessible. In other words, it’s not hard to grasp why her musical instincts have impressed the Purple One.

A graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire’s composition program, she first sang in church as a child and joined her aunt’s a cappella group as a teen. Sing To The Moon’s ambitious choral arrangements are among its most distinctive features.

“There’s something about the purity of the human voice,” she says. “I think a cappella music will always be the music I connect with most.”

But Mvula insists she’s more comfortable arranging 12-part harmonies and writing cyclical chord progressions than singing lead. She was extremely nervous recording her vocals, and felt ashamed playing back the takes for other people.

Asked if she’s come into her own as a singer, she immediately says no.

“I never saw myself as a vocalist,” she says. “I had lots of opportunities to sing when I was younger, but I always preferred to be in a group rather than to lead. I admire singers like [jazz musician] Lizz Wright and a singer in the UK called Eska. I would say they are real singers.”

She credits Sing To The Moon’s producer, Steve Brown, with giving her the confidence to deliver in the studio – no matter how meandering a direction her gut took her in.

“He told me my instincts were good, and that was really significant for me,” she says. “We both enjoy the mystery of not necessarily having a detailed plan or vision. We just kind of led each other and were happy to see where it went.”

music@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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