Sama­ki Fe­li­cian

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Love has al­ways been a pow­er­ful in­spi­ra­tion in life. It can be gen­tle and sur­pris­ing or in­tense and over­whelm­ing, ei­ther qui­et­ly en­ter­ing your heart or mak­ing a dra­mat­ic im­pact, chang­ing peo­ple or in­spir­ing cre­ativ­i­ty. For singer-song­writer Teneille Young, love in all its forms plays a big role in her mu­sic, es­pe­cial­ly in her lat­est sin­gle, Crazy How We Do.

The soul­ful reg­gae bal­lad is the heart­beat of her four-song EP Wild­flower, a project that speaks to vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, evo­lu­tion, and bloom­ing on her own terms. Since her last con­ver­sa­tion with Guardian Me­dia, Young has been steadi­ly grow­ing, not just in her craft, but in con­fi­dence.

Crazy How We Do marks a turn­ing point, a song that beau­ti­ful­ly cap­tures the del­i­cate mo­ment when love finds you, even when you’re not look­ing for it.

“It’s in­spired by love, and for me, it’s like falling in love when you least ex­pect it to hap­pen. You know they have this thing where you fall in love three times in your life, and like that third time is when you’re re­al­ly not ex­pect­ing it and not even some­thing you think you would fall in love with; it gives that kind of feel­ing,” she said.

Pro­duced by leg­endary Ja­maican pro­duc­er Mikie Ben­nett, known for hits like Mr Lover­man and Tele­phone Love, the track is a mod­ern homage to the gold­en age of lovers rock. It blends the silky, nos­tal­gic vibes of ‘80s reg­gae with a fresh, con­tem­po­rary sound that feels tai­lor-made for late-night dri­ves or stolen mo­ments with some­one spe­cial.

From the first note, Crazy How We Do can wrap you in warmth. Fea­tur­ing ris­ing Ja­maican tal­ent Chris Malace­hi, the duet floats on chem­istry, with both artists weav­ing in and out of each oth­er’s har­monies with ease.

“His voice just goes so well with mine, the mix and the com­bi­na­tion of voic­es; I think it re­al­ly just put the ic­ing on the cake for Crazy How We Do,” she ex­plained.

The mu­sic video, re­leased along­side the sin­gle, adds a vi­su­al soft­ness to the sto­ry, a re­flec­tion of the love the song cel­e­brates. She al­so went for an old Hol­ly­wood glam­our to suit the mood, lyrics and melody. But be­hind every pol­ished per­for­mance is an artiste/artist who’s worked hard to grow in­to her own.

Young’s jour­ney in­to mu­sic be­gan just four years ago, but her cre­ative path stretch­es much fur­ther back. Like the wild­flower that in­spired her EP’s name, she’s flour­ished in un­ex­pect­ed places, learn­ing from every chal­lenge and cel­e­brat­ing each small win.

“There’ve been ups and downs; I’ve made mis­takes, but I’ve al­so fig­ured a lot out along the way. It’s all part of the process. And every time I re­lease a song, it gets a lit­tle eas­i­er,” she said.

She’s had to teach her­self a lot, from the tech­ni­cal side of record­ing to nav­i­gat­ing pro­mo­tion and build­ing an au­di­ence. But her love for mu­sic and sto­ry­telling keeps her go­ing.

Her growth hasn’t gone un­no­ticed. Her fam­i­ly, es­pe­cial­ly her chil­dren, re­main her biggest sup­port­ers. Her youngest daugh­ter re­cent­ly en­tered the Ja­maica Cul­tur­al De­vel­op­ment Com­mis­sion’s mu­sic fes­ti­val and won an award for her per­for­mance.

“My hus­band is my biggest sup­port­er, my biggest cheer­leader, the per­son who push­es me even when I doubt my­self. My girls are like my fans, and they are my in­spi­ra­tion. They are why I keep go­ing be­cause my youngest daugh­ter was in the JCDC mu­sic fes­ti­val, where she en­tered and did a so­lo and got a medal for her per­for­mance, so the fact that I am in­spir­ing them to do things like this in­spires me and gives me the mo­ti­va­tion to keep go­ing,” she said.

While mu­sic is the plat­form that con­nects her with the world, po­et­ry re­mains her qui­et an­chor. Young de­scribes writ­ing po­ems as her “safe space,” a dif­fer­ent kind of cre­ative ex­pres­sion that al­lows her to con­nect deeply with her­self and na­ture.

One of her favourite pieces, Sa­van­nah Beau­ty, is a love let­ter to Trinidad’s Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah. In it, she brings the poui trees to life, per­son­i­fy­ing them as vi­brant fig­ures in a trib­ute to the is­land’s nat­ur­al beau­ty.

“Most of my po­ems are about love, pain, or emo­tion, but many are about na­ture too. I find so much in­spi­ra­tion in the world around me,” she ex­plained.

Young’s love for po­et­ry is giv­ing her the idea of do­ing po­et­ry slam and pos­si­bly pub­lish­ing a col­lec­tion of her work in the fu­ture.

For now, she sees po­et­ry as a com­ple­ment to her mu­sic and an­oth­er lay­er of who she is as an artist and woman.

With Wild­flower now in full bloom, Young is al­ready dream­ing of her next cre­ative steps. She hint­ed at a deluxe ver­sion of the EP, one that could in­clude a reimag­ined ver­sion of the ti­tle track, per­haps “Teneille’s Ver­sion,” as she calls it, and she’s al­ready plan­ning for her next al­bum.

She’s al­so pas­sion­ate about guid­ing oth­er emerg­ing artistes/artists and help­ing them find their voice.

“I would love to even­tu­al­ly help oth­er peo­ple who are try­ing to do some­thing like this, guide them be­cause it is a process,” she said.

From the smooth rhythms of lovers’ rock to the qui­et strength of po­et­ry, Teneille Young con­tin­ues to bloom in every di­rec­tion.