Uwade on how Fleet Foxes, Kate Bush, Sister Rosetta Tharpe & others inspired her debut LP

Uwade first caught our ear thanks to Fleet Foxes, who featured her on their 2020 album Shore and continued to tour and collaborate with her after that, and now the Nigerian-born, North Carolina-raised musician releases her own debut album Florilegium today via Ehiose Records / Thirty Tigers. It’s a lovely indie folk album that fans of Fleet Foxes and other gentle, earthy folk singers will probably like, and for some more insight into it, Uwade has told us about 11 of its most major influences.

Her list includes Fleet Foxes, as well as Kate Bush, Caroline Polachek, Rema, The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and more, and you can read on to see what she had to say about each one.

The album comes out Friday (4/25), and Uwade plays Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right TONIGHT (4/24) with support from Marem Ladson. Tickets are still available.

Florilegium by Uwade

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INFLUENCES ON UWADE’S FLORILEGIUM

1. “Sinanon Saran (Chant de griot)”
A few years ago I stumbled upon a version of this song by Jordi Savall and Kassé-Mady Diabaté et. al. and it made a strong impression on me. The track is so enchanting and melancholic. The syncopation of the stringed instruments and the melody and various percussive elements makes me feel like I’m being rocked like a baby. When I discovered it I’d been listening to afrobeats and highlife for some time, but this song particularly opened me up to the rich tradition of West-African string-based music.

2. “Woñi” by Blick Bassy
This song was a big influence on my song “Harmattan.” It has such beautiful, pulsing, electric energy. The rhythms feel syncretic and global. The horns are so gentle yet expressive. It just has so much fire, despite being relatively subdued. The call and response between the vocals and the instrumentation, all of it is so magical. I played a show in Arizona a while back and saw that Blick Bassy had just played at a venue across the street, and I entered the building just hoping to absorb some of his magic.

3. Kate Bush
Two songs of hers, “Wuthering Heights” and “Love and Anger”, both made their way into the musical and artistic psyche of this record. This past December I was listening to “Wuthering Heights” like a maniac and watching the music videos for the song absolutely mesmerized. Because of that I really wanted to incorporate some playful choreography into my music video for “Call It A Draw.” And while we were recording “Harmattan,” my lovely engineer friend Alli Rogers put on “Love and Anger” after a discussion about the vibe I wanted the percussion to have on the song. I have loved it ever since.Thank you Alli and thank you Queen Bush!

4. “Quiet Air / Gioia” by Fleet Foxes
I have so much love for this band, words can’t describe. Shore is a staple in my rotation, so I was revisiting it as I was putting my thoughts together for the record. This song in particular is so hypnotic that it’s easy to get completely lost in it, but in the best way possible. I wanted to explore the feeling of recklessness and rapture it evokes as I worked through production for my own stuff. It’s so powerful!

5. Caroline Polachek
I listened to her latest record Desire, I Want To Turn Into You on repeat last spring while I was recording parts of Florilegium. Everything about it is intentional and deliberate and enchanting. She truly built a world with Desire, one that is ever unfolding and deeply dynamic. There’s a lot of melodic and generic variability so it never feels stale, but the leitmotifs that are sprinkled throughout are such a treat. It’s so well produced and so well thought out. Just fantastic.

6. “Charm” by Rema
I’m a Naija babe at heart, a daughter of the soil. Despite how my interests, musical and otherwise, have taken me to different places, I still have a deep respect and love for all things artistically Nigerian. This song is one I was fixated on for quite some time before I went into the studio. I love Rema in particular because of the way he continually reinvents and reimagines afrobeats. The melody, instrumentation, and the syncopated rhythms are *chef’s kiss*. Also there are a few percussive accents that only appear a few times in the song, but because of their rarity I melt every time I hear them.

7. The Good, The Bad, and the Queen
I’m a big fan of everything Tony Allen (RIP) and Damon Albarn have done together. This band was the first collaboration of theirs I was exposed to. The drums and bass on their song “The Poison Tree” are some of the best I have ever heard and were certainly referenced a couple times in the process of recording Florilegium. Also “Go Back” by Tony Allen, Damon Albarn, and Nova Tunes is my staple 180 cadence running song. Incredible musicians!

8. Natalie Bergman
Her album Mercy is so fantastic. Her story, her voice, her vision, all of it is so real and raw and beautiful. The way she took a heart-shattering loss and turned it into an opportunity for praise and connection really spoke to me in the aftermath of my father’s death. “Talk to the Lord” and “I Will Praise You” in particular have such striking and evocative instrumentation and production. A breath of fresh air and a sound I aspire to.

9. The Strokes/The Voidz
Discovering The Strokes in college was transformative to say the least. I can only describe my period of working my way through their discography as an awakening. I had been exposed to amazing music throughout my childhood, but the combination of young-adult angst and ennui and rage couched within those crazy beautiful hooks was just too powerful. I listened to everything, then I listened to their solo stuff (shoutout to Francis Trouble by Albert Hammond Jr.!), and then I found The Voidz. Their first record Tyranny was slightly too hardcore for me (I was still a weenie at heart), but “Human Sadness” and their record Virtue……….don’t even get me started!!! Rocked my world!

10. The Car by the Arctic Monkeys
What a record! Great songs and imaginative storytelling and poetic turns of phrase! “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball” is timeless, gorgeous, thoughtful, poignant. The strings! The imagery! “So do you wanna walk me to the car?” Hell yeah I do! I’ve listened to this record so many times it’s definitely somewhere mixed into my subconscious soup of inspiration.

11. Sister Rosetta Tharpe
She was a big role model for me during the process of learning to play guitar. Just to see a Black woman shine and pave the way for so many people in music while standing in exactly who she wanted to be was a balm on my soul. I’m sure I didn’t realize it while writing, but my song “The Place in the Sky” certainly speaks to Rosetta’s “My Journey to the Sky”. At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to get home.

Uwade — 2025 Tour Dates
4/24/25 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
5/03/25 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
5/10/25 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas
5/15/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge
5/16-18/25 – Big Sur, CA @ Hipnic
7/5/25 – Quilcene, WA @ Quilcene Lantern
8/28-31/25 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival