Hope Tala on the Rise of TikTok, the Power of Scorpios, and New Single "Party Sickness"

Transitioning from a career path in law to one in music might seem a little far-fetched for some people, but that's exactly the trajectory that Hope Tala took, and it paid off. The decision led to her collaborating with some of the most exciting names in underground music, like American rapper Aminé and soul songstress Raveena Aurora, and she's got plenty more music still to come. Ahead of Tala's new single release, "Party Sickness", we caught up with the singer to talk about the creative process behind the track, the scariest thing about TikTok, and the reasons why being a Scorpio makes her feel powerful.

"When I released my first EP, that was probably when I felt I really had joined the industry," Tala tells POPSUGAR. After learning how to use Logic at school, she started releasing music on SoundCloud as a hobby, and her ambitions of becoming a lawyer were a no longer a concern. She explains that "I always said to people that I wanted to be a barrister when I was older. I was quite a headstrong child, very opinionated and fairly argumentative, so my parents and all their friends would tell me, 'Oh, you'd be a great lawyer'. I didn't really understand what a lawyer did, but I'd be like, 'OK, cool', and then I always had the intention of studying law at uni, until I realised that I have absolutely no eye for detail whatsoever. It turns out that is a really big part of being a lawyer . . ."

In terms of Tala's sound as an artist, she describes it as a blend of R'n'B, alternative R'n'B, and pop, and confidently weaves between genres when necessary. "I just pull from all of my influences and what I listened to growing up. I would also say that [my music] has got a real lyrical slant, there's such an importance put on the lyrics, and there's something quite singer songwriter-y about that, too. I always forget to mention that there's a rap element [to my music] as well, and I do think that that is an important part of it," she tells us. Currently, Tala is listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Caroline Polachek — an artist she thanks TikTok for introducing her to.

Along with being inspired by other artists, Tala explains that spirituality and astrology were two things that have been fairly important to her during her career. "There was a big part of me that was into astrology for a really long time, but it was this ironic thing, and then I started to lose that side of me that thought 'this is not true'. Now I do un-ironically like astrology, but it's because I think that everyone creates a belief system. As a nonreligious person, it's something that I can use to categorise everyone, and it makes life easier, but to be honest, I probably shouldn't let myself believe in it that much," she explains.

Tala is a Scorpio, a star sign that typically gets a bad rep from pretty much every person ever, but she believes that it's not without merit. Not entirely, anyway. "I do think most Scorpios have some traits that we have to fight against in order to be like other people; the jealousy, the possessiveness, the angst — and I do take pride in my angst — because I don't think I'd be able to write music if I wasn't an angsty person," the singer notes. She adds that "if you think about it, so many cool artists are Scorpios, and I do think that's because we have this angst we're always battling with. I often think that I have to fight against some of those impulses to be a good person. It can sometimes be this internal battle of blessing and a curse of some things that are inherent within us. Sometimes, they're really good for us, and sometimes bad, but I think it boils down to the fact that Scorpios are just more powerful, and people are scared of the power."

Speaking of writing music, Tala's new single "Party Sickness" is out this week, and it's the result of the singer finding herself in some very difficult situations. Tala says that "When I wrote the song, I was in LA for a work trip, and I was really sad that week because my grandfather had died, and I was really far away from home. I'd been away for a while, and I really missed my family. It was my brother's 21st birthday the day I wrote this song, and I was just like, 'Damn, I want to be with my brother on his birthday'". For Tala, the struggle to get through the studio session that day was all too real, and it took a while for her to psyche herself up for what was coming next.

"Up to that point, I'd been putting so much pressure on myself in the studio to make the best music ever made, every single day, which is really just an unsustainable goal," she explains. "I was just trying to be easy on myself for once, and then I got to the studio, and I just immediately felt better. I met these cool people who I hadn't worked with before, and they were so nice and so welcoming. I just wanted to do something fun, so we wrote "Party Sickness", and it came very easily because I took the pressure off myself. I wanted to write a song about the feeling you get when you're at a party, and you want to be a bit crazy and a bit messy and cause chaos with your friends."

Tala took the opportunity of writing a fun song to involve herself in the video creation process, drawing on one of her biggest inspirations: '90s films. "I've always wanted to make a music video that was inspired by '90s movies. It's my biggest visual inspiration and fashion inspiration, particularly '90s teen movies like "Clueless" and "10 Things I Hate About You". I really wanted to make a music video that felt inspired by the party scenes of those movies, because I've always thought they're so iconic, especially the scene in "10 Things I Hate About You", when Kat is dancing on the table and hits her head on the chandelier," she tells us.

Getting as involved in the process as she did was somewhat new to Tala, as she's a firm believer in knowing your strengths and where to draw the line as an artist. "All of the videos I've done up to now I absolutely love, but they've been more director-led, which I've been fine with, because I've always thought that that isn't my skill set. I'm the artist, and I should let the people who are really good on the visual side of things and understand direction direct. I really respect artists who direct their own music videos, but I also think that it is such a different skill to being an artist. I don't want to think that I can do it all just because it's my art that it's drawing from," she explains. "That being said, it was really nice to feel super involved on the creative direction side of things. I really feel I left my mark on it, not just as the artist who's in the video, but as the brains behind it, too."

Doing it all is something that a number of emerging artists are battling with more and more these days, partly as a result of platforms like TikTok encouraging anyone and everyone to get into creating videos, remixing sounds, and collaborating. Tala has mixed feelings about the platform herself, because "it scares me sometimes, this whole songs blowing up thing, and then the fact that sometimes someone's song will blow up and the artist doesn't ever really get anywhere near that success again." She adds that "it's not a sustainable way to have growth. It can feel so transient and temporary, and that scares me as an artist who wants longevity, that our world is moving in that direction."

That said, like many of us, Tala has discovered a wealth of music that she loves through TikTok. "People often see it as something where random new music comes up, but I think actually a lot of the time, it's music that would've ended up doing really, really well anyway. TikTok has just capitalised on that process," she explains. "There's good and bad things, but it's connected to my worry about people not listening to albums anymore and people just wanting the quick fix of one viral song. It's definitely a stressful thing to think about, but hopefully, the industry and the musical appetite of the world will continue adapting to a point where it can encompass both things, where people are still releasing long-form projects and stuff that's less immediate, balanced with the viral smashes that everyone loves."

In terms of what's next for Tala, she's working on a debut album and has plans to release more singles; things that "make you feel better about the world and life", she tells us, adding that "personally, I'm really grateful for everything I have and the fact that we are hopefully coming out of [the pandemic] now. I'm vaccinated and all that, but I know that a lot of people are still feeling the effects of what's happened in the world. I definitely have wanted to make really upbeat, fun music that helps people be happier and feel they're having fun, because that's how I feel when I'm making that type of music, and it takes my mind off these things. I'm just trying to stay positive, do my best, and just be a good person and be good to the people around me."