Neo-soul is having a serious moment right now. Blending sultry vocals with r&b melodies, the genre has taken off in the last few years and boasts some of today’s most popular artists. Nápoles – a singer, DJ and musician, lies under this umbrella, forging a female-led revolution in the creative spaces of Stockholm.

However, her music pushes boundaries – a quality that the Cuban, Russian and Scandinavian singer takes pride in and actively seeks out in her network. Influenced by wide ranging genres, from gospel to dance tracks, her work feels intimate, yet relatable – and is focussed on connectivity. From the clubs of New York and London to forging a space for females in music in Sweden, Nápoles is no stranger to bringing people together through music.

Aside from laying down some smoother-than-smooth tracks, Nápoles plays a huge role in her co-founded DJ collective, LadiesLoveHipHop. I sat down with the artist herself, before the release of her EP ‘Cloud 9’ to find out more about her experiences singing, DJing and crafting a female creative revolution. I also had to ask about the ‘pinch me’ moment of opening for Jay-Z and Beyoncé on tour, her quick-stop guide to Stockholm, as well as the trials and tribulations of creating a cohesive body of work.

You have a really unique, soulful tone to your voice – and I’m excited about your upcoming EP release. Could you talk me through your favourite track, and what to expect from the record as a whole?
So, I would say that my favourite track is ‘Know my Place’. It switches all the time – but that one is great because it’s so simple, but at the same time I feel it is a great representation of me as an artist. It’s chilled, but still has some movement. 

The whole project is a new side of me, compared to my first project, so I’m really excited about showing that.

You mention your first project – who were your creative influences for that project, and have they changed since?
For the first project I did a lot of exploring and wanted to find my sound and just see where it could go – so I didn’t have any particular influences. For this one, it was about creating a cohesive project from start to finish, which you can just listen to and see how it all goes together with thought. That was my first intention with it. As we went on producing it, it developed and became what it is today.

For sure – I think there’s a lot of power in having a cohesive project nowadays as opposed to a standalone track. Growing up, did you favour the single or the full body of work?
I was actually a dancer growing up – not professional but I took a lot of classes and wanted to be one. So, I didn’t listen to a lot of albums all the way through unless they were huge artists doing big releases, but it was more the case that I heard songs in class and got inspired. I always looked for unique songs that I liked, instead of listening to big singles. I listen to a lot of beats, and it wasn’t until I got a little bit older that I started analysing the lyrics and music projects in a whole other way.

So how would you say you transitioned from being a fan of music to making your own?Since I dance, I had that influence, and also joined a gospel youth choir at 15 which meant I did a lot of background singing. That gave me experience in performing and working with various musicians and artists – I was able to see the business, or the scene from that angle. When I later started DJing, I got another angle – the club scene. All of this gave me confidence and the belief that I could do this stuff myself. I guess that’s how the transition of me wanting to create my own thing came about – from all the experience.

Talking of DJing, I know you’re part of the LadiesLoveHipHop collective. Could you talk a bit about the aims of the collective and how it all came about?
Yeah, I used to go out a lot when I was 18 in Stockholm, and we just saw that we could do something different. We could create something that wasn’t here, in Sweden, and that’s how it started. We wanted to play new music, we wanted to play music that people here hadn’t heard before.

We loved to go out – in London, New York, we loved that our trips gave us new tracks to listen to. When we started doing regular club nights, we started to realise the work required to organise these things, and that’s how it became a collective. We started to support each other in personal goals, and that’s when it became more than just a DJ group.

LadiesLoveHipHop has gone on to do some amazing things already – talk to me about opening for Jay-Z and Beyoncé!
It was crazy! We got the email one week before they were coming to Stockholm, and we thought it was a prank – we were like, WHAT? We called them and said “what is this, are you pranking us?”. Turns out their management had decided they wanted to go with us as openers, they said “they want you to do this. Are you down?” Of course we had to do it.

So yeah, we had one week from that moment. Our minds just went into it – we wanted to play the best music we could play. When we got there, it was so amazing to see how professional everything was – it was super inspiring to see the whole machine behind a big tour like that. It was definitely a turning point for us, too – we started working with brands and doing bigger things off the back of that moment. 

They gave us a room, we changed, we prayed together, and that’s how it went down!