Adi Oasis has found her sweet spot in the liminal space between R&B, soul and funk in her new album Lotus Glow. When we speak, the singer, bassist and producer says she finally feels confident in sharing her lived experience through music. “You know self-doubt is a real thing for artists, but also for people who are not artists, and for women of colour. Evolving in a world where you’re being told that you’re not number one and you’re not the norm is a fight that people don’t really realise we have to go through.”

While some may know of Oasis’s long career in the disco revival scene with her band Escort, her five-year-long solo career has been marked by a spirited declaration of her identity, and confidence in her cultural heritage. “I’m on the heels of 2020 and Black Lives Matter and hearing terrible things about immigrants, and I’m all of these things,” she says of Lotus Glow’s origins. “I’m also a woman, so it gets very political because that’s my truth [and] we can’t change it. I’m gonna talk about the fact that there were no girls that looked like me when I was watching TV. So it’s nostalgic and it’s angry and political.”

Lotus Glow crystallises what it’s like to live a life soaked in hedonism and take pride in your ancestry. The velvety bass and steady percussion that embrace each lyric showcase the artist’s ability to sonically envelop even the most important messages. There are no skips on the album. The record is like a perfect summer’s day, with sunlight streaming through windows, glasses perched in puddles of condensation, and the occasional caressing breeze. 

Here, Adi speaks with Dazed Clubber Lauren Muoneke about her dream collaborations, seeing the legendary Grace Jones at Love Supreme Jazz festival, and all things Lotus Glow.

Hi Adi! I feel like congratulations are in order, a lot has been going on with you. You’ve just announced your pregnancy, you’re touring and you’re releasing your new album Lotus Glow – you’re serving mother energy, literally.

Adi Oasis: I’m glad you see it that way, that’s good. It’s interesting for me, I’m still adapting to the world knowing about it, so it’s fun to hear how it’s being perceived.

What’s it like touring while pregnant?

Adi Oasis: I’ve been touring pregnant for way longer than people have known. I’m in my sixth month and I’ve been touring since March. I did some promo in Paris where I literally felt vomit coming up my throat. The challenge is more physical, because I’m showing so much more – I can’t really tie my shoes and I was nervous about performing, because I’m a bass player. But actually it’s been totally fine, I just kind of adjusted a little bit and we’ve got this!

What’s your earliest music memory?

Adi Oasis: I’ve been with my brother in Paris just now and whenever we talk about our childhood memories it’s always related to music. Just yesterday we pulled out this video from YouTube, this cartoon that we used to watch, and we used to sing all the soundtracks to anything we watched.

“Every show is preparation for the next show. Not that I take a show as a rehearsal, but I take any stage as an opportunity to get better” – Adi Oasis

I feel like you’ve gone through a rebirth with your career. What drew you to the stage name Adi Oasis? 

Adi Oasis: My birth name is Adeline (Ah-duh-leen) and, being in the US, one of the main issues for me was that I was mistakenly called Adeline (Ah-deh-line) constantly. Being an immigrant, I’m not willing to compromise on the pronunciation of my name, so that was difficult to adapt to. There’s no way that I could make myself be OK with it and I just evolved, my music evolved and really from the moment I went solo I wanted to change my name but I didn’t have the guts to do it and hadn’t found the name.

I grew stronger and bolder. And I woke up one day – the pandemic was probably helpful – and I found the word Oasis which fit me in so many ways for so many reasons. I would never take it back. I’m so happy I did. 

Tell me about your inspirations for the album and why you named it Lotus Glow? 

Adi Oasis: I wanted to tell my story. I’ve been writing my whole life but I’ve never written such personal stuff. I used to kind of take pieces of stories here and there and just kind of make it up, but I’m ready to talk about my story.

It’s also very beautiful and praises my grandmothers, one from the countryside, one from the Caribbean and you get a little bit of everything.

Speaking of feminine energy, are you excited for the Love Supreme Jazz Festival, especially with it being the only UK festival with an all-female headliner?

Adi Oasis: GRACE JONES! The legendary Grace Jones, just that alone, she’s a huge inspiration for me. Especially growing up in France, Grace Jones was – and is – a legend. She speaks French, she lives here. I don’t know if she lives in Paris full-time, [she] probably has, like, 17 really cool houses everywhere, but she was on TV when I was growing up in France and I used to be like, ‘oh my God who is this woman?’ 

If you have Grace Jones anywhere you’re already establishing such a statement for femininity, for women’s empowerment and for Blackness, all of the boxes. 

How do you prep for a set like Love Supreme? Do you do anything to make each performance different? 

Adi Oasis: I have a set. Every show is preparation for the next show. Not that I take a show as a rehearsal, but I take any stage as an opportunity to get better.

E​​very show I feel like we get better and tighter with the band. Also my stomach gets bigger and bigger, so I don’t know what I’m gonna look like when Love Supreme comes up. I know that I will be bigger, that’s just what Mother Nature has decided, so I will have to adapt on the fly when it comes to that.

The song “Re-do” is more electro-funk, are you planning on going back to that at all? 

Adi Oasis: I come from disco. I was in a disco band before called Escort and you can really see the evolution of me wanting to do more soul music, but wanting to stay in a disco. The reason why I wrote Lotus Glow and where I am today is because I have finally arrived at creating the sound that I was envisioning. It took me all these years.

You’re on such a clear path of evolution and growth, but you seem so comfortable in yourself now, like you’re literally glowing.

Adi Oasis: Thank you. It took me a while and that’s why I feel like people can relate to this album more than the music I made before. I learned that the more personal and more honest I am with writing, the more relatable it is because we all go through the same things.

I know that when Black women come to my shows, which is the majority of my audience, (everybody’s invited by the way), I know that we can understand each other, you know?

If you could bring back one artist from the dead to collab with would it be?

Adi Oasis: Lord have mercy, Prince.

Soundtrack to your life?

Adi Oasis: Well, I would say Lotus Glow, because that’s a whole album all about my life.

What are you most excited about with the future of your career and life in general?

Adi Oasis: I would say being a mother while [experiencing] this loveliness. It’s emotional that one day I’ll be able to show my child images of me performing while pregnant.

And have you bought your baby a bass yet?

Adi Oasis: Not yet – I haven’t bought anything yet, because I’ve been on tour!

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