Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr has opened up about how her creative process has changed since her debut, revealing that she now focuses more on sonic experimentation than emotion-based songwriting.
Speaking on the Creatorium Podcast, the Mavin Records star said she no longer waits to feel emotional before creating music.
According to her, songwriting now starts with experimenting with ideas, whether it involves playing around with chords, sampling sounds, or simply trying to create something fun, fresh and different.
“It depends on what I am going for. Lately for me, creating just starts with trying. Not emotion; just trying, then we see where it takes us. It may start with chords or sounds, or a specific sound I want to sample. Sometimes, I just want to do something fun or make something that sounds different,” she said.
She contrasted this with her first album, which she said was built around sad themes and emotional concepts.
Her recent work is now centred more on experimenting with sounds and discovering where fresh ideas can take her.
“For my first album, it was more about trying something sad, something that matches emotion. But now, it’s more about experimenting sonically and indulging in different ideas to see where they lead,” she added.
Ayra Starr also recounted how she wrote her early song Beggie Beggie while returning home on a bus.
She explained that the title was inspired by a moment when a woman on the bus referred to a beggar by saying, “See this one, beggie beggie.”
“My first album has a song called Beggie Beggie. I literally wrote it in a bus. I was going back home and just wrote it there. Somebody was begging inside the bus, and a woman said, ‘See this one, beggie beggie,’” she recalled.