Meet Irma
Soul-pop artist Irma is one of France’s biggest success stories, with a huge online fanbase watching her every move. Irma went from performing acoustic covers in her bedroom as a teenager to becoming a highly accomplished soul-pop producer, singer-songwriter, and online sensation, and has completed several worldwide tours. Now she makes her UK debut with the release of her lusciously soul-powered new single Venom Of Angels – out now.
French Soul Pop Artist Irma releases her new single ‘Venom of Angels’
Interview with Irma
Tell me a little about Venom of Angels and the background to the song.
A friend of mine sent me a text she wrote about female desire. I immediately heard the music: something deeply soulful and sensual. I imagined a song that would emulate the ascension of desire until a climax symbolizing an orgasm. So I built up the song around this idea, starting it very softly with the vocals and my guitar, then making the vocals more and more intense and loud until it reaches a climax, and then calms.
How would you describe your music?
I’d say it’s a mix between Folk, African, soul & pop music
Who has been your biggest inspiration?
Michael Jackson, Lauryn Hill & Jeff Buckley
Venom of Angels celebrates female desire and pleasure. Why have you chosen this as a topic in this single?
I feel like female desire and pleasure are still too stigmatized, shamed, or just unknown. It’s just another thing that disconnects us from our bodies.
I know it has been streamed 22 million times on YouTube. You based your initial success on connections. What would be your advice to people in the industry today?
Just share EVERYTHING you’re producing! Don’t wait for the perfect track or timing because it doesn’t exist. Everything goes so fast that you can only show your work exists to the world as soon as it’s done and let people capture it.
What’s been the highlight of your music career so far?
Seeing myself and hearing a song I wrote in my bedroom in Cameroon at age 12 on a TV Google commercial every day for months. That was surreal
You are based in Paris. What are your favourite things about living in this city?
The streets alone are basically museums. My favorite thing is just to walk around the city for hours, listening to the music I just produced and listing the flaws 🙂
You studied at a top business school in Paris, but being creative and making music has obviously been your passion. Do you believe studying business has given you a good grounding for the music business?
I think it helped a lot, but my experience as an artist gave me a good grounding for the music business.
What is your top tip for living your best life?
Listen to my gut. Always.
What are your plans and ambitions for the rest of 2020?
I’m releasing my album on February 28th and starting to tour again in March. Can’t wait!
Venom of Angels
Venom of Angels celebrates female desire and pleasure – a subject Irma asserts is “pretty often ignored and unknown”. This passionate theme is heightened by the music, inspired by the ‘organic tradition’ of the soul but also very mindful of the present, using samples and drum machines to complete a sensual musical vista. The track is a beautifully crafted modern take on a classic soul-fuelled folk ballad, brimming with 60’s vocal harmonies. A clear tribute to the great Soul classics whilst having a whole new life of its own.
Irma’s beginnings
Born Irma Pany in Bangangte, Cameroon, to professional parents. Irma grew up in Douala, where she started playing classical piano at the age of seven. Her parents were a great musical inspiration. Her father played bass, and her mother sang in the Church Choir. They met at a university in Paris, and after returning to Cameroon, they vowed to send their children to school there.
So it was that Irma and her siblings moved to Paris to pursue their studies. It was here that Irma blossomed into a fully-rounded artist – both as a writer and performer.
It wasn’t long before people started to notice. She signed a record deal in 2008 while continuing to develop her online presence, hooking up with established artists to perform various classic songs, including Will.i.am (The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”). This buzz led to her being chosen by Google for their ad campaign, which featured her as an artist and her debut single, I Know. She reached the Top Ten in France in 2012 with this single and its parent album, Letter to the Lord, and – notably – signed a U.S. deal with Universal Republic. Her star was rising.
She followed this by heading to NYC to start her second album, Faces, with the producers she revered while playing her favourite songs as a child: Jerry Wonder, Rodney Jerkins, and Doc McKinney. There, with their guidance, she experimented with many musical styles, which she later brought back to her creative home of Paris, where she started work on her latest album, The Dawn, out later this year. Tracks from the album will include the new singles Venom Of Angels, Shivers, and Black Sun, which have already amassed well over 2 million streams on Spotify alone! Add in the similarly incredible streaming numbers across other key International playlists – Apple Music, Deezer, and others – it is clear Irma is unmistakably on an upward trajectory!
Just as Paris has helped inform her as an artist, her early days growing up in Douala gave Irma a true insight into humanity and human nature. She says, “Douala was like a miniature version of the Earth filled with people from around the world and music that is just as diverse. This is where Iʼd discover the true meaning of inequality”. This sense of anger and insight informed her as a person and her music. Using these influences, she created a fusion of musical styles- a furious mix of soul and folk– with rich layers of vocals that alternate effortlessly between power and softness.
