The ‘Lost Beats’ folder with Felicia Douglass, Sly5thAve, Leon Michels and Tiana Major9

Songwriter, keyboardist, percussionist and Dirty Projector Felicia Douglass chats to Sly5thAve, Leon Michels, and Tiana Major9 about their desires to become musicians, skills and hobbies they’ve acquired during quarantine that have fed into their work, and how they start a new piece of music. Tiana Major9 is an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who has been praised as a “singular voice in British Black soul”. Her music combines thoughtful soul, jazz, and R&B, and she features on Stormzy’s Mercury-nominated album Heavy Is the Head. Leon Michels is an American producer and musician. As well as co-founding the labels Truth & Soul Records and Big Crown Records, he’s also credited on Adele’s Grammy-nominated album 19, and has worked with the likes of Lana Del Rey, Dr John and the Black Keys. And finally, Sylvester Onyejiaka, aka Sly5thAve, is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger whose compositions are shaped by his faith in hip-hop and a deep understanding of soul, R&B, jazz, and West African music. He has performed alongside Prince, and worked with Stevie Wonder, Janelle Monáe and Quantic. In 2017 he released an orchestral album in tribute to Dr Dre, who congratulated his arrangement live on stage.